bring your guns to town > call of juarez: bound in blood > review

I'm a sucker for a good western. No doubt about it. No matter if you're talking Sergio Leone's classics such as Once Upon a Time in The West, or Larry McMurtry's classic Lonesome Dove, I've always been drawn to the raw, rugged beauty of the utterly untamed frontier. It is a rich world to play, with tales of heroes, outcasts, lawmen, hostile natives, prostitutes (with hearts of gold, no less), and the ever-popular outlaw. Yet, until the last five years or so, it has been a tragically neglected genre for videogames.

But in 2005-2006, a trio of western-themed games hit and brought hell with them: GUN, Red Dead Revolver, and Call of Juarez. All three were critical and commercial successes in their own rights, and now the sequels are coming to cash in like Doc Holiday with a gun under the table. The first of these sequels is actually a prequel, Call of Juarez:Bound in Blood. And if this game is any indication, the second round of Western-themed games should be all the sweeter.

CoJ:BiB tells the story of the McCall brothers, Civil War defectors-turned-outlaws on a quest for Cortez's Gold. And the story is as rich and layered as any FPS story this year. Actually, it's one of my favorite storylines in FPS history. You'll find yourself in the company of Preachers, Apache warlords, Mexican pistoleros, Rogue Militiamen, and one very beautiful senorita...all in search of the treasure of Cortez that is buried somewhere in Juarez, Mexico. There are many twists and turns, and you'll find yourself having a hard time being sympathetic with any of this surly lot. But that's the anti-hero vibe of the Spaghetti Western at play, which tickles my fancy every time. That isn't to say that the story is all gold. It definitely takes a turn here and there for the trite, and worse, silly. But all things considered, it's a step forward for the sub-genre.

Bringing the story to life is the Ubisoft's Chrome Engine, which pumps out fantastic lighting effects that really amplify the game's atmosphere. The characters are richly detailed, and while not the best in genre, are better than average in bringing this Western tale to life. On the whole, animations are pretty stiff...but the facial expressions during the game's many cutscenes are quite nice at emoting what the characters are going through. Vast, colorful vistas stretch for miles in the distance, and the detailed landscapes of the foregrounds are defined by crisp textures and foliage. And it's this color and texture that really set it apart from all of its all-grey competition. The result is a game that can stand with some of the best in the FPS genre. The audio is a bit cringe-inducing at times, settling for hard-rocking guitars during action sequences, instead of relying on the more orchestral elements from the rest of the game. And it's in the sound design that the game misses its biggest opportunity to nail the Western thriller...it simply does too much. A good Western is sparse in it's sound design...letting the desolate landscape's ambience speak to the loneliness of its characters. Subtlety is the key, and at times, CoJ:BiB simply misses the mark entirely. But don't let that ruin what is otherwise a finely told story, because the gameplay is also remarkably solid across the board.

The gameplay is at its heart a first-person shooter, but there are a few additional layers that make it a little unexpected, and more fun as a result. You'll have an assortment of period-appropriate weapons (I'm pretty sure some are fictional) that pack the power that you would expect from an 1865 firearm, not that I have any idea what that would feel like. But they feel right. In addition, you'll have access to a Bow, throwing knives, dynamite, and other goodies that let you mix things up a bit with some stealth and grenadier action. And what fun would all those toys be if you couldn't bring them to bear in cool ways, and Call of Juarez gives each of the game's characters a unique slow-motion multiple-shot mechanic, where you can take down several enemies in mere seconds. But the coolest gameplay addition is the showdown. You'll face down enemies, one-on-one, in a quick-draw contest to the death. You have to circle around the enemy, while keeping your hand near your weapon, lest it take too long to draw. And if you're quick enough, you can pull off some incredibly accurate shots in a split second. These sequences let you live out your gunslinger fantasies in a way that captures so much of what makes Westerns fun.

As good as it plays, and as great as it looks, ultimately it's CoJ:BiB's ability to capture all the little moments of Western cliche that make it a game worth playing. If you enjoy Westerns at all, the story will have you smiling as the brothers McCall take on all manner of opposition in a dusty, atmospheric world that let's your imagination soar. And as good as it is, it makes you wonder how great the next generation of Western games will be, when technology takes a back seat to pure storytelling. Where the soundtrack is sparce, save for a lone flute playing a haunting melody against the backdrop of the painted deserts of the American West. Where sharp-eyed heroes and villians, and every shade in between, fight for a piece of the bloody frontier. If only Sergio Leone were alive and a game developer.