I could start this review by complaining how the Wild West theme isn’t used enough in games. Then I’d mention Desperados and Gun as the only two even remotely recent games that touch on the subject. But I won’t. You know why? Because being a Wild West themed game is not Call of Juarez’s biggest attribute. In fact, there were a few moments in the game where I was actually sick of the whole cowboy theme and just wanted to pull out a sonic rifle and start shooting aliens. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

My name is Billy Candle

Discussing the story of a western is akin to counting the fingers on a carpenter’s left hand. You know what it should be like but you sometimes end up a few fingers short. Luckily Call of Juarez has no missing fingers in this metaphor, as its story is very solid. Especially the presentation of the storyline is one of the best to have graced the screen of any gaming device lately. I’ll try not to spoil too much, but you play as two different characters, each with his own agenda and gameplay style.

Billy is the first character you get to control and he nicely introduces you into the story via the loading screens where he explains the back story (and later in the game spills his heart about what has happened so far). He is a bastard son of a white lady from the town of Hope and an unknown Mexican. The only thing Billy has from his father is a strange medallion and apparently a strong and daring spirit. At the beginning of the game Billy is just returning to Hope after being away for a few years, searching for the lost gold of Juarez. Needless to say he returns home empty-handed. From there things go south pretty quickly, as Billy is forced to escape Hope pretty soon after that.

It’s pretty obvious by now that Billy isn’t really the bravest guy on the planet and his gameplay reflects that. As such Billy will spend most of his time hiding in the shadows, trying to sneak past bandits. He is armed, don’t get me wrong, but most of the time the game requires you to remain unseen which makes some of the levels pretty annoying. Not all of it is bad though – a lot of Billy’s levels involve wandering around the lush valleys, killing of wolves as you go. Later on you will also have to deal with the natives and you actually get the option of running past them on horseback.

The issues with Billy’s segments don’t end up with sneaking though. Being a sneaky bastard equipped with a whip, Billy will do some serious climbing throughout the length of the game. Depending on your preference this can be both good and bad. The good part is that it does offer some respite from all the sneaking and figuring out ways to move forward can be a challenge. The bad part is that regardless of the tight controls these segments become repetitive pretty fast and never really offer anything even remotely as enjoyable as some platformers do.

And God shall smite thee

Billy might be the first character you get to play, but I’m betting my ass that reverend Ray is going to be everyone’s favorite though. Some of you are probably imagining an old reverend running around with the bible in his hand, preaching the life out of his foes. If you replace the bible with some handy revolvers and preaching with shooting you might be a bit closer to the truth however. The old reverend is the brother of Billy’s stepfather and has some very special reasons he wants to see Billy dead. Anyone standing in his way or otherwise impairing his God given mission usually ends up closer to the maker as well.

During his hunt for Billy reverend Ray will often revisit the same locations, though he will usually enter from a different location and take a significantly different approach to dealing with the situation. So while Billy fights the odds to get past enemies unnoticed Ray has no problems with being spotted. In fact, his gun handling skills are pretty amazing (a remnant of his life before becoming a preacher). Overall reverend Ray’s segments are a lot more entertaining, as they are more action oriented. Some of the best scenes in the game, such as horse chases are also reserved for him.

Speaking of all the action, despite being a western Call of Juarez didn’t manage to avoid some of the more modern aspects of first person shooters such as bullet time. When Ray has both of his guns holstered hitting either of the two mouse buttons (each assigned to one of the guns) triggers a very specific version of bullet time. Unlike other games where bullet time just slows down the gameplay, CoJ’s implementation includes a second shooting reticule. The moment the time slows down two reticules appear at the sides of the screen and then slowly start moving towards the center. It is up to you to fire the individual guns when they go over enemies. Moving the view around is obviously still possible. When the two crosshairs meet bullet-time ends and is unavailable for a few seconds.

None of it means squat if the game isn’t fun to play though, right? As noted before, the Billy segments could use some work, but they do serve as nice fillers between the very intense Ray parts. Later on Billy’s adventures also become a bit more open-ended, though you could hardly call them GTA-like. Rev Ray’s parts on the other hand remain very linear and scripted all the way to the end – an interesting distinction between the two characters. Overall however the experience is largely a positive one, filled with memorable moments such as horseback chases, thunderstorm sneaking and some of the other cliché western stuff we all expect.

It’s DX10 man!

By now the more technically savvy of you are probably well aware of the differences between the DX9 and DX10 versions of the game. Owners of DX10 capable cards have had the chance to try out the benchmark that came out a while ago, so I won’t go into too much detail here. The list of new features is pretty long, but the most notable features are full HDR lighting, improved textures and pixel shaded effects, foliage that is denser and some other minor improvements. Overall the improvements are nice, though if it weren’t for the nicer textures in the DX10 version you’d be hard pressed to spot all of the differences.

Considering the DX9 version looks really nice that isn’t much of an issue, the authors managed to recreate a very authentic looking environment that is just filled with small details and some of the most high-res textures I have had the pleasure of seeing. Things are not perfect however, except on the fastest cards out there the performance in the forested sections can be abysmal even in DX9. Surprisingly enough ATI cards fare very well in DX10, though seeing the AMD/ATI logo at startup suggests that might happen. The graphics aren’t perfect either – the pixel shaded windows stick out like a giant at a midget conference, they are just too clean and artificial looking, especially from afar. To top it off, the loading times range from several eons to forever, that said most of them have voiceovers, so you can at least listen to them while waiting.

Nothing indepth can be said about the games audio, it’s good with professionally voiced characters and some interesting music, but nothing you will remember in the long run. Well, you might recall some of the music, as it can become very repetitive especially later on.

On another negative note, the games multiplayer feels slapped on and offers nothing that other shooters don’t have. In theory you could have a lot of fun playing it, but I personally just couldn’t shake of the feeling that I was playing a poor clone of the original quake set in the Wild West. That said, the online works without any major issues and some fun moments can be had.

Conclusion

Call of Juarez stands out for many reasons. First and foremost is its western theme. Considering the nature of the Wild West you’d think that we’d see more games like this instead of all the WW2 shooters that crowd the shelves. But like I said in the beginning, being a western is not what makes Call of Juarez so distinctive. The interesting storytelling approach is amongst the reasons. It’s surprising really how the developers managed to make you love and hate both of the protagonists, depending on who you are playing at the moment. Also having the chance to ride horses while shooting at bandits deserves a mention of its own. The game is not perfect however, and you’ll be reminded of this often enough when playing as Billy.

In closing the game still leaves a good impression – 8800/HD2900 owners should really give this game a chance. After all, how many decent DX10 games are out there?

Gameplay 83/100 It’s a FPS with a twist. The sequences can be rigid at times, but after you are done with them you’ll realize that they weren’t half bad at all. Graphics 87/100 Both the DX9 and DX10 versions look great, though some of the effects could do with some dirt on them. After all, who has ever heard of clean windows on saloons? Sound 78/100 Not bad, but hardly memorable. Ok would be the appropriate word. Value 85/100 The singleplayer will take a good while to complete. Compared to other FPS games this one is actually very long. Expect around 15-20 hours of bandit shooting. Multiplayer 70/100 It works and it can be fun. It is hardly revolutionary or advanced though. Overall (not an average) 81/100 If Call of Juarez wasn’t set in the Wild West it would probably have been just another FPS. As it is however, it has enough fresh moves to satisfy all but the most demanding.