A Strong Base But Poor Development Kills What Could Have Been A Great Western Shooter...

Author's Rating:

Pros: Duels, playing as both main characters

Cons: Weak plot, awkward gameplay

The Bottom Line: 
Good concepts but bad development is the curse that took over this game that had great potential.

Author's Review
I often talk about my good friend who got me into Xbox and the games he has me try out. Oddly enough, when I wanted to try out a game made by developer Techland titled, Call Of Juarez, he discouraged my advances. Knowing we both have different tastes in video games, I still wanted to give it a shot and see if it would be anything to my liking. 

Overview
Similar to some western stories, this plot follows the quest for long lost gold. Particularly the gold of the Aztecs that was hidden hundreds of years before. The gold is of course rumored to be cursed and will bring poor fortune upon anyone who finds it. The main character, Billy, was given a special medallion when he was born and feels it holds the key to finding the gold. He goes in search of this gold and ends up returning home empty handed. However when he returns, he finds his mother and stepfather murdered. Hearing the ruckus, a local reverend named Ray goes to investigate and finds Billy standing in the middle of the fiasco. Assuming he is the killer, he then makes it his personal vendetta to track down Billy and bring him to justice. 

Spending most of the game running from Reverend Ray and trying to prove his innocence, Billy requests the aide of a love interest of his named Molly. Eventually getting confronted by a man named Juarez, Billy is ordered to find the hidden gold or he will harm Molly. I wont give away any more of the plot but that is a very basic rundown of the story line.

Game Play / Objectives - 7 / 10
Single Player - For a first person shooter I felt the game play was a little poor. The fluid motion was sometimes lost in the busy backgrounds and scenery. Maybe I am being too cynical but I really did not feel the game play at all. I felt it to be choppy, distracting at times, and overly complicated. The objectives of the game were pretty straightforward however and did not cause too much of a problem. Most of the time you are able to figure out what needs to happen next but there were a few times I got so caught up and had no idea what to do that I had to go online to a walkthrough to find how to progress past where I was stuck. 

I will give the creators a point for creativity for the instances in the story line where you change from hunter to hunted. Numerous times throughout the plot you switch characters from being Billy who is running from Reverend Ray and trying to prove his innocence, to Reverend Ray who is hunting Billy and trying to bring him to justice. I thought this was a very innovative concept to do during the story line. Most games offer something similar to this but it is at the beginning of the game and you have to play through as the good side or bad side. The unique twist the game has to switch you at different times between the two characters was a neat concept. 

Another good point for the creators was the concentration mode they incorporated for Reverend Ray's character. When triggered, the concentration mode slows down time during the game to a crawl. You still have control over each of the six shooters in Reverend Ray's right and left hands and cross-hairs slowly begin moving from the left and right sides of the screen to the center. Using the control sticks you can aim (with some difficulty) the cross-hairs at the multiple enemies that are standing in front of you and shoot them as the cross-hairs pass over them. Essentially it gives you a jump on the enemies and slow motion time to rattle off a few shots in hopes that some might find their mark and kill your opponent. A unique feature I haven't seen in a game previous to this and it does actually come in handy during gameplay. 

Multiplayer Online -  The multiplayer is a typical multiplayer for a FPS except this obviously has a western twist on it with western locations and weapons. The achievements within the multiplayer are completely unreasonable but I will touch on those in a few paragraphs. The connectivity for the multiplayer is decent but not outstanding. Often times I have trouble connecting or staying connected with a full wireless signal.

Graphics - 7 / 10
When I first started playing I was hopeful about the graphics and by the early appearance of the game, it looked promising. As the game progressed I began to see flaws in what appeared to be a very detailed and spacious landscape and even more flaws within the characters themselves. When standing still, the landscape looks fantastic. I was impressed with the distance you cold see and the detail that the game maintained the further your eye was drawn out into the country side. However upon closer inspection, the detail didn't hold up to closer examination. When you bring your character close to the landscape you can see it get somewhat choppy and sharp edged. The gradual curve of leaves or of the tree trunks didn't look as gradual but instead looked forced and hardened. The edges were sharpened and squared when they should be smooth and curved and the textures looked very paint splattered rather than accurately colored.

I was a little disappointed with the characters themselves as well. The bodies were ok, not the greatest but certainly not bad. The movement, for the most part, was decent with occasional choppiness and stuttering. The faces is what began to bother me. Every face was flattened and hard looking. Even the characters that you had pleasant encounters with looked angry. 

One area they do gain a few points back was the weapons in the game. Something that surprised me a great deal was the fact that the game has historically accurate weapons throughout the story. Although this may be expected by some, I was surprised to see that they adhered to this detail down to the minute design of the guns.

Sound - 8 / 10
I will give credit where credit is due and that is the superb work they did with the voices in the game, particularly Reverend Ray. The booming James Earl Jones-esque voice does wonders for the character and creates a fantastic dominant persona in your mind without even having to see the character. For the most part the other voices are well done, but few lack and get a bit cheesy and too whiny. The bang of each bullet resonates and each explosion is felt and heard with excitement.

Achievements - 7.5 / 10
I always appreciate challenging achievements, within reason of course. Now don't get me wrong, I DO NOT condone boosting for achievements, I'm an all natural kind of player. After trying, to no avail, to get these online achievements within the multiplayer mode in Call Of Juarez, I gave in and boosted. Grabbing a couple friends we began trying to get them. It took four of us, over an hour to get 4 of the online achievements. One in particular was very troublesome. We were trying to drop a stick of dynamite between 3 guys to kill all 3 at the same time, and it was extremely frustrating. If it was this troublesome while we were trying to set up the situation, the likelihood of it being done naturally during the game are very slim and those types of achievements irritate me. As I said I appreciate a challenge, but not one that is virtually impossible. Most of the game achievements are earned simply by playing through the game, some you have to go a bit out of your way to get but aren't too much trouble. As most games, there is a collecting achievement to find X number of hidden guns throughout the game. I'm not a big fan of collector achievements as I feel it deters from the natural play-through of the game but thats just personal opinion. 

Down Sides
As I mentioned above, the graphics can be choppy at times, the characters themselves are of poor design and lack natural features. Some of the online achievements, in my opinion, are almost impossible. The multiplayer was a bit lackluster to me and failed to really grab my attention. 

Overall - 7.25 / 10
With some decent play-through aspects, overall the game lacks. The replay value is almost non existent, and the multiplayer does not hold my attention enough, as other games do, in order to bring me back for even that. With poor graphics and lackluster character design the developers dropped a ball on what could have been a superb western shooter. These types of games are few and far between as most FPS are contemporary with contemporary weapons and gear. It is unfortunate that the developers could not do more to spice this up. Parents be cautioned as the game does have a rating of M for mature due to sexual themes, constant blood and violence, and graphic language throughout.

© Copyright 2010 - ace3502

Any Questions? Feel free to message my Xbox Live Gamertag: DJTherapy1

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