Rating of
3.5/5
Old Shooters Don’t Die…
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/02/16
“Call of Juarez” is the debut title in a new FPS franchise from Techland, which launched way back in 2007 as a multi-platform Xbox 360/PC release. At the time, this was a fairly novel way to go about releasing a game, but as we have seen, multi-platforming was the wave of the future (now the present). Ubisoft must have seen potential in “Call of Juarez,” as that mega-publisher has picked up the three sequels Techland produced. But the question remains, is this Wild West take on first-person shooting any good?
Presentation
“Call of Juarez” was released in 2007, and is thus rather old by gaming standards. A few generations ago, a game reviewed 9 years after release would typically get hit by lots of mealy-mouthed qualifiers, such as ‘it looked good for its time,’ or ‘it hasn’t aged well.’ I’m not a believer in this type of non-committal nonsense. A game either looks good, bad, or mediocre, and it will ALWAYS look good, bad, or mediocre. “Call of Juarez” is a mix of good, bad, and mediocre. Environmental graphics look really great, though there are noticeable draw distance issues that cause trees on distant mountainsides to magically appear and disappear. Character models look mediocre, in that the models are nicely stylized as in later entries in the franchise, but their textures and animations are distinctly sub-par. However, “Call of Juarez” should receive special praise for including a number of little touches that newer, ‘better’ FPSes don’t even bother with, like the ability to see the player character’s shadow and the ability to look down and see their torso and legs as well. I’ve seen this style of first-person design called ‘immersive mode’ by modders in ‘The Elder Scrolls’ scene, and I would definitely like to see more of it… I just wish the animations in “Call of Juarez weren’t so bad as to immediately negate the added immersion of having a visible body and shadow.
The audio in “Call of Juarez” is mostly very good, with one major ding against it. The soundtrack is pleasantly evocative Western fare that is always appropriate to the action. The voiceacting is likewise incredibly solid… with the exception of one of the main characters, Billy, who sounds like a rank amateur reading his lines for the first time.
Technically, “Call of Juarez” is mostly solid. I did encounter a few crash to desktop moments, but not a huge amount. The game also has fairly horrendous load times, especially considering that I played it off a SSD, both at the beginning of each stage, and at specific points mid-stage. The biggest technical faux pas Techland made with this game is the fact that it doesn’t feature native Xinput support. While it is still possible to play using a third-party controller mapper (and I wouldn’t use an Xinput controller anyway, favoring my Hydra instead), there are generally a lot of questionable decisions with regard to the control layout, for example the fact that the main shooting button is mapped to the off-hand weapon when dual wielding instead of the main-hand weapon, and the fact that picking up new weapons requires the player to hit a different number key depending on the weapon type instead of just simply hitting the ‘use’ button.
Story
“Call of Juarez” tells the intertwining tales of two people in the Old West. One, Billy Candle, is a down-on-his-luck half-Mexican teenager who has returned home to his family after failing to strike it rich on his own. The other, Reverend Ray, is a reformed gunslinger-turned-preacher. Billy’s and Ray’s stories intertwine when a series of events results in the deaths of Billy’s parents (who are also Ray’s brother and sister-in-law), and a cryptic message scrawled in blood, the titular Call of Juarez. Ray thinks Billy is the killer, while Billy unthinkingly flees the scene, resulting in a long and grim chase that sees both hunter and hunted stumbling into a number of classic Old West scenarios.
In the game’s lore, Juarez is a town near the Mexican border, which is surrounded by rumors of a stash of hidden Spanish gold. Billy initially left home in search of this treasure, and as it turns out, Ray’s own past intersected with Juarez as well.
“Call of Juarez” plays out over 15 chapters and takes approximately 10 hours to complete. The chapters and the narrative regularly flip between Billy’s perspective and Ray’s perspective, sometimes covering the same events. The result in an interesting layered narrative that kept me interested and engaged for the game’s entire duration.
In addition to the solid, if not entirely original, storytelling, “Call of Juarez” features a number of hidden wanted posters. Collecting all of these simply unlocks Very Hard Mode, which is useless, but the posters themselves deserve a mention, as they feature pictures of the game’s development staff, with humorous, self-deprecating lists of their crimes. Finding all of the posters is worthwhile for the chuckles at the very least.
Unfortunately, the PC version of “Call of Juarez” is incomplete. The Xbox 360 version got several bonus episodes as free DLC, but these aren’t included in, or even available for, the PC version.
Gameplay
“Call of Juarez” combines a large number of gameplay mechanics into a single game, but divides them thematically between the two characters. Billy’s stages primarily focus on Stealth and Platforming, while Ray’s stages focus primarily on Shooting and Duels. Billy has exclusive access to two weapons that play into his strengths – a bullwhip for grappling onto tree limbs in order to cross gaps, and a bow for silent takedowns. Ray’s exclusive items are a bible (which can apparently distract enemies, but I never figured out how to get it to work) and an armor breastplate that can deflect incoming bullets. Each character also specializes in one weapon to the point of adding a ‘bullet time’ effect when using it (Billy’s bow and Ray’s dual revolvers).
In general, Ray’s stages feel more polished and focus on the game’s core as a FPS. Billy’s platforming is often flaky (as first-person platforming tends to be), and it can be difficult to get him to whip-swing across simple gaps on the first try (which gets even more annoying when he’s being shot at while attempting it), and the range on the bullwhip feels a bit short. Billy’s stealth segments can also be tedious due to enemies’ random movements and inconsistent line of sight. Of course, Ray’s stages aren’t 100% fantastic either, as enemies can be very difficult to see and have incredible accuracy from impossible range. Of course, the worst part is that the game’s hit detection for solid objects is incredibly flaky. I distinctly saw – on multiple occasions – enemy bullets flying straight through boulders and masonry in order to hit Ray. The shooting gameplay is further marred by the fact that “Call of Juarez” predates the common use of iron sights for aiming, instead performing a minor, useless zoom for most weapons, which doesn’t help much when the base accuracy for every weapon is fairly sloppy to begin with. “Call of Juarez” also features an annoying mechanic that causes guns to eventually wear out if they’re fired too much. The guns Ray (and to a lesser extent, Billy) finds come in a variety of starting conditions, ranging from ‘rusty’ to ‘prime,’ but taking the time to seek out the well-hidden high-quality weapons doesn’t amount to much when the characters’ loadouts get reset to whatever the game wants at the beginning of each stage. I rarely ran into situations where my guns ran out of durability, but even having that worry lingering in the back of my mind was an annoyance. Finally, “Call of Juarez” is old enough that it was released before regenerating health was a staple of FPS gameplay. Both Billy and Ray have 100 hit points that can only be recovered by guzzling bottles of whiskey that both drop from defeated enemies and are placed at set points in each stage, with a single bottle restoring up to 50 HP.
Finally, I’d like to touch upon dueling. Having previously played the fourth game in the series, “Call of Juarez: Gunslinger,” I was disgusted with the nonsensical dueling mechanics and expecting more of the same nonsense in this original game… but instead I found really excellent dueling! Instead of focusing an annoyingly floaty reticule upon a target, “Call of Juarez” simply provides a countdown before asking the player to move the target cursor down (to simulate reaching for their gun) before bringing it up and moving it quickly into firing position. Not only did this original take on dueling work much, MUCH better than the version used in the latest game, the way the draw-and-aim mechanic interacts with my Hydra controller makes for an incredibly intuitive and immersive experience.
Overall
“Call of Juarez” isn’t perfect, but it’s a solid FPS that blends-in a variety of non-shooting elements and small details to create an engaging experience. The use of bullet time and the well-designed duels go a long way in negating the sloppy shooting and semi-permeable rocks. Anyone who likes Westerns and FPSes should feel confident in picking up this game the next time it goes on sale.
Presentation: 3/5
Story: 4/5
Gameplay: 3.5/5
Overall (not an average): 3.5/5
