Call of Juarez Bound in Blood was Released in 2009 for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3, Developed by Techland and Published by Ubisoft, The game is a first Person Shooter set in the Wild West.
I already had Play Call of Juarez Gunslinger, and I will say it's a better game overall, but I do like the Story of this more, after playing this game I will play the First game of this series one day.
Story
The game Start in the American civil war, and the 2 first level will be set on it, each level you will play as a different brothers, each brother plays slightly different, in those level you will fight in the side of the confederate, in the end of the second level the brothers farm in Georgia will be destroyed, as a result of that they Desert from the confederate army and go to the wild west looking for a way to rebuild their Lives, While I only talked about the 2 Playable brothers, there's a third Brother William, He's a Pastor, who Preaches the world of the lord, he's my favorite character in this game, he just want to live in peace with his Brother away from a life of Crime and violence.
I really like this Story overall, it's pretty simple easy to follow, every character outside of William is a Douche bag, but that's the point, the only thing that I don't like about this game's plot is that the first scene of this game is a sneak peak of a cutscene that happens right before the last level, a lot of movies/games will have their first scene be something dramatic thing from the end of the game, and this game does that too, but I feel like it makes the story a less surprising to watch, because you sort have an idea of what's going to happen, from the start.
With that said for a 6 hours FPS, where the Story doesn't feel intrusive, it works really well within this game confinement, many games like it either have a very simple story that most players will skip or try a very complex story with many character and events going on, that it ended up being a mess that's hard to follow, this game doesn't fall into either of those traps, and the plot has a point to make, while not feeling preachy, even if that point is the Protestant work ethic, which makes this game a very American game.
Gameplay
It's Your typical post-COD4 FPS, You shot, Aiming down sights and have regenerating wealth, what this game does different is that as I meantioned before each brother will play slightly different, Ray will be able to use dynamite which work like Grenades in this game, and sometimes the story will require him to plant them in some place to blow it up.
Meanwhile Thomas is able to hold 4 weapons, 2 Pistols and 1 Main weapon, meanwhile Ray can only hold 3 weapons, he's also able to use knife for close range combat and use a rope to climb tall places.
One thing they share in common is that both have a meter that will fill the more enemies they kill and when it's full they have 60 seconds to use their special ability if they don't the meter will go back to be half empty, I think this is a good thing because it desinsensitive hording, and it made me use those abilities more than I would otherwise.
But what are those abilities anyway ?
Each character works slightly different in the case of Ray it will slow down time and if you hover your mouse over an enemy and it will target them automatically whenever you are done selecting your targets.
Thomas in the other hand will also slow down time, but the game will auto select enemies near you and you will have to do a mouse gesture, to be able to kill them, because of that I preferred to play as Ray, I only play as Thomas whenever the game made it mandatory to play as Thomas, which would be Level 2 and the first half of Level 14.
Another interesting gimick about this game is that you have 2 semi-open levels in this game, where you can used the money you earned during the game to buy new weapons or and to do extra missions to earn aditional money, you can skip them entirely if you want to.
The most important thing in a FPS is the weapon feel and I am happy to report shooting in this game is fun, shotting hords of enemies with your rifle or Pistol is really fun, Rifles being my favourite weapon in this game due to their long range and punchines and fedback every time you shoot it.
Outside of the main game there's Duels which works like Boss fights in this game, and I hate them, In fact I almost gave up playing this game because of them, how do they work ?
It's pretty simple you have to keep your hand close to your weapon, but not to close or else the character you do an animation of getting his hands away from the gun, and keeping the opponent on the center of the screen, after some second (but it feels like forever) a bell will ring, and if your hand is close enough to the weapon, he will pull the gun out and the shooting arrow will appear, if you are fast enough you will be able to kill your opponent, if you don't , you will die and repeat that slow process all over again, it painful to do it and what is worst is that the game barely tells you how Duels work, so you have to look up how they work online, I hate them even when I understood how they worked.
There was a multiplayer mode in this game but it's didn't try it because it's probably dead and I don't play MP anyway, otherwise of that you have collectables that unlock historical Photos from the wild west and civil war and art related to the game's story.
Visuals and Music
It looks like an 2009 game alright, a lot of Brown because it's a 2009 and it's set in the wild west, but it doesn't look ugly in comparison to other FPS released around the same time, the music sounds like what you would expect from a game that inspired by old Western movies, I don't have much to praise or complain.
Conclusion
This game feels very American, from the gameplay, Story and Music, so imagine my Shock when I learn this game was made by Polish people, sure American called Haris Orkin helped Writting this story , but I am still suprised a game like this was made an ocean and 3 countires away from where it's set and it feels authentic to it's setting and feel like it was made by People who loved old western movies.This isn't an amezing game by any means, but considering you can buy for cheap on GOG and Steam, If you like Western games and FPS, it's reallly worth to give this game a try.
Pros
- + Fun Shooting and Gun feel
- + Great Story
- + Semi-open world intermission levels
Cons
- - Duels are a Pain in the ass
- - Too much Brown
8
Gameplay
It's a fun FPS, if you have ever play an FPS made in the last 20 you will have an idea on how this game plays.
7
Graphics
It looks like a game made in 2009 too much Brown, but at least the character models are surprising detailed.
9
Story
They are many other games with better stories, but for an 6 hour game that's not Story base, You will have a hard time finding stories better than this one.
7
Sound
It sounds like a Hollywood western movie, but it was actually made by a Polish Guy named Paweł Błaszczak.
8
Replayability
Beside Multiplayer, you can replay the game on the Very hard difficulty that's unlocked after beating the game, getting all 89 collectables and playing the rest of the game as the other brother
8.6
out of 10
Overall
Great FPS made by People who knows what they were doing and understand what makes an FPS fun, Another Polish W.
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