Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood

If CoJ2 is the best western game on offer the definitely count me out...this has to be one of the worst games I've ever played in all aspects.

Story, graphics, gameplay, everything...it is all hideously flawed.

Story-wise; talk about "meh" we have two gung-ho idiots that are about as intelligent as a mentally handicapped 5 year old. We have the younger goody goody brother who can't stop ranting about the Bible and the Lord, the selfish wh*re who uses people to get what she wants but is never truly blamed for being the cause of all the trouble and so on and so forth. If the character isn't a cliché then he suffers from poor character development, there is a problem with them all...

Graphics wise; horrible by major release standards. Dodgy voice acting/lip sync work, a terrible over-use of character models, don't even get me started on the ridiculous draw distance of the game...it's ridiculous. This is the standard I'd expect from an extremely light-weight game developer with minor league game publisher funding and where are the real graphic controls? I've seen better graphic controls on flash games.

Gameplay; talk about BOOOORRRING...if you're gonna try and add an open world approach then look at games like Far Cry 2 or the GTA series. Adding random optional linear side missions and the ability to ride around looking at nothing does not make an open world/sandbox style game. There needs to be some substance to the world one can explore...not just randomly scattered bandit attacks on civilians where every third one consists of the exact same scripting and voice overs.

Speaking of voice...what is up with these brothers making almost the exact same remarks every 20 seconds..."two is hardly a challenge" etc etc etc...hearing these remarks constantly is slack. I thought FC2 was bad with random guys talking about another guy shooting himself in the foot...at least I only heard that about once every half hour...

On another topic, the aiming system is shocking. By gaming standards, when a crosshair goes red or whatever colour when passing over an enemy, that doesn't mean a near miss that blows his hat off, that means a hit...that is how proper hit-boxes work. The hit-boxes in this game are atrocious. I've been right next to countless enemies, my gun and crosshair smack bang aimed in the middle of his face and then fired several shots only to find one shot actually hit and even though it hit him in the face, it didn't kill him...

Really guys? This is the best western themed game on offer? This is the best Ubisoft or anyone else for that matter can provide? This is lucky to get a 3/10...only because it gave me something to do, though I only played as long as I did in hope that it would redeem itself...to no avail.

I loved playing this game when I was younger. I had a blast with it. The story was good. Two brothers, who are U.S. civil war veterans, abandon their army to protect their home; but find it was raided by the opposing army. So they venture out through parts of the American frontier and Mexico to find treasure to rebuild their home, slowly turning bitter and against each other. The most conflicted brother, out of the three siblings, was the eldest, Ray McCall. He was harsh, but was very funny. His brother Thomas had bitterness in him too, but to a lesser degree. The youngest of the trio, William, constantly tries and fails to persuade them to abandon their mission to search for treasure, and change their ways. There are more characters I won't mention, so I'll focus on these three. Ray is probably the most developed, being the most conflicted. William probably comes second, being the holiest and most righteous of the bunch; and Thomas, the middle brother, seems calm and cool. But he probably doesn't have much "meat to his bones." Meaning, he's the least developed. Don't get me wrong, he's a great character, but there's just not much internal conflict in him. That's not bad, but he isn't as developed as Ray. Thomas is still funny, and has good things to say though. Now, to the gameplay. It's fun, and the two brothers, Ray and Thomas, operate differently. Ray is more brute strength and frontal assault. Thomas is more range based, fast and athletic. Both of their styles are great, even though I played as Ray most of the time, and regret not playing as Thomas enough. For the duels, they were okay; even though you could easily miss your opponent if you weren't careful with where you stood. One time I shot I guy, and he didn't die. There was just blood spatter. Actually, this happened a few times, and I think my character died once because of this error in the game. It's an issue that can pop up once in a while; and depending on your temper, it can be frustrating. The only other thing I didn't like about CoJ BiB is seeing familiar faces on the enemies a lot. The faces were re used quite a bit. But it was something I could live with. In all, Bound in Blood is a very fun and under rated western game with a pretty good story, great characters and enjoyable gameplay with concentration modes good for taking down multiple enemies, stunning western like environments, sound tracks I like listening to and gun fights that make me love being a cow boy type character. My only grips with the game are minor glitches that pop up once in a while and re used facial designs. But no game is perfect, glitches are bound to happen and not everything can be new or original. CoJ BiB gets a nine from me being a fun adventure that moves you through the old west, and has you massacre all who stand in your way.

I am not a western fan, never understood those cowboy "things". But, this game I liked very much. It was pretty rare to have western video games, especially first person shooters, well let's just say that we had "Call of Juarez" released in 2006, which I didn't like that much, but this game is extremely awesome, and it shows story before the first game. McCall brothers deserted their army and return home just to come across more death and misery. They found their younger brother William, and the trio promised that they will rebuild their home. And from that point, an adventure begins. This game holds good game-play, excellent graphics, and pretty stunning visuals. You can either chose Thomas, or Ray McCall to play. Ray is fast, agile and he can use knives and bow, while Ray is strong, and he can use dual revolvers, explosive and he can carry a Gatling gun, well that's my choice… Game is not that hard, but sometimes, when you come against the boss on nearly each level, there's a special duel part… and that's pretty cool in the game, those duels can be pretty pain in the neck. Some other things that are pretty great are voice acting, It has an interesting plot, very dramatic, the music score is cool, sound effects… very realistic. I mean, your possibilities are amazing, you can ride horse for example… you can search for money, other values, and buy better weapons and better weapons are amazingly done, the design of weapons is awesome. The characters in the game are pretty interesting… there's a comic element between Thomas and Ray, because they constantly making jokes about each other. There's not that much of other characters, because Ray and Thomas are the leads… and their younger brother, who is a priest. Now, I found very irritating by his constant chanting, averting them and quoting the bible… and his voice… man… he sounded like a c*nt… but I didn't pay that much attention to it… it was a different time. Overall, I recommend this game. Play it.

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is the best next-gen western first person shooter probably because it is one of the only next-gen western first person shooters. The game's campaign starts off in the civil war and follows the story of Three brothers who abandon their duties in the war for the sake of their family. Two years later they try to seek a legendary gold while being chased by a vengeful General. You get to choose from Two of the three brothers since the other is a non-violent priest. Both brothers have different abilities, weaknesses, and strengths. The campaign is straightforward and fairly short but enjoyable. There is also two missions that allow you to free roam and complete side quests. My first problem with the game comes in with the weapons. The game has cartridge converted revolvers in the civil war and guns that haven't even been invented until 15 to 20 years after. Just about every weapon in the game is historically inaccurate. My other problem is that the multiplayer is unbalanced. The multiplayer is fun until someone wants to spoil it by using a weapon that cannot be competed with. The veteran class for instance abolishes the use of the sniper classes by a land slide. If they had focused a little more on balancing the weapons the multiplayer would have been excellent and definitely a more enjoyable experience than it already is. The price is probably low by now so I would definitely recommend picking this one up for any platform.

Bound in Blood is a much smaller game than Red Dead Redemption, but it is still one of the best wild west themed shooters.

The Good: -Decent story with good voice acting. -The gameplay mechanics are solid, and not too repetitive. -Graphics: While many things look average, some of the environments are truly beautiful (at times on par with Crysis 1). -This game does not shy away from Christian themes, which fit well with the story. And it does so without seeming unpleasantly pro or anti Christian. -A good manual save system (no annoying checkpoint reloads). -No Ubisoft Uplay account required!

The Bad (mostly minor): -A very low Field-of-View (not fixable) due to being optimized for console TV screens. -The first level (tutorial) has clumsy scripting and mediocre graphics, but it gets better with later levels. -Bodies disappear the moment you look away, due to silly Xbox360/PS3 RAM limits. -AI is mediocre (not a big problem since most things are scripted) -screen vibration effects severely overdone during scripted explosions. -Enemies move like ants (no movement inertia), making aiming a pain sometimes.

The Ugly: -No COOP mode! With the two protagonists working together, this game would have been perfect for co-op, and yet there is no co-op mode! What a missed opportunity!

Overall, I can easily recommend this game, especially in a sale.