Call of Juarez

The Good
Call of Juarez has many nice things. The western ambient is really good, especially at the beginning. The physics are perfect, you'll see your enemies falling from buildings, roofs and many other places breaking wooden things like in the movies. You can also take many objects of the stage like boxes to access other areas or just to find some hidden secrets.

The music is really good and it'll make you feel like you're in a western movie. The FX are good enough too and the voices are brilliant.

Graphics are good, you'll walk through the night, dawn, day and some details like grass are perfect. You'll feel the heat of the dry desert with details like blur caused by the hot temperatures.

The gameplay has good things too, it's a pleasure to use the bow and the slow motion is nice. You can use it to save yourself because the game is hard (anyway there are three difficult levels if it gets really hard) and you can use slow motion mode to kill your enemies easily.

The story is really good, just like a western movie. A deep vengeance story with action and a little bit of drama for two playable characters faced up the most part of the game, so, it's like running from yourself and trying to find yourself after, which makes the game funny.

The Bad
When you start there's a really good sensation of western movie, but it breaks up when the game really starts (when the action starts). It's a pity because that was a good sensation. At the beginning there are lots of details, many objects and stages are full of things but when you continue the game, stages become more simple, with less objects and details.

Sometimes the game is really repetitive, especially when you're reverend Ray because you have to kill the enemies and nothing more. When you're Billy you have to do a lot of things, you'll have to climb, to hunt, to sneak and many other things which makes the game more attractive for the player, so, when you've done some episodes you'll pray that Billy's story continues. It's like a very interesting first person adventure game versus a redundant FPS where you only have to kill all the time and nothing more.

As I said, you have to find Billy and run from Reverend Ray most of the time, so, as you are both of them, you'll have to play in the same stages two times, one for Billy and the second one to catch him as Reverend Ray. It doesn't happen always, but it's a little boring to play in the same place again.

Each character has different and common weapons. Billy has a bow. To use it is one of the best things of the game, but you'll only use it to hunt some rabbits and in the last episode, so, you'll want to use the bow a lot more and you'll not do it because it won't be available 'till the end of the game.

The jumps are bad, really bad. Billy can jump and grab to higher platforms and Ray can just make a little jump, the problem is that Billy doesn't grab all the times, and it's frustrating.

To finish with, the game is short, and has no replayability, maybe just for finding all the secrets, but nothing more. The final battle is a poor battle, and it could be much more better.

The Bottom Line
If you like spaghetti western this is your game, if you just want to play a FPS, there are many other games of this genre which are really much better than this. Anyway, it's not the worst of them all.