Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood – Full Written Review

Ubisoft’s first-person shooter Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is the prequel follow-up to the fairly successful Call of Juarez which released on PC 2006 and Xbox 360 mid 2007. Call of Juarez introduced us to the characters of Billy Candle and anti-hero Reverend Ray. Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood features the characters of Ray and Thomas McCall, brothers ‘bound in blood’. Ray McCall is the anti-hero Reverend Ray prior to his Godly leanings in the first Call of Juarez title.

We won’t spoil the story for you by giving away plot points, but suffice to say there’s a lot of background here, especially if you like the first game. The characters of Ray and Thomas have a colorful history that unfolds as the game goes on.

You play as both brothers, one or the other, with this choice sometimes made for you subject to the level (though not all levels). The brothers will aid one another in some, dependent on the story. You’ll engage in various forms of gameplay including straight out FPS shooter, stealth and even mounted on horseback. There’s some sweet combat to be had too, from melee weapons, handguns, long-arm weapons, missile weapons, explosives and heavy weapons. Add to this the advent of Concentration Mode – which sees you target multiple enemies and take them out in quick succession – and you’re in for one heck of a ride…. yee harr!

Graphically Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is a sepia, gritty spaghetti western. Character models are at times beautiful, with loads of glorious detail, though there are moments of mess within a sea of nice CG. Cutscenes bring a movie like quality to proceedings, whilst in game graphics feature sprawling environments with a lot of attention to detail, mountains, dusty vistas, civil war trenches and more western genre stuffing than Jesse James’s thanksgiving turkey.

Audio in Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is sweet. The voice acting is almost superlative, with the anti-heroes banter and overall story drama being pretty much a first class effort by developers TechLand. Even peripheral characters lend yet more atmosphere to the game story. Musical score too never detracts from the title, merely adding to it.

So what’s wrong with it? If you are one of the unlucky few who suffer from motion sickness when playing certain FPS titles, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood may affect you more than most. This one thing can truly kill this game, leading you to play it in hourly – or less – blocks, thus making it a stunted gameplay experience. The main crux of the game is also linear, go here, shoot this, explore that etc. which some gamers may find taxing.

The longevity of Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood will depend on whether you will be playing this title in multi-player. The single player campaign will probably last you around 8 to 10 hours, though this will not include completion of 100% with side missions and plenty of hidden guff to be found.

Lesbian cowgirls… err no, we wish there was even some cool cowgirls in this title, but it seems developers are yet to hit on the idea of a cool and gritty cowgirl in gaming. We’d love to see a sort of Lara Croft in a stetson – how cool would that be – but it doesn’t happen in this game, with female characters remaining stunted in the romantic interest / plot device sector.

As western games go, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is by far one of the best, though this genre in gaming is very underutilized. As a standard FPS title, Bound in Blood is still a cool game that you should definitely check out. With some cool levels, excellent voice work and nice background story, you might want to answer the call of Juarez.

U-Haul Review Status:
If you like gritty cowboys, sweet voice acting, cool story and a severe lack of cool cowgirls kicking ass, hire that U-Haul and let Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood move in with you.

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood gets the Shane McCutcheon rating. She’s a cowgirl and she knows how to ride! She’s good to look at, knows just what to say, but can make you feel a little queasy if you stay with her too long.