Call of Juarez Review

Saddle up partner; Call of Juarez is taking us back to the Wild West. This is the story of Billy and Ray, two guys on the run and on the hunt. After young gun Billy is framed for killing his mother and stepfather, Bible preaching Ray goes after Billy with the Lord on his side. You see Billy’s stepfather is Ray’s brother, and Ray doesn’t take the news of him being murdered too well. The real reason for the two deaths falls on an unruly gang of outlaws searching for the pendant in Billy’s possession. This pendant just so happens to be the key to the lost gold of Juarez.

You play as both characters throughout the game, with Billy and Ray alternating levels. Billy is quick, wields a whip to swing around on, and can rock a bow like no other. Most of his missions deal with more emphasis on sneaking and platforming. Billy has both villains and Ray after him so you are always feeling the hunted when in Billy’s moccasins.

Ray on the other hand is what I would describe as a true product of the West. This reformed gunman has found solace in the Good Book and cast away his questionable past. That is until the day his brother is murdered. Most of Ray’s missions consist of hunting down Billy as well as cleaning up the remaining outlaws tracking Billy. Ray is a bit slower but he can take more damage than his younger and more nimble prey. Using a more head-on approach, Ray also has a slow motion “Concentration Mode” that allows him to target and take down multiple enemies at once. And best of all Ray can equip the Bible as a weapon to strike fear into the souls of the wicked, hurray!!

I enjoyed Ray’s missions a bit more. They were more action orientated and there is something about yelling verses at an enemy with the Bible in one hand while unloading six rounds into him with the other. I must say that shooting an arrow through an enemy’s head with Billy got some well-deserved smiles from me as well.

The graphics in Call of Juarez are not that great. The atmosphere is rather dry and brown as I am sure it was back then, but this limits Call of Juarez’s variety. CoJ does do a very nice job at capturing the feel of the country frontier though. Environments are massive with huge draw distances that reproduce the setting in CoJ nicely. There is a great train robbery level too. NPC animations are stiff and a bit silly looking, although enemies reacting to slugs while in Ray’s Concentration Mode are awesome.

The one aspect of this game that really brings everything together is the music. CoJ has a fantastic western themed soundtrack. From moseying country ditties to more energetic action compositions, CoJ nails it. I was pleasantly surprised in the audio department and it made my experience that much more memorable. The voice acting doesn’t take itself too seriously with its stereotypical lines, but I got a kick out of them.

Multiplayer is like any other first person shooter but with a western theme. There are four character classes and a wide range of maps, some good and some bad. Multiplayer in the CoJ Universe works and is still fun. People should be spending a decent amount of time on Live with this.

When the dust settles some people are going to love this game and others are going to hate it. CoJ brings nothing new to the FPS genre and players will not give it a chance for this reason alone. While simplistic and repetitive, I still enjoyed it overall. This game is more of a great rental than a solid purchase. But for fans of westerns CoJ has two guns, one for each of ya.