The first Call of Juarez brought an exciting adventure through the Old West and let players control two characters as they saw different sides of the story that led to finding the mysterious gold of Juarez.  Thanks to a faithful following and truly impressive production values, Bound in Blood is as every bit as imaginative and explosive as the first game, but several things set it apart to make it one of the best western shooters to date.

Bound in Blood follows the tale of two brothers, Ray and Thomas McCall, who after hearing about the Union Army ravaging their hometown, leave their post in the Confederate Army to seek vengeance against those responsible.  It’s your typical western styled story, with the McCalls meeting up with bandits, sheriffs, Native Americans, and other notable key western archetypes as they journey throughout the West. Their path is not as straightforward as they would have liked, however, as the McCall’s former Commander in the Confederate Army wasn’t too pleased with their immediate departure and is out to teach them a lesson while other law enforcement officials are fixing to catch the McCalls for all the crimes they have committed.  Naturally the West is not a safe and hospitable place for any of the brothers.

Because Bound in Blood focuses on the adventures of both of the brothers, you will never see any of them alone throughout the story.  Ray and Thomas are inseparable when it comes to revenge and both will work together to see their final dreams are carried out.  What makes the story so intriguing is how you can choose which brother to play as and adapt to his style of fighting.  For example, Ray can withstand more damage thanks in part to his armor vest and can also wield shotguns, rifles and throw dynamite.  Tom, however, is more of a 1800’s Sam Fisher, and sticks to avoiding detection and performing silent kills with knives, bows and arrows, and has better accuracy when shooting.  You don’t have to stick with one of the brothers for the entire portion of the game, but it seems that whichever you choose from the start will leave you interested enough to continue on with that character.

For whomever you choose, the computer does a nice job of picking up the slack on your fellow partner.  They shoot competently at enemies, hide behind cover and even help you in various platforming segments which lead to new parts of the levels.  For instance if you choose to pick Ray as your playable character, Thomas will climb up on a ledge, use his lasso to pull objects down, and then help you climb up to meet him.  If you happen to choose Thomas than it will be you performing the previous motions to help your AI controlled brother Ray up.  It might seem confusing at first, but Ubisoft did a great job of providing a nice blend between the two characters so the action never gets dull.

While these platforming segments are fun to engage and work together to achieve, the main focus of Bound in Blood is the shooting, and there is plenty of it.  Ray and Thomas are no strangers to firefights and their past with the Confederate Army has given them a slight advantage during these bouts.  Ray will often shoot sporadically and just unload heavy rounds on any enemy who gets in his way, often wasting entire clips of one weapon for his own amusement.  Thomas tends to stay back and use his sharpshooter accuracy to pick off enemies from afar, whether it’s with rifles or arrows.  Standing strong and killing every enemy in sight is the nature of the game, and players will only see great success and rewards from doing so.   Killing enemies nets you ammo, new weapons, and the ability to unload a concentration mode, which when engaged, slows down time allowing you to pick off enemies with slow, swift precision.

Having gunfights amidst the OK Corral is all well and fun but nothing says Wild West like good old fashioned one-on-one duels, and you will encounter several of these through your adventure.  In these segments, players must rotate around a character in a circular motion waiting for a bell to ring signaling when to draw your guns and fire.  Once the bell rings, you will only have a short amount of time to line up a shot on the enemy and fire.   This works most of the time simply because the game seems lenient in giving you a few more seconds advantage than the computer.  However, there were many moments when the camera would spin wildly causing you to never being able to target the enemy’s body or missing your opportunity and getting killed.   Your odds at successfully pulling off a perfect duel is about 50%, which kind of stinks since these duel segments could have been a highlight in such a dynamic Western shooter.

The single player campaign is quite short and players can finish it within eight hours even on the hardest difficulty.  Although the enemies aren’t too bright and seem too dimwitted to even hold up a gun, the story mode is fleshed out well enough for players to experience plenty of tense gunfights, duels and explosive moments.  For those wanting more than just the story mode, multiplayer offers five unique modes with eight maps (although more seem to be coming in the next few weeks).  12 players can engage at once in various modes ranging from Deathmatch to Wild West Legends, which forces one team to complete a set of objectives while the other defends them from doing so.  It was definitely the best mode in the multiplayer portion of the game and was one that many seemed to play as well.  What makes multiplayer so appealing is the wide range of classes players can choose from.  With over ten available (eight of which are unlocked after playing multiplayer), players can choose to shoot harder, run faster, have explosives, or shoot from afar as the sniper.  You can also choose classes mid-match so you can always trick up your opponents by throwing something at them they were not expecting.  One thing that is quite disappointing is the lack of a co-op mode, and for a game that features duel companionship so prominently this is truly a major bummer not to be included.

Visually, Bound in Blood looks pretty good.  The locales all sport incredibly detailed textures and such subtle things, like sand blowing up from the ground, tumbleweed rolling, and birds flying in the distance, give you the feeling that you are standing in the middle of an 1800’s Western town.  Some of the enemies however seem to suffer from too much of the same thing, with many of them looking too much alike for you not to notice.  The sound is probably one of the best aspects of Bound in Blood, as it pulls off an almost realistic interpretation of what gunfights would have sounded like back in those times.  Excellent voice acting and a fitting musical score also adds to this already stellar visual and audio display.

Whether you are a fan of Westerns or shooters in general, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood offers plenty of fast-paced excitement for anyone to enjoy, despite the short campaign.  With intense firefights, gripping duels and a solid story, Bound in Blood offers up more than a solid campaign mode, it also delivers the goods in a well-polished multiplayer mode.  Those looking just for simple, solid fun should look no further than Bound in Blood.

Final Score – 8.8 | Recommendation: Buy It

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About This Author: Josh Schwartzman

Been into gaming for as long as I can remember and have enjoyed every minute of it. I enjoy playing with everyone and anyone online and I am an avid PS3 and Xbox 360 player.

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