Call of Juarez

The last Western game I played was Gun. It had a plot I needed to follow with an open world Wild West to roam around it finding side-quests and looking for gold. I thought it was kind of fun, but it was a little rough to play as it was an original Xbox game converted to 360. Call of Juarez is none of that, but much more intently Western. As a side note I should point out it's $20 from Games on Demand.

Call of Juarez is Spaghetti Western: the Game. This is the genre as conceived by Polish developer Techland. I don't think American Westerns are quite this dark in theme and storytelling. This is mostly narrative you are playing through, as there are no side-quests or any exploration but what is right in front of you.

What is right in front of you? You play one of two characters: Billy "Candle" who is unjustly accused of murdering his mom and step father; and, Reverend Ray who goes on a blood thirsty crusade as the Sword of God to hunt Billy down. The tale is told across 15 chapters where you alternatively run away as Billy, then for a couple chapters switch to the Reverend as you basically run through many of the same boards (sometimes with a time limit) to keep up with him. This is both good and bad, because each tackles the road ahead differently. Billy can go stealth by hiding in bushes and creeping around, as well as having a whip that aids him in climbing. The Reverend has gun skills and just blasts his way through things. Only in one spot did it seem lazy when the Reverend has to move through a mountain pass you already played as Billy, killing the same enemies you just cleared out. Each character has a hard past, some of which comes out when the character you are playing talks to you. Billy was abused a lot and The Reverend wasn't always of the Lord.

There is gold in this game. Legend has it that the Aztecs payed a ransom for the release of Montezuma but the gold was lost in what is now Juarez, Mexico. The Call of Juarez is a curse that draws men to search for this gold. Billy just prior to the start of the game went to Juarez to find it, but failed, little realizing that his mom had given him a necklace and a nursery rhyme to help him. Through the game the hunt for the gold by others will drive Billy back to Juarez to find it, and his real father. During the search for Billy, the Reverend will have an epiphany that maybe he isn't the most righteous of individuals, and maybe Billy needs help. Some of this is told though narration during load times that are blessedly short.

To round out this Western you will pretty much see one of everything you think you are supposed to, except John Wayne. You will have a good number of run-ins with bandits in the hills. There will be a fight on an ambushed train. You will get to ride a horse and eventually chase a carriage to save a girl. There are Texas Rangers so you will be in Texas. Juarez is in Mexico, so you will also get to be in Mexico. You will get in duels. There is a Mexican mansion that reminded me a little of The Alamo. There is a church with graves that hide a treasure. And you will meet Apaches, on the wrong side of their guns. One of which is Calm Water, a medicine man. You must pay him back for saving your life.

There was a moment in Gun when my character was on a carriage or something and an Apache (I think) attacked me with a tomahawk. I shot him point black with a shotgun on gamer instinct. I immediately felt really really bad. I rarely have guilt for ending a character for trying to end me. I didn't have a choice, though. I couldn't negotiate with him, his only programming was to kill me. But with the weight of history in my head I sort of thought maybe he had a right to try to kill me, he wasn't a gameplay obstacle. I don't think killing anyone in a game has bothered me so much, except that mission in Grand Theft Auto III when you have to use a flamethrower in China Town. Here I am again as Billy, trying to negotiate a mountain pass and Apache's have set up multiple ambush parties. Then they started shooting at me, and my first thought was, "who sold them guns"?

You do have to play this story, it is a game after all. There are some hit or miss ideas in here, but for the most part it's solid. What works is the Reverend's gun play with "bullet time", and exploration work with Billy. What doesn't is the dueling system (it just seems odd), platforming with the Reverend (you have to stack boxes), and stealth missions. There are a couple missions with Billy that are totally Tomb Raider inspired, which I found fun because it's you against the environment. He can also carry a Bow and there is a whole chapter dedicated to you using it on Silver Mine thieves. Dueling just didn't work for me, but when you die you can restart at the duel and not waste time. Platforming is difficult when you have to line up boxes just right. But, it feels like you're gaming the system, not solving the puzzle. Some stealth missions (Billy only) will take a minute and involve you hiding in a bush for a moment; others will take several minutes, and are excruciatingly boring when you don't know what the goal is.

Visually the environment is its own character. I love the look of the West. Unfortunately I use a 6-year-old DLP 1080i TV with bad contrast and all the levels set in the dark were unplayable. I can set the brightness up in-game but it just washes out the color and looks muddy. I don't know how much was the game or my TV but I suspect the weight of the issue was in the game. I played dark levels in Earth Defense Force 2017 with only a little trouble.

Even though you are just playing through the plot of the game there is a lot to like, which is to say the story. There is a gaming thing attached where you can collect wanted posters to unlock Super Hard mode or get an achievement. Once again there was no real incentive to play on a harder difficulty, so I knocked it out on Easy to for a more relaxed game. The only replayability is to do it again on Super Hard. There was some multiplayer options that didn't really appeal to me, so I didn't try them. Before Red Dead Redemption there was Call of Juarez. It's a decent game that gets over the pitfalls of Gun and has an even better story. Play it for $20, it's worth it.