Negative Gamer Review: Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood (PC)

Bound in Blood is a western themed first person shooter set twenty years before the events of the first game (I believe they call them prequels). The story follows the McCall brothers, Ray and Thomas, who start out as soldiers in the Confederate army but are eventually forced to become deserters in order to defend their homestead from Union forces.

After having saved their younger brother, William, the three brothers set out in search of a lost treasure, which they plan on using to rebuild their home. Despite William’s protest, Ray and Thomas become outlaws in the process; a convenient turn of events that provides the necessary elements for the 6-8 hours of shooting people that follows.

It’s best described as Call of Duty if it were a western and not made by Infinity Ward. If you want a shooter set in the Wild West these days then the Call of Juarez series is pretty much your only option, which at the very least makes it worth looking at.

Shooting gallery.

The original Call of Juarez was an interesting yet extremely flawed game. It separated your time between two characters similar to the way this prequel does but it did it in a much more effective way. In the original you play as Billy and Ray; Billy is on the run, convicted of a murder he didn’t commit and Ray is chasing him down, convinced that he’s guilty.

Ray played the role of a typical gunslinger much the same as he does in this prequel but Billy’s segments consisted almost entirely of stealth and platforming. This was presumably intended to break up the action and keep it from becoming repetitive but it was unfortunately rather frustrating.

This was a major issue in the first game, as you often couldn’t wait to finish Billy’s segments so that you could get back to being a gun-slinging outlaw. The developer, Techland, obviously realised that these elements were a problem. However, instead of fixing these sections for the prequel, they have removed them altogether. This change results in there being nothing to  break up the monotonous shooting, which now makes up the entirety of the gameplay.

There are two levels half way through the game that allow for some free-roaming to buy weapons and pick up side missions. The actual content in these sections is limited to a grand total of six side missions, which doesn’t help much. Every other level is rather linear; think Call of Duty except no where near as good.

Whether you’re playing as Ray or Thomas has very little effect on the gameplay and each mission essentially boils down to doing the same thing you did in the last one. A load of enemies are served up for you to kill and when you’re done with them the last man standing will challenge you to a duel. This formula is repeated over and over again, regardless of how different the mission objective may seem.

Despite a level or two, the brothers are always at each other’s side; they have the same objective and they essentially accomplish it in the same way. The unique dynamic that was present between the two playable characters of the original is gone and that’s really unfortunate as it was one of the few things that made that game interesting, despite the frustration it brought with it.

Wild, Wild West.

The gameplay itself, which in this case means shooting people, never evolves beyond what you see in the opening levels. Weapons are upgraded as you go along but there are no drastic changes. The levels are, thankfully, somewhat varied and they actually help to change up the pace every so often.

There are several western-specific gameplay elements such as duels and slow motion quick-draws but they aren’t executed well enough to make this game stand above the crowd.

Engaging in a duel in the Wild West should be thrilling, but here it mostly offers frustration. The mouse controls your hand and when a bell tolls you must use it to drawn your gun and fire as quickly as possible. It’s difficult to get the hang of and will initially only frustrate you as you attempt to figure out how to make it work.

Once you come to terms with the controls, it quickly becomes apparent that the duels themselves aren’t exactly exciting to play. Whether you’re dueling a random outlaw or the game’s final boss has no effect on how the duel plays out; each time is as repetitious as the next. Unfortunately it’s rather underwhelming and ultimately tiresome when it should have been one of the things that made this game special.

The actual shooting outside of these duels has issues of its own. A concentration meter fills up as you kill enemies and when full it allows you to execute a slow-motion special attack of sorts. In theory it should encourage you to dispatch enemies more skillfully in order to build up concentration quicker but it rarely works out that way. Most of the enemies will be dead by the time it’s ready to use and, as it must be used in a certain amount of time, it often runs out again before any more targets show up.

Furthermore, the cross hair is over-sized and can at least partially obscure your vision, which is especially annoying if you’re aiming for the head. You can aim down the sights but surprisingly the cross hair is still present and it can’t be turned off or modified in any way. The game’s depth of field effect doesn’t help here either as it often makes your target go out of focus, if only for a moment.

It’s worth mentioning that the weapons are still enjoyable to use despite these issues, which is mostly due to their authentic western feel. Riding up on horseback and emptying your revolvers into a group of bandits can be extremely satisfying, which makes the many issues even more unfortunate.

It’s a shooter. It has multiplayer.

This western feel carries over to the multiplayer mode as well. It’s a typical class-based deal with a variety of modes, which is, again, very Call of Duty.

At the start of a round each player is assigned a money value which tells you how much killing them is worth. As you kill more players, your money value goes up, making you a bigger target. This money can also be used throughout the match to temporarily upgrade your character.

At the end of the match the money accumulated is added to your total which can be spent on unlocking more powerful classes. Whether or not you like this sort of thing is a matter of opinion, as it provides a feeling of progression but at the same time results in an uneven playing field.

The gameplay modes themselves are fairly well done. Wild West Legends is most notable, as it provides an objective based mode that recreates a variety of classical western events such as the gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

It’s actually quite a decent offering but, like most things, not without its issues. It only allows for twelve players and, while that doesn’t bother me personally, it may annoy some. More importantly, the current level of support for this multiplayer mode is worrying, at least in the PC version of the game. At the time of reviewing I couldn’t find any dedicated servers. In total there never seemed to be any more than 10 to 20 servers available with only half of them being active.

It may be a different case for consoles but I’m not reviewing the console versions here. With the likes of a new Halo and Call of Duty approaching, I doubt that Bound in Blood’s multiplayer will get much of a chance.

A few other points worth mentioning:

• When dual wielding at close range there is an extremely counter-productive auto-aim that can’t be turned off.
• The PC version is missing some of the usual graphical options such as v-sync and anti-aliasing, among others.
• There is also terrible pop-in even on the highest of settings. It’s a rather nice looking game otherwise.
• The enemy behaviour is a little flawed and they occasionally embarrass themselves.
• Everything from the story to the gameplay feels built for co-op yet there is no option to play the campaign with a friend.
• The cover system can be frustrating as it will make you crouch behind objects that you haven’t seen yet, among other annoyances. However, it’s completely optional so I can hardly complain.
• The story is pretty standard and, while it has some depth, it isn’t interesting enough to be remembered once it’s over.
• Stiff animations undermine every cut-scene making supposedly dramatic moments feel ridiculous even when the voice acting is good.

Bound in Blood is a mostly average shooter. The single player game is slightly short and the multiplayer mode does what you’d expect. The authentic western weapons are an entertaining change of pace and it’s one of the few things that make this game worthwhile. However, this prequel has lost the series’ ambition and it now plays just like any other shooter. The original’s more experimental nature has essentially been abandoned, which is extremely unfortunate. In the end it comes down to whether you’re interested for the shooting or for the western setting. If you’re looking for a shooter and don’t care about the setting then you should go somewhere else. However, if the idea of a western is what intrigues you then this game will probably be satisfactory considering the lack of competition.

You should play this game if’¦

‘¦you are interested in the western setting enough to ignore the average game that surrounds it.

Final Score

A first person shooter that is underwhelming and has too many issues to be considered more than average despite the appealingly unique western setting and feel.

(What does this score mean?)

Images: source