Call of Juarez: Bound In Blood rolls out as a prequel to the moderately successful Call of Juarez, the first western themed title from Techland. The original was a mixture of fast paced gun fighting and stealth maneuvers. While the story was fantastic, the gameplay of the original title was terribly uneven. Switching between the two main characters, Billy Candle and Ray McCall, was entertaining, but felt far too forced.



While the story is split between the two McCall brothers in the prequel, Techland gives the player the option to play as either brother in each level. While this technically offers twice as much gameplay, the levels don’t substantially change on the second go-around. The game also doesn’t offer any type of co-operative mode, something that seems perfect for this type of title. Techland did a solid job of offering variety and excellent pacing throughout the levels including stagecoach chases and several showdown gunfights. I also appreciated the customization elements with the ability to purchase new weapons.

Unfortunately, linearity rears its ugly head along the way. The levels, while appearing open, are somewhat devoid of life and follow a restricted path. Also, enemy AI can be suspect at times, especially late in the game after memorizing the character movements. At some point, it’s far too similar to shooting fish in a barrel. The story wanes in effectiveness along the way, specifically in the form of the third McCall brother. Mutliplayer is far better than the original game, adding RPG elements to building your character through a monetary system. It’s quite entertaining and provides an advanced challenge over the mediocre AI.

Graphics

• From afar, landscapes are designed to appear stretching for miles. Unfortunately, textures up close are fairly poor and suffer from a sizeable amount of pop-in issues during fast paced scenes.


• Character animations are smooth, even when enemies are swarming. There’s limited variety in friendly and enemy character designs though, particularly faces.


• Explosions are well done. Wooden objects shatter when hit with a stick of dynamite and enemies go flying.

Audio

• The voice acting is decent, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the voice acting in Activision’s Gun. Still, the back and forth between the McCall brothers can be amusing at times.


• Sound Effects are solid and the ambient noises in the environment are more prevalent than the previous title


• The score will appeal to fans of the Western genre. The sweeping ballads made me think of the older spaghetti westerns made popular by Clint Eastwood.

Conclusion

Bound in Blood is a solid entry into the limited amount of Western themed games available for the 360 and PS3. Fans of the original title will be at home with the McCall Brothers, but first person shooter fans may find the linearity annoying. Xbox Live users will definitely enjoy the multiplayer modes, especially those who like building up their characters.