Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for I am f***ing awesome. If the mark of a good western FPS is making you feel like the most badass gunslinger this side of Tucson, Bound in Blood is the best yet. It's also a massive improvement on the 2006 original. Chances are you never played that, which is a shame. Call of Juarez was, if not a genuine diamond in the rough, at least a pleasant enough cubic zirconia. It had a decent story and solid shooting, marred mostly by godawful stealth sequences and infuriating stop-start action.
All that's gone for this prequel, replaced with action closer to Call of Duty than Juarez. It's explosive set-piece after explosive set-piece, all wrapped in a cliché-soaked but effective story of two brothers torn apart by greed, ambition and betrayal. Oh, and a pretty girl, of course.
Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood
Official trailer
2:17'Brothers' trailer
Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood
Official trailer
2:17'Brothers' trailer
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Lovesick or not, both brothers are raging death machines to the end. As outlaw Thomas McCall, you spit testosterone, chew bullets and bathe in raw cordite. His older sibling Ray makes him look like a snivelling little pussy, taking on mobs of angry locals like a cranky bulletproof tank. Most levels give you a straight choice of who to play, with the second brother acting as wingman. As the agile one, Thomas is all about clambering around the scenery with a lasso and taking out enemies at a distance with a well-placed rifle shot. Ray excels up close, kicking down doors and unleashing hell with his six-shooters and a fistful of sizzling dynamite.
These differences work well, but only up to a point. The levels and story are the same regardless of which brother you choose each stage, making it a choice based on playing style rather than tactics. Only occasionally does your path notably change due to your character's specialist skills, and even then, rarely for long, with many of the differences between the two ending up oddly ignored.
Thomas is meant to be able to use stealth and hurl knives for silent kills, for instance, but aside from the tutorial bit to show you how to do it, it's largely forgotten in favour of zero-subtlety assaults. On Ray's side, the cover system is fiddly and irritating, especially since you can usually get away with just ducking behind a box while your health recharges.
Luckily, the standard combat is satisfying enough that this doesn't matter. The pistols are often popguns, but switch to Thomas' rifle and Ray's dual-guns and it becomes satisfying indeed. Some recurring annoyances threaten the fun at times, such as the overpowered snipers on many of the rooftops and the fact that the AI-controlled brother can die (if you get too far away, it's guaranteed) and force an unceremonious reload. But these are few and far between, and rarely derail the momentum. The fifteen levels rip past at just the right speed.
If there's one problem with the main characters, it's that they're almost too powerful unless you crank up the difficulty. On standard, you rarely need to concern yourself with cash and buying gear. It's strange though that you can't just steal what you want, in much the same way that you can't just shoot the bosses instead of enduring the awful gunslinging minigame that keeps showing up like yesterday's salmonella. You're an outlaw for Christ's sake (literally in the case of one character). If anyone asks: lie!
Bound in Blood is a much more enjoyable experience than the first Juarez. It lacks some of the whimsy (such as Ray massacring whole towns while quoting scripture) in favour of focusing on the shooting, but it's a good trade. As for other games, it's far more satisfying than previous westerns like Gun and Red Dead Revolver, even if its set-pieces never quite make it to the Modern Warfare high benchmark.
Richard Cobbett
// Overview
Verdict
An outstandingly manly FPS. Excellent shooting and terrific production values. A great reminder of how the west was fun.
I'd just like to point out that this game is not a "warm up to RDR". It's a fully fledged game that SHOULD have been born in the first game. I absolutely loved shooting about as Ray while quoting the Bible. Only problem was the unforgiving physics engine. Buy this, and the first for good measure.
Come on!! Red Dead is going to be the best western game. Red Dead shows the true grit that is in all "Good" western films. Thats if you have watched a western film, well a good one at that!! The comedy value of this game will be a treat np doubt, when Rockstar lays its cards down it will piss all over this!!
I'm thrilled that this has been given a good review. It's been sitting on my must-buy list for a while. I loved the original and even didn't mind the slower Billy Candle levels. The original's swansong of hunting rabbits with bow and arrow, in the middle of nowhere with nought but a horse for company, was a shocking but enjoyable change of pace. From what I've seen of the trailers, the set pieces in this game look likely to propel it beyond it's predecessor. Roll on Friday.
I bought the first game on the cheap and I'm glad I didn't pay a single cent more. The graphics were beautiful and the opening level started out well enough with a raunchy escape from the local bordello...And then the infuriating lack of saves and lack of a decent weapon began to set in. What killed it for me was the DRM SecuROM message I got the second time I booted up the game some weeks after installing a legitimate copy. To make matters worse right after I got that SecuROM message the DVD drive on my PC died (just like the first one which did so at the hands of "Crysis"). Neither of those two games will ever go near my PC's loading tray again! This second game sounds like it has more of the things I would enjoy than the first game, but I want to play it on my PC and not my console yet I don't trust the publisher not to release it with the same crap.
errr... so, please please please tell me that the reviewer simply forgot to mention the brilliant co-op experience.
For gods sake, why do game devs hate everyone so much? There is a game that has two protagonists in it for the entire time in single player mode. Its made for co-op, so whys it not there? Its not f**king rocket science for these guys to wack in a bit of co-op code.
gah.
I want this game but I'm almost going to not buy it (twice too) just because they've completely missed the boat here.
re the co-op, there's the two brothers, so why no co-op, i don't geddit. as for the set-pieces, the scenery is beautiful, very well done for a title that has been ported to pc, ps3 & 360, especially compared to the oh-so-bland codwaw. riding the horses is a rush, but the lady they're all salivating over rates as well as kfc. she struts around all angles like a disjointed pinnocio-chick(en). weird. and the duelling...grrr the kcuffing duelling. you WILL birth farrows of piglets, litters of kittens AND a beached sperm whale just trying to get this one right. luckily reloads are blessedly short(unlike red faction guerilla)& once you shoot the smug bâtard, the feeling you get almost makes up for the smashed tv screen, battered console and triggerless controller. grrrr...
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