A lot of players seem to be
torn on Call Of Juarez - some think it's great
while many hate it. GameRankings had it at 75%
aggregate from critics which is a pretty decent
score, so I went in thinking the game might
be a dud. Critics are often wrong. In this case
though, Call Of Juarez is quite a decent game.
It has some flaws which everyone agrees on,
but it's something a little different in a shooter
genre over saturated with sci-fi and war themes.
It's been a long time since
I played something western themed. Probably
Gunman Chronicles from 2000, which started life
as a Half-Life mod. That itself was a good,
under-rated game. There was another western
themed shooter released a few years before Call
Of Juarez, but it didn't get a good reception.
What makes this game good and
enjoyable is the fact that it's fresh and different.
Sci-fi, war, fantasy, realistic cities; they've
all been done over and over again. But this
western theme is a rarity and in this case it
actually looks pretty good. The engine and graphics
are passable and capable of some very large
outdoor areas, which look good. Not at a Crysis
level of detail and beauty, but pretty enough.
It only starts to struggle when you look across
the plains or get in areas quite high so you
can far distances - the mountains end up looking
extremely plain and under-detailed. Also at
times some of the terrain can be a too blocky
and unrealistic looking, but that's fairly minor.
The game doesn't ALWAYS look good. While the
beginning takes place around a little western
town and lots of thick bush, you then move to
a more open landscape with hills and mineshafts,
and it looks bad. Really bad. I guess this engine
can't do night time scenes well, but the levels
look poorly design with hardly any detail and
bland hills everywhere. It's ugly. But the game
picks up again as you return to daytime settings.
The story is a highlight of
Call Of Juarez. You play as two characters,
alternating for each of the 15 levels (or episodes).
The first is a boy named Billy on the run after
being blamed for the murder of his parents,
the second is a former outlaw turned reverend
named Ray who's on the boys trail to bring him
to justice. So the game switches between the
Billy who is faster and more agile to the gun
slinging bloodthirsty Reverend Ray. Ray's levels
are all great - you can play with two guns at
once, usually pistols in left and right hands
and can fire them both at the same time. Then
you get rifles and shotguns at your disposal.
Ammunition and health are plentiful but the
game is still a good blast as enemies can take
you down quickly if they're carrying good weapons.
You need to make shots accurate and it's very
satisfying when you headshots. Without a headshot
you can shoot an enemy up to several times before
you get a deadly hit.
Unfortunately, Billy's stealth
levels aren't nearly as fun, and the game got
a hounding in reviews because of this. It's
a little surprising because Thief and Splinter
Cell were so popular, even Chronicles of Riddick
which started off with stealth then went to
action in the second half. So why does everyone
rubbish Call Of Juarez's stealth sections so
much? They were boring as hell, but most stealth
games are to me so it's nothing new. Billy does
get to do some gun slinging or bow & arrow
killing-fun, but it's mostly about creeping
around or climbing things for him.
This brings me to a major problem
in the version I had of this game; the rope
climbing is extremely buggy. There was once
section where I needed to use my whip as a rope
to climb a tree. Due to some bug in the game
this wouldn't work at all. It just wouldn't
allow me to attach my whip to the tree. I was
completely stuck and it was a game ender, without
getting a level unlock cheat so I could skip
to the next level. Sadly this was probably the
longest level in the game. Furthermore the updates
wouldn't work so I couldn't apply any fixes.
There's also a DirectX 10 upgrade
which improves the game, but this wouldn't work
for me as it's only available for US versions
of the game. But everything still looks fine
even without the upgrade.
So overall I think Call Of
Juarez is worthy of a play through the once,
at least for it's action parts. Even though
the stealthy, jumping Billy sections are a bit
of a drag. The game looks good, the action is
fun, it's not in the elite shooters of 2007,
but for a bargain bin price I'd recommend it.
