Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood

It’s not easy being an outlaw in the Wild West. You rob a bank , or steal a horse and all of a sudden you’ve got an entire town on you. You can be a loner or you can get a gang. I for one always preferred to be the loner. A gang is too much to worry about. One of them gets caught , they make him tell them where you are. One of them wants money , he runs away or starts fighting the others. I’ve met a few of my kind during my travels. But none of them were as crazed and good as the McCall brothers. Yeah , the McCall brothers. Let me tell you a bit about them.

 

    That’s the way a man that met the McCalls and lived to tell the tale would start. And this leads us to Call Of Juarez Bound In Blood. The game is a prequel to Techland’s  Call Of Juarez released back in 06. The first CoJ was a good FPS that was worn down by the stealth missions you had to play with Billy Candle , but that didn’t stop it from being a great game. Anyway , the prequel clears up the story prior to the first game , showing us how Ray became the preacher and other details I won’t talk about to avoid giving away spoilers. Whether you’ve played the first game or not , the story , which is well written , deep and presented in a great cinematic fashion that will draw you in and will make you get close to the McCalls , should be a good reason to pick this game up.

 

    On the graphical side , things look extremely well. Techland used Chrome Engine 4 (if I recall correctly) to render a very atmospherical Wild West scenery. Everything from the people to the buildings and to the cliffs/mountains look exactly as they should .The textures are rendered very well and the special effects add to the atmosphere as they weren’t overused. The game is also optimized pretty good since it can run well on older machines (such as mine). The physics engine used also makes the game feel more natural. The soundtrack of the game is brilliant , the music fitting well in. Heroic music for gunfights , the more tensionate moments bring forward music that keeps you aware , and when you’re riding freely through the setting , there’s a calm music accompanying you in the background. Add exquisite voice acting done by professional actors  (Ray’s voice is done by the same actor as in the first game) and a few funny lines put in exactly where they should be and you’ve got let’s say the game with the best sound that came out this year.

 

    The game begins during the American Civil war as you fight for the Confederate army. During the first two missions you’ll get a taste of what both brothers can do. Ray (which is a bit less bad-ass than he was in the first game because he lacks the Bible :P ) is still the strong badass that can wield two pistols and throw dynamite besides the rifle. Evenmore he can now carry a Gatling Gun around. Here you’ll see a different face of his. You’ll see a Ray that doesn’t care for anything but his goals and the material side of life. You won’t meet the gun-wielding messenger of God , but that’s not bad at all. Thomas on the other hand is the nimble one. He’s a bit less resistant than Ray but also faster. He can use sniper rifles and a bow besides the rifle and pistol. When he uses a normal rifle if you stay zoomed for a few seconds , the view will get closer , thus making the bullet travel a bigger distance. To sum it up , Ray is the badass brother that prefers to deal with matters up close and guns blazing while Thomas is the one that prefers a more distant approach and gets up close only when needed. There will also be a third brother , William which will act as a narrator and plays a major role in the story. I forgot to mention that each brother has the concentration mode feature. In Ray’s case when you activate Concentration Mode the time almost stops and two targets appear on the screen. You need to move fast and mark the targets with your mouse. When the time is up , Ray will rain down a shower of bullets on the marked enemies. Thomas’ Concentration Mode acts differently. Time moves slower when activated. He automatically targets an enemy and you need to pull your mouse backwards and click in order to shoot. If you’ve seen a few western movies , you’ll know what I’m talking about. This time , the producers introduced an auto-aim feature . The PC version could have coped better without it to be honest since it reduces difficulty pretty much judging by the fact that the AI is mediocre on normal difficulties. Auto-aim isn’t that bad however. It triggers when close to an enemy. For a few seconds you can move the target on his body to get a better aim at his head. The game also has an auto-cover mechanic which is pretty handy. When close to a box , the character will automatically crouch , allowing you to lean up and down with the mouse so that you’ll get a shot at the enemies and avoid being too exposed. Same for the walls just that you’ll be leaning left or right with the mouse. As it would have been normal , CoJ : BiB will put you in every situation you would hope to see in a western shooter. You’ll be experiencing a fight in an abandoned town (which is about the most atmospheric level in the entire game) , stagecoach chases , mounted fights , moments where you’ll use the gatling gun and many more. To cut a long story short , you’ll see everything an outlaw has seen in the Old West. Now there’s a special something I’ve left aside. The duels. If at first you’ll die a few times , you’ll absolutely love them by the middle of the game when you catch the move. You use directional keys to move to keep focused to your enemy and with the mouse you control your hand so that it stays close to the gun for the moment when the bell rings. Then a fast move of the mouse to the right , a click and pray that the shot was yours and not your rival’s . Brilliantly made moments emphasized by tensionate music. Oh , you shouldn’t forget about the two free-roam missions where you’ll be able to get more gold in your purse by doing extra missions. What do you need gold for , you ask? Are you stupid I ask back? To get weapons from the vendors and ammo , that’s why! Two Superb Rangers or Volcano Guns are always worth 15 more minutes of killing bandits . So , as an overall idea , Call Of Juarez : Bound In Blood features fast paced gameplay with a few breakdown moments that fit in perfectly. The multiplayer is decent and as fast paced as the single player. It has a few interesting modes on which I won’t enlarge ( I also won’t rate the MP , because I consider the SP to be the part that’s more important). Too bad it’s pretty short .

 

My overall impression was a very good one. On my first playthrough I used only Ray and I couldn’t help it… I had to start again to play with Thomas . It gave me a feeling I didn’t feel since Bioshock , a game that climbed up to my favourite FPS list. Maybe it’s because there are few western games out there , maybe it’s the game itself , but I have to say , Techland did a fine job. So fine that now Bioshock has a friend on the top of my favourite FPS list. Whether you like FPS , good games , or just want to play something to kill time , this should be on top of your “To Buy” list. Now , if you’ll excuse me I’ve got a train to rob… I mean catch.

 

 

Graphics : 9

Sound : 10

Gameplay : 10

Storyline : 10

Overall Impression : 10

Final Verdict : 9.8 ( Superbly Superb)