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Review: Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood - Xbox 360, PS3

by Steven Williamson on 1 July 2009, 11:53

Tags: Ubisoft Call of Juarez Bound in Blood, PC, Xbox 360, PS3, Action/Adventure

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Is that a six shooter in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me?

What’s is about?
Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is a Wild West themed first person shooter that follows the story of two brothers, Ray and Thomas McCall, who have deserted their posts in the Confederate army to rescue their mother and brother from the American invasion. Finding your family home on fire and your mother on her death-bed, you flee the scene vowing to return and rebuild your family's life one day. With the brother's former commander in pursuit, who plans to bring them to the gallows for walking out on the army, the brothers set off to make their dreams reality by searching for treasure in the foothills of Mexico.

Bound in Blood focuses heavily on gun-play by throwing waves of cowboys at you at every opportunity. There are also plenty of Wild West style action sequences, including frantic chases through the Wilderness on horseback, cattle rustling, saloon shoot-outs and high noon duels. Split into Acts, Bound in Blood also boasts a few stealth sequences, environmental puzzles and teamwork objectives, and even some on-rails shooting sections. Aside from the standard fast-paced run-and-gun gameplay, Bound in Blood also boasts a a few features that hope to prevent the action from getting too stale, including a concentration metre, which allows you to slowdown the action and take precise shots at your enemy.

Prior to each Act, you also get the option to play as either one of the two brothers. Though this doesn’t affect the storyline, the gameplay is affected because the brothers have different skill sets and strengths. Ray, for example, is an expert at close range fighting, but he is also handy with dynamite and has has the strength to carry the powerful Gatling gun. Thomas' strengths lie in long range shooting and at using his lasso and bow. The brother that you don’t choose is played by the CPU and stays by your side throughout the game, giving you a hand at dispatching any enemies that cross your path.

Aside from the main campaign, there's also a class-based multiplayer component, boasting 13 classes and solo and team-based game modes, including deathmatch and the Wild West Legends mode, where you split into two teams, Lawmen and Bandits, and carry out various objectives such as robbing a bank or destroying a weapon cache.

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood transports players from a ravaged Civil War-era Georgia to the Aztec ruins of Mexico in a storyline full of greed, lust and lawlessness.




Gameplay impressions overleaf...