Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is developed by Techland, a nice little development studio that has mostly focused on racing games previously but has now decided to broaden it’s horizons. It has also been published by gaming giant known as Ubisoft, but how can you not like Ubisoft?

The game focuses on the adventures of three brothers: Ray, William, and Thomas–although you can only play as Ray and Thomas. As they are on the run from what remains of the Confederate army (I won’t you tell why) they begin searching for the treasure of Juarez in Mexico. The story in itself is very nice, although quite predictable towards the last couple of chapters, with a twist at the end will leave you with a satisfying grin at the end of the game. Another note worthy point about the storyline is that there is no clear protagonist nor is there a clear antagonist–not counting the brothers–and you will learn this in the first few chapters of the game. Anyone could become your friend or your foe.

It seems that just about all the cut scenes within Bound in Blood has one person pointing a gun at another.

The game starts you off in a tutorial level where you play as Ray, a member of the confederate army. It is assumed that you know the basics of a FPS and simply teaches you the controls that are unique to this game. Ray is the strong character, able to dual wield pistols, throw dynamite and rip off  Gatling guns (Halo, anyone?). Thomas is the Agile hero, having better proficiency with the rifle, able to use bow and arrow, climb, throw knives and use the lasso to get himself onto higher ground.

The level design is quite intuitive; there’s always just enough cover to hide but not enough so that you’d be safe from every angle. The pacing is also done quite well; it’s mixed with times of dark humor, a nice break or two once in a while, and the best blazing gun fights the wild west has to offer.

The controls are also very nice and simple. You simply run up to cover and you auto enter cover mode: you point down to auto cover and you point your gun at the sky to jump back in, you lean your mouse over to lean out of cover and pull it back to go in. The whole process feels good and natural, making gun fights nice and smooth and letting you focus on the actual gun play without having to divert attention to a faulty cover system.

The sounds are also very impressive. Each character seems to have a unique voice which sets an amazing atmosphere for the game. Sadly, the two characters exempt from this rule are Ray and Tom themselves, who during the later part of the game have a nearly identical voice. The only way to tell who’s who is to see which mouth is moving at the time, or if you paid good attention you would have learned enough about their personalities and you could distinguish from that–although I found this quite difficult. The sound track is quite beautiful, giving the feel of those wild west movies many of us watched as kids.

The multiplayer is also very interesting. A variety of modes will keep it fresh and the combat system in itself is as fun as the single player. Sadly, this is where the Bound in Blood greatness runs out. The upgrade system is quite shallow and it’s only a matter of time before a weapon is declared to be the cheapest and everyone is using it. The multiplayer will only keep new players to the genre addicted as it has no real hook to it. It’s nice, but most people already own games with far better multiplayer segments.

Bound in Blood also lacks any form of Co-Op, which I find to be quite a ridiculous thing to miss. I mean, the game SCREAMS co-op.

Another factor bringing the game down is the outdated graphics. Turning on the settings to the max will make the game look, at best, like a 2007 release (Crysis does not count!). There are still a few more things that ruin my sweet delicious Texas style apple pie. The campaign is too short; an average FPS player can beat the single player on normal in under 6 hours. Tom’s lasso is quite limited and is rarely used besides as mission objectives. There also seems to be no real reason to play Ray besides the dynamite–while dual wielding guns at close range does provide auto aim, most people don’t need it and can just as easily take down their enemies with Tom.

Although the game has a great atmosphere, it does break it sometimes. Lines are often repeated multiple times in the level and your brother seems to have a god-like ability to either be immune or be able to dodge all of those bullets. A simple example would be this: when the two brothers break down a door, you get shot at and hide behind cover to regenerate while your brother stands in the middle of the door with no cover and just shoots, which makes you feel that you’re not on the same level as your brother.

The AI is also not that impressive. You never see the enemy try to flank you–they just sit behind cover and pop out to shoot.

The boss minigame is, in fact, the only part of the game that suffers from bad controls. It’s very difficult to keep your hand near that gun and move to compensate for your opponent moving around the ring while the hand moves on it’s own. This makes this what could’ve been a fun mini-game the whole (as Yagtzee describes it) “Press X to not die” quick-time routine.

In the end I describe Bound in Blood as the game that could’ve been. It has potential, but I feel that the things that Techland cut corners to spoiled what was going to be my sweet, delicious apple pie. It does not mean that it is completely bad, it just means it could have been a hell of a lot better.

You might be asking yourself, “Dmitri, you sexy beast. Great review, but where’s the score?” The answer is quite simple. I don’t give scores, because if you’re too lazy to read through the entire review and just want to see the score, I doubt it will make a difference in your final decision as to whether or not you  buy this game. So you can simply decide for yourself.

The Good
Great gameplay, natural feeling controls, very nice theme, amazing sounds, great story telling… did I mention how good the controls are? They are that good.

The Bad
Outdated graphics, shallow multiplayer, broken mini-game, very short campaign, and much potential that wasn’t touched on.

I hope all of you enjoyed my first review.
Good luck, have fun and cya next week.
-Kabuto

About the author

Just a game developer who likes to criticize other game developers ;D