Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood Review

By Brad Russell

Bound in Blood by Polish developer Techland is the prequel to the first Call of Juarez released in 2006. Very few first person shooters succeed in offering more than standard FPS fare. Bound in Blood goes the extra mile to deliver a real sense of atmosphere to go with solid shooting mechanics. Unfortunately, too often the game reminds you that it is a game with many wrinkles.

The story follows Ray, Thomas, and William McCall as they trek the spaghetti western landscape trying to rebuild their former lives. You can play as Ray or Thomas for most missions, each with their own skill-sets and uses. While the story and themes are as cliché as it gets, at least the two main characters are fleshed out with strong voice actors, even if the supporting cast is not. The story isn't without flaws and certainly isn't a reason to pick up the game, but there's the feel of a harmless summer movie as you play, and it's on you if that is compelling enough to see how it ends.

The menus and the seamless integration of cutscenes into gameplay help get into and keep the game rolling, but the narrative still-pictures during loading screens and some of the voice work do the opposite at times, taking you out of the experience. Most of the voice work goes above and beyond expectations, but every now and then it's very laughable. The sound effects at least are authentic and the visuals are outstanding, even at low settings. Unlike most shooters where the ground clutter and settings are just there for the backdrop, this game really fleshes out the environments, even allowing for a degree of exploration if you are not under the gun. Simply put, it's hard to not notice and appreciate the extra effort and detail put into building the western flavor of this game; Techland hit more than miss in this regard.

The authenticity carries over to the mechanics of shooting. Standard FPS controls and heads up display are present; the only thing worth mentioning is the bullet tally of your guns coming up as you reload, and the best part is that you can interrupt reloading. And you better enjoy reloading and every aspect of reloading because you will reload as many bullets as you fire. You might fire a ton with the targeting being so precise and target-assist working only when it feels like it. Up close these don't stand out, but when most of the enemies are at long range, you have to be accurate down to the pixel to hit them. Contact with moving targets is fine when the target assist works, but it gets frustrating missing right, missing left, and finally hitting the cowboy's hat. Overall, the game suffers from a lack of tightening the shooting mechanics.

The enemy AI falls just short of being brilliant by running around aimlessly at times, though at other times they seem to be flanking and using cover to great effect. Even if you do manage to down them, it's hard to tell if they are dead or not, so shooting and reloading more to be sure is not a bad idea. If you can pick them out of the dirt-covered environments, dynamite-throwers are top priority because dynamite spam plus the shaky warning system ultimately leads to you taking up more cover. And it is a nice touch to have a cover system that doesn't change the camera angle or marry you to the cover of choice, but it's a bit too loose and sometimes you'll ram a wall over and over hoping it turns into true cover (not just you standing behind it). When the cover does work and you have the time to adjust to it, it is nice to choose how much of yourself you expose while peeking around.

It all boils down to what you are shooting for. The bullet-time feature is intriguing in that proper use of it can make the shooting have a "SSX" kind of flavor, as if you are making combos and tricks – there's just no official tally for it. The limited free-roaming segments fall short of anything spectacular, but do offer a welcome breath of fresh air to the somewhat short campaign by slowing somewhat torrid pace of the story. The breath of bad air comes in the showdowns, which are not terrible, but can grind the game to a halt and force many trial and error sessions. But in the end you are just running through mostly linear levels and killing thousands of dirt-covered bad guys en route to the end. That isn't to say the game is without fun or even challenge, just that there isn't a whole lot here in the mechanics and level design.

Bound in Blood is one of the few games that does nothing to change gaming, but is definitely worth a look in a slow gaming season. It falls just short of being more than a great-looking, standard first person shooter. Though the story oozes with cliché, it at least has a cinematic feel and allows you to connect with the leads, something rare in games. If you are looking for a fun western-themed shooter to escape the monotony of Nazis, aliens, zombies, and Nazi-alien-zombies, then Bound in Blood is without a doubt a rental if you can play the console version.

In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 80%. Falls just short of solid shooting mechanics, but offers a compelling enough story and impressive visuals that merit a rental on a console.