If anything Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is certainly an interesting game.
First
off, it's an entry into that oh so tiny brotherhood of games set in the
wild west. I can't for the life of me think of a setting that is in
need of more exploration. Its influence on popular culture is endless
and there is a massive bounty of material to plumb for inspiration.
Rockstar's forthcoming Red Dead Redemption looks to be the
most ambitious, and if I had to venture a guess will be the best,
Western game ever produced (if you haven't watched the incredibly
promising debut trailer, please do so now), but for now I'll have to settle for Juarez.
Next, it benefits from its unique origin. Like the classic Spaghetti Westerns of the 60s and 70s, Juarez
is a European interpretation of the American old west. It appears that
Polish developer Techland has taken the tropes of those films to heart.
It glorifies all the dirty and most fun parts of the wild west-guns,
dynamite, banditos, treasure hunting, and loose women to name a few-but
more importantly the developers cribbed a certain flare for the
dramatic that is far more present in the films of Sergio Leone and his
ilk than their American counterparts.
By far the best parts of Juarez
are the dueling scenes, which take place at the end of most chapters
and sidequests. The camera pulls out of first person and focuses on
your gun hand as your chosen character and his opponent circle around
each other waiting for a church bell to ring. It's incredibly tense,
just as a mano a mano showdown should be. You have to worry about
controlling your itchy trigger finger with the right stick while slowly
circle strafing with the left, attempting to always keep your opponent
square in the middle of your view. The bell rings at random intervals
and can take what feels like an eternity to sound, forcing you to be
constantly on your toes. It's engaging and novel, but can be a bit
frustrating. Wrapping your head around controlling both your
character's ever moving gun hand and his view of his enemy may take a
few fights, but it is certainly something I would like to see done in a
similar manner in other Western games.
Novel seems to be a good way of describing many of the things I enjoyed about Juarez.
It forgoes simple quicktime events which could have been easily
substituted for the delicate controls of the duels for something a
little more immersing. It's really the simple things like flicking the
right stick to fan the hammer of your revolver during brother Thomas's
slow motion killing sprees that stick with me. How no one has thought
of that particular move before I don't know.
As a straight first
person shooter it's strictly nothing more than competent. The scenarios
can be a bit uninspired, ranging from the terrible and unnecessary
stealth segment in a cornfield to the classic scurrying about to find a
lever to lower an elevator for your companions. These crappy situations
mostly come up when playing as Thomas, the more agile and range based
fighter of the brothers McCall. Playing as Ray is a completely
different game.
Choose Ray, the duel revolver toting tough guy,
and the game can suddenly feel like a rail shooter. You're always in
control of his movement, but running into a group of enemies evokes
visions of Time Crisis as they appear out of thin air from
behind cover and run around the screen. There's an unparalleled amount
of aim assist when dual wielding as your reticule will even split in
two to track a second enemy. Some people might be turned off by this,
but I ate it up. Walking into a fire fight and taking down 5 guys with
5 shots and minimal effort instills a feeling of badassery entirely
appropriate to the setting and character. Playing as Thomas never
brought these moments. It's always "use your lasso to climb this tree,"
or "use your lasso to climb this fence," or "cover Ray while he does
something awesome."
Thomas
definitely isn't as fun to play as Ray, but the narrative wouldn't be
nearly as well crafted as it is without him. The characters are far
more complex and their conflicts more compelling than in most shooters.
It's not Shakespeare, but it's far closer than most games come and the
relationship between the brothers is really the lynchpin.
The
art direction on the other hand is pretty bland. There is such a
limited color pallet that I often lost enemies among the many shades of
brown in the environment. This is actually a huge problem. When I have
to rely solely on my reticule turning red to know that I'm aiming at a
guy that's shooting me and not a bush, something is wrong.
Complaints aside, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood
is worth renting if only to experience the thrill of the showdowns and
a few of its other unique mechanics. Between the Ennio Morricone like
score and the attention given to evoking a sense of what makes Westerns
such a beloved genre, it's a step in the right direction for games in
the setting, but one that's not entirely backed up by the rest of the
game.