Review: Call of Juarez: Bound In Blood
The best Western shooter on the market. Related stories (more)Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood Hands On
Article written by nofi in Hot, PS3 Reviews, on Thursday, July 2, 2009 at 12:00.
Ubisoft’s partnership with Techland appears to have succeeded: Call of Juarez: Bound In Blood is a powerful, dramatic tale of two brothers forced to go on the run in the middle of the American Civil War. The setting might be authentic but I’m a shooter, not a historian, and the only thing that mattered to me when marching down the dusty roads of The Wild West was my aim. Techland’s hardware mastery produces some vivid scenery, realistic gunplay and convincing animation, and that’s just about all I need.
From the off, with the game throwing around detailed, effect-filled visuals and a gentle introduction that rapidly escalates into a thunderous siege (hint: the Trophy is called D-Day) Bound In Blood is happy to lay all its cards on the table. Within the first hour you’ll have navigated trenches, sprinted across open battlefield, laid mines, controlled a cannon and had your fair share of cut-scenes: this game is nothing if not diverse. Yes, it’s a first person shooter, but the amount of characterisation and depth would suggest it would work just as well from the third.
Storytelling is an aspect most shooters fail to take advantage of, but not this one. Essentially a weaving yarn of two distinct but related protagonists forced to take exile and desert the war, Bound In Blood wastes no time in setting up the premise for the game’s lengthy campaign. The Western theme is certainly Wild, and although there’s certainly enough diversity in the levels and acts you’ll play through consistency is never a problem, all the while the game’s cut-scenes keep you locked into the ever developing exposition with only the daft checkpoint pauses breaking the forth wall.
It would be churlish to spoil the story, but it’s safe to say that you won’t need to have played the first Call of Juarez game to get the most of it – think of Bound in Blood as its own individual chapter in, we hope, a series of games. It’s worth mentioning that most of the chapters can be played as either of the two brothers, which gives a slight alternative spin on the actions of that particular section without making any different to the outcome. Both Ray and Thomas are capable shooters, but you may prefer speed and agility over strength – the choice is (mostly) yours.
What Techland have managed to portray well is the sense of weight to the weaponry. Despite the armoury being authentically vintage each gun packs a punch and the way the enemy responds to a bullet is highly satisfying. Guns can be doubled up too, although you’ll lose the ability to zoom with the L1 trigger if you’re dual-weilding. Other nice control features are the automatic cover (which sees you gently ’sticking’ to nearby objects and using the right stick to peer) and the slow motion bullet-time concentration mode which allows multiple take-outs in the blink of an eye.
It’s when Bound In Blood tries to fit in too much that it can suffer slightly – the game is best when pushing the player through tightly structured and well narrated sections, but when left in the wild signposting isn’t as clear and although the game happily highlights targets for you in the HUD, there’s no sense of distance (especially true of grenades) and likewise bullets from opposing snipers, for example, can ruin the flow. Pacing isn’t normally a problem throughout the game – the minigame diversions are fun and often explosive – but it could have done with tighter funneling in some areas.
The Multiplayer section doesn’t suffer from any such issues, of course. With a nice selection of maps and modes, Techland’s class-based system works a treat and although the classes aren’t quite as diversive as they are in the likes of Killzone 2 or Team Fortress 2 there’s enough options to keep things fresh. There’s some clever versions of popular FPS modes – capture the flag is much more fun when you’re stealing gold instead – and the few games we played just to test it out seemed to work just fine.
Thematically the game succeeds with aplomb, the story line works well, the co-op and alternative routes through sections with your brother never feel forced and there’s some welcome appearances of both characters and plot twists during the campaign. There’s lots to like here, presentation is great, the game runs smooth enough (there’s some slowdown and tearing, though) and for once it’s a multiformat game where the PS3 version doesn’t seem to suffer particularly badly. If you were looking for a Western FPS to cure an overdose of bald space marines with ridiculous guns, this is the perfect tonic.
Score: 8/10
You can read more about Bound In Blood’s various multiplayer modes in our hands on article here.
Comments
Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.
gazzagb | 02/07/2009 12:03
Master of speling mitakse
2396 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009
Nice review, im hoping there will be a demo on the store today.
C_S15 | 02/07/2009 12:07
Member
1367 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009
Hmmmm, still think I’ll wait for RDR.
Gastos84 | 02/07/2009 12:13
Team TSA: Writer
3612 TSA Points | Member since: Apr 2009
Great review. Will be definitely getting this beauty. Been longing for a decent Wild West shooter for some time now and it looks like we are getting two in a row.
Yeeeeeeeeeeeeee-Ha
Jumping Monks | 02/07/2009 12:20
Legend
1049 TSA Points | Member since: Jan 2009
Sounds pretty awesome to me. I think I might just have to get this.
nofi | 02/07/2009 12:22
Wants a custom tag.
3870 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
I can see Fruit organising TSA duals in this…
kevatron400 | 02/07/2009 12:53
Member
1557 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
Yeah that would be awesome!
jediryan123 | 03/07/2009 04:37
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22 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008
pistols at dawn…
Timesh1993 | 02/07/2009 12:25
Member
1093 TSA Points | Member since: Apr 2009
Looks like i’ll have to be getting this
Just hoping for a demo, doubt there will be one though, i’ll try and get this when i eventually get round to selling my PS2.
Argon123 | 02/07/2009 20:58
Member
242 TSA Points | Member since: Apr 2009
youll only get like 15 quid for it
Timesh1993 | 02/07/2009 21:15
Member
1093 TSA Points | Member since: Apr 2009
not just selling PS2, all the games i have and some PS3 games as well.
Mick939 | 02/07/2009 12:49
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676 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
Sounds good, i may wait for a demo but think the review has already persuaded me.
Pixl1983 | 02/07/2009 12:50
Member
439 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
I’m glad they kept the quality consistent. After playing the first few levels I’m pretty excited for this. Full of little set pieces and minigames. The one thing that really stuck out as a great feature was the cover system. I thought it was excellent but I didn’t have much of a chance to try it out in larger areas though. Does it hold up well?
kevatron400 | 02/07/2009 12:55
Member
1557 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
Not sure if it said in the Hands on, but is there coop offline in this game? I would love to play with my actual brother!
FruitOfDoom | 02/07/2009 12:55
Member
481 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
Excellent, I was hoping this would be a good title having played and loved the first one.
I will get this on release, and if enough members grab a copy then we will certianly be running wild in the west.
Snebjnr | 02/07/2009 12:57
Member
1532 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009
This sounds pretty good, although I’m watching my money, I will consider getting this! lol
hannes_truce | 02/07/2009 13:03
Member
2808 TSA Points | Member since: Sep 2008
It should be dispatching from lovefilm today. I think i made the right choice.
nice review
2ofclubs | 02/07/2009 13:16
Member
563 TSA Points | Member since: Sep 2008
Nice review. Might give this a rent. Still got Red Faction and Prototype to play more before I invest in a new game though.
Glenndog84 | 02/07/2009 13:27
Member
234 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
Great review, this game looks very nice, its not very often I play western games, but might give this a go, would love a demo
freezebug2 | 02/07/2009 13:38
Member
1123 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
Yeah great review nofi, I have this game on order and am hoping that it arrives tomorrow. It would have been good to have had a play of a demo before ordering it but this review has made up for that.