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Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood
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Graphics & Sound:
When I first popped in Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, I was immediately intrigued. It looked like Call of Duty, but in a Civil War setting, which then changes to a Western setting. Things look pretty good here, with dust blowing and enemies blending into the rocky background with their dusty clothes. Once you get to Mexico, things look even better whether you are fighting in a lovely old church or running from building to building. There's a really cool effect when you focus your gun that blurs everything around your target and zeroes in. Very nice. Your characters, the brothers McCall, look good from craggy and cynical Ray to brooding Thomas. While some of their lines were a bit cheesy, I actually enjoyed their banter and one-liners as they verbally and physically sparred with one another, but waged war on the enemy. The youngest McCall is William and while not playable, this man of the cloth does narrate the story. Once the boys travel into Mexico, the bandits they encounter are a little stereotypical in their speech, but it works for the game.
The background music was pleasant and worked for the various situations you find yourself in. It's nothing memorable, but sometimes that's okay. What is memorable are some of the more annoying characters like the General who gets it in his craw that the McCalls are defectors from the Civil War and will stop at nothing to get them. His Southern drawl is more than a little annoying and insulting for those of us who are Southerners. That being said, the weapons all have a nice report and there's a really satisfying "snick" when Thomas lands a shot with his dual knives. |
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Gameplay:
As I said, this game begins in the midst of the Civil War, but when Ray and Thomas hear that their beloved family homestead is in danger of being burned by the Yanks, they head homeward to protect it, even at the cost of being labeled as those abandoning the war. Even though they get there before it burns, they find that their mother has died and their youngest brother, William, is in shambles and the remaining family members decide to set off to a new town, even as the General hunts for them. Once they arrive in a lawless town in Arkansas, Ray and Thomas once again get into trouble over a woman (this seems to happen a lot) and after a duel with the Sheriff, they are forced to keep on moving. They eventually find themselves searching for the lost gold of Coronado, which takes them to Juarez, Mexico where they ban together with a local desperado, after rescuing his beautiful girlfriend. Another pretty girl? I smell trouble.
The gameplay functions a lot like Call of Duty in some aspects, but has its own unique mechanics as well, for better or worse. While in Story Mode, instead of just shoot, shoot, shoot, there's the requisite duel, which is essentially a really annoying boss fight that occurs every so often. Here, your character (be it Ray or Thomas) will face off against whomever, circling around them and keeping his hand close to his gun using the Right stick, but not too close. When the bell tolls, it's shoot or be shot. Another novel gameplay mechanic was the Concentration Mode which is essentially a rage meter that fills up as you make accurate shots. Once it's full, you'll have 60 seconds to activate it and use it to stop time, mark enemies within range, and fill them full of lead. I don't know what I was doing wrong, but sometimes I got this to work properly and often times, I didn't. It was frustrating for me, but I think it depended on which brother I was playing as because it differs slightly for Ray and Thomas. Additionally, there are rail shooter areas where you might be in a stagecoach and have to kill enemies flanking you on both sides. I found the easiest method was to play as Thomas and aim knives, which seemed to have a little more help in the auto-aim area. Finally, in addition to progressing the main story, you'll have opportunities to make a little cash to buy better weapons by helping folks out. These side missions take a little bit of time and while the cash payout is worth the time, I found I ended up picking up enough weapons without having to buy new ones. There's also a Multiplayer aspect to the game where you can log into Xbox Live and choose from Quick Match, Quick Ranked Match, Custom Match or Create a Match to earn gold for class upgrades.
When you play as Ray, you'll be able to wield dual guns, which is always cool, and you'll be stronger, being able to pick things up and throw them. You'll also have access to dynamite, as Ray is quite the little firebug. As Thomas, however, you'll be better at the long-range rifle and you'll have your handy set of knives, plus a lasso to get you out of sticky situations. I personally didn't enjoy the lasso areas, but eh. The boys will often have to work together to get past certain areas, but this just means you run up to the red mark and let the game do it's thing. There's an area where the boys are being hunted in a giant field of corn by Union soldiers and as Thomas, you'll have to locate the soldiers and silently pick them off with your knives, one by one. While this was a really cool idea, as soon as you looked up over the corn, the enemy would get a cheap shot in, no matter where you were. Ugh. |
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Difficulty:
You can choose between Easy, Medium and Hard and they vary pretty typically. Ray is a better shot, so if you want an easier time, select him when you can. Some missions will require a particular brother, however, so you won't have your choice, although, in most missions, you will be able to choose. Most of the areas can be easily progressed through, given a little patience and simply figuring out what the situation requires. Since you are in a Wild West setting, you won't find any machine guns lying around, but you will, however, find the occasional Gatling Gun. In general, you'll need to find cover and use it wisely, along with choosing your shots wisely, lest you spend a lot of time reloading.
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Game Mechanics:
The mechanics of Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood aren't really configurable, aside from changing from default to Southpaw, and this was one of the problems I had with the game. Allow me to explain - you'll move your character with the Left Analog Stick and look around and such with the Right. Pretty standard stuff. However, to crouch, you press down on the Left Stick and to run, you hold down (LB). Now, if you think about it, when you are in the heat of battle and running, quite possibly for your life, the worst thing imaginable is to press your Left Stick up while holding the (LB) to make your character escape, only to accidentally depress the Left Stick such that Ray or Thomas is now crouching and meandering about like an idiot instead of what you intended. This was a big frustration for me. Now, StarScream tells me this is a pretty standard FPS configuration and maybe it is on the 360, because admittedly, I am more of a PS3 person, but I have played my fair share of FPS games like Call of Duty and the like on the PS3 and I don't recall running into this particular frustration, at least certainly not to this level.
Another gripe I have with Bound in Blood is the fact that you are supposed to follow the yellow star on the screen to meet your objective, but sometimes it's hard to figure out where to go. That might seem odd, but the star will plop itself in front of a mountain or river and you'll have to figure out that your objective lies beyond that. Also, sometimes when you are running, the star will move about the screen wildly, almost as if it is also trying to figure out where to go. Not fun.
Aside from those gripes, the other controls feel pretty good. You press (LT) and (RT) to fire each gun if you are wielding dual pistols and if you are using one gun only, you aim with the (LT) and fire with the (RT). You can jump with the (A) button and perform Actions with the (X) button, and enter the Concentration Mode mentioned earlier by pressing (B) if your gauge is at the right level. Finally, you'll get really familiar with the (Y) button since that's reload.
The Cover System deserves special mention because it really is fairly effortless. If you get close enough to something, your character will seek cover and peek out from around it to fire. It works pretty well most of the time and I liked not having to select to go into cover.
While I had an OK time with Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, it has not become my favorite game. If you think you might like it, I recommend a rental first, to be sure you enjoy the mechanics. |
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-Psibabe, GameVortex Communications AKA Ashley Perkins |
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