Call of Juarez (Xbox 360)
Ubisoft goes back to the old west for this game in a story of redemption and lost treasure. So saddle up and let's check it out.
The game begins with Billy, one of the main characters, returning to his hometown of Hope. He had left two years previously, running away from a step-father who beat him consistently. So he escaped, and set out to find the lost gold of Juarez. After spending the two years with no luck, he returns, immediately making his way to his mother's cabin. But when he arrives there, he finds his mother and step-father murdered outside of the barn with the words "call of Juarez" written in blood on the door. As Billy appears at the farm, though, Reverend Ray, the other main character, arrives just in time to see Billy standing over the bodies of his parents. Wanting to clear his name, Billy immediately runs, and the Reverend chases after him trying to bring down the person he's sure committed the crime.
Your basic movement is controlled by the joysticks, with the left moving your character's body and the right looking around. The D-Pad is where you draw, holster, and select all of your weapons. Since the game is in an old western setting, a lot of the weapons can be dual-weld, so both triggers control the firing, with each trigger controlling it's respective hand. Or if you are on a heavy-mounted gun, the left trigger will let you aim closer, while the right still does the shooting. Otherwise, clicking the right joystick will zoom your aim with your regular guns.
The left bumper controls the Reverend's kick, as well as either character throwing any weapons, and the right bumper can be held and used in unison with the left joystick to be able to lean your character left or right. A jumps, X let's you pick up objects in the world (which you can either set back down with X, or throw them with the right trigger), and Y reloads whatever weapon you have drawn.
With the game having two main characters, there are certain moves that are exclusive to each one. With the Reverend, you can switch to a quick-fire mode using the B button, which will place his palm over the hammer of the gun allowing him to switch to the next chamber in the barrel much faster. The reverend also has a quick draw that can be used if his guns are holstered, which can be activated by pressing either trigger. Lastly, the right stick controls the Reverend's gun-draw during shooting duels, but I will go more into that in the next section.
In the Reverend's chapters, the sole focus is gunplay and chasing down Billy. As soon as you take control of him, the game hints at a past for the Reverend in which he was a feared gunfighter, and initially you think it can't be true at all, as his only weapon is his Bible (and if you're holding it and press the fire button, he will begin quoting scripture). But early on, he decides the Word of God won't be enough to bring down justice, and decides to take it into his own hands.
He wields dual revolvers, and the ability to quick-draw during gun duels, as well as wield both guns simultaneously to lay waste to a line of enemies in front of him. Drawing both guns from your holster activates the Reverend's focus ability which slows down time and brings up dual reticles on the screen. The two reticles slowly move towards each other, meeting in the center of the screen, allowing you to fire off as many rounds as you can before they join together. He is also the only character that is able to kick down weakened and older doors, which comes in handy when chasing Billy or someone else through a closed off house.
In Billy's chapters, your focus leans more towards stealth and escape. While Billy is a good shot, since he's being accused of murdering his parents, he tends to try and keep things quiet and stay away from gunplay. There are numerous areas where he must sneak through avoiding detection completely, or else be forced all the way back to the beginning of the area. While you're sneaking your way through, though, the character icon in the lower portion of the screen will change to all black if Billy is completely hidden.
Billy can use the same weapons as the Reverend, but he has two that are exclusive to him in the game. One is the whip, which can be used to swing over branches to either cross gaps or lower yourself to a ledge below you. The whip can also be used as a weapon, killing most enemies in one or two hits. Also exclusive to him is the bow and arrow. You can fire it just like any other gun, or if you press the left trigger to aim precisely, it slows everything down a little bit much like the Reverend's focus ability when drawing both guns from the holster. Lastly, Billy has the ability to climb up on ledges and pull himself up to higher places, simply by jumping into them and as long as you're close enough, he'll automatically grab on and climb up.
Other than these differences, the game plays exactly the same for both characters. The story is broken down into episodes, and each of these broken down into levels. They are all very linear and don't allow too much for exploration. The only real example of this is during Billy's stealth levels, you'll come to bigger areas that allow for a few different options for traversing through.
All of the guns take damage and wear down over time from use. Once a weapon is close to breaking, it's icon will begin flashing red. You can swap it out at anytime by snagging one of your downed enemies weapons, otherwise if you continue to use it, the gun will jam up and explode in your hands. Your weapon choice is split between single-hand guns, which are just the revolvers, or two-handed guns such as rifles and double-barrelled shotguns. You can also pick up sticks of dynamite to either lob off like grenades, or if you utilize the Reverend's focus ability, you can light one up and shoot it out of the air.
Aside from the gunplay, there is a very minute aspect of puzzles in the game, but it is focused completely in the platforming. There are certain areas you need to reach that aren't easy to get to, so you must utilize boxes and crates in the environment and stack them in a way so you can climb up them and reach your goal.
Just about all your enemies in the game are other people, but there are some areas you go through where you'll have to fight off a number of wolves. And the boss fights are limited to the various gun duels that the Reverend takes part in, which I will go into more in the next section.
So, Call of Juarez is a pretty good game, with a unique way of telling the story. But is it challenging?
Starting with the enemies, as I just said above, most of your enemies are other people. There are no special gimmicks to any of them like brutes or armored enemies, nothing like that. They all are just regular people, firing at you regardless of which character you're playing as, and taking cover as they need to. They aren't easy, but they aren't difficult. Their biggest strength is their numbers, as long as you take care of yourself they shouldn't prove to be too difficult. The wolf enemies, however, are pretty easy. They only attack you in the woods, and only after you hear a howl letting you know that they're coming. So there's no surprise, and they only come at you in groups of a few.
The platforming is fairly easy on the surface, but it is far from perfect. Most of the areas where you have to build yourself a makeshift climbing surface aren't level at all. So the challenge not only lies within stacking things properly, but also making sure that the environment isn't working against you and letting the crates slide off of themselves.
Billy's stealth areas are what present the largest challenge in this game, although to be fair, the challenge only comes from the lack of checkpoints in these areas. You'll either find yourself having to sneak through a few consecutive areas while avoiding detection, or in one area where you have multiple things you need to do; for instance one of the stealth sections requires Billy to steal a horse. You need to sneak onto a farm, avoiding being spotted by the farmer, find your way to the stable only to discover the horse doesn't have a saddle. To get it, you need to sneak inside his house, get the saddle, and carry it all the way back to the stable. But, the only way out of the house is to poke out far enough to see where the farmer is which most of the time results in you being detected.
The boss fight/gun duels are a little difficult to get used to at first, but they are pretty easy to pick up. They all start with the Reverend facing off against his duel opponent, and a timer counts down. Once the timer reaches zero, something in the environment goes off marking that it's time to draw and shoot. It could be the bell in the clock tower in town, the whistle of the train, anything in the area. You draw your gun by flicking the right stick down, and then back up (mimicking the motion of the gun draw) and, depending on how smoothly you've done it, the reticle will either be ready to go in the center of the screen, or swinging wildly around the edges. After this, it's just a matter of ducking and weaving to avoid your opponents shots while you try to center your aim and hit him.
Overall, the challenge in Call of Juarez while not perfectly balanced, is spread out over all the areas of the game, some being more difficult than others. But before we get into the final verdict, let's take a look at what was good about this game, and what was bad.
- Unique storytelling method. Getting to experience both sides of the story play out firsthand is such a nice touch with this game. You get to feel Billy's desperation to get to the bottom of the truth, while at the same time witness the Reverend's narrow-minded determination to enforce the Will of God and bring down the man he believes he caught red-handed committing a crime.
- Stealth areas. While the idea behind them is fun and makes a lot of sense, the execution could have been done better. It's frustrating getting through the majority of the area, and being spotted sends you all the way back to the start. What makes it more frustrating is the knowledge that in the PC version of the game, you can make your own saves whenever you want, a feature that is sadly missing from the Xbox 360 version. If they had put it in, it would have made these areas infinitely better.
Just so everyone knows, I may be skipping the review next week as I will be hosting me and my fiancee's baby shower. I'll try to squeeze one in still, but if you don't see a new review next week, I will positively
The Story
Call of Juarez is set in Texas in 1882. There is a famed legend of lost gold that is rumored to have been used to pay the ransom of Montezuma who was being held captive by the Spanish. The treasure was held in the Aztec capital, but when the city was sacked it was nowhere to be found. Legend has it that the treasure ended up being buried by the city of Juarez. The legend goes on to say that the Aztec Sun God put a curse on the treasure, that whoever may seek it will only suffer insanity and perdition.The game begins with Billy, one of the main characters, returning to his hometown of Hope. He had left two years previously, running away from a step-father who beat him consistently. So he escaped, and set out to find the lost gold of Juarez. After spending the two years with no luck, he returns, immediately making his way to his mother's cabin. But when he arrives there, he finds his mother and step-father murdered outside of the barn with the words "call of Juarez" written in blood on the door. As Billy appears at the farm, though, Reverend Ray, the other main character, arrives just in time to see Billy standing over the bodies of his parents. Wanting to clear his name, Billy immediately runs, and the Reverend chases after him trying to bring down the person he's sure committed the crime.
The Controls
The game is an old-west first person shooter, and it comes with a control scheme that mostly reflects that.Your basic movement is controlled by the joysticks, with the left moving your character's body and the right looking around. The D-Pad is where you draw, holster, and select all of your weapons. Since the game is in an old western setting, a lot of the weapons can be dual-weld, so both triggers control the firing, with each trigger controlling it's respective hand. Or if you are on a heavy-mounted gun, the left trigger will let you aim closer, while the right still does the shooting. Otherwise, clicking the right joystick will zoom your aim with your regular guns.
The left bumper controls the Reverend's kick, as well as either character throwing any weapons, and the right bumper can be held and used in unison with the left joystick to be able to lean your character left or right. A jumps, X let's you pick up objects in the world (which you can either set back down with X, or throw them with the right trigger), and Y reloads whatever weapon you have drawn.
With the game having two main characters, there are certain moves that are exclusive to each one. With the Reverend, you can switch to a quick-fire mode using the B button, which will place his palm over the hammer of the gun allowing him to switch to the next chamber in the barrel much faster. The reverend also has a quick draw that can be used if his guns are holstered, which can be activated by pressing either trigger. Lastly, the right stick controls the Reverend's gun-draw during shooting duels, but I will go more into that in the next section.
The Gameplay
The majority of the gameplay of Call of Juarez takes place through first-person combat. There are two main characters in the game : Billy Candle and Reverend Ray. Each chapter focuses on one character or the other, letting you see the story play out from both perspectives. Regardless of who you're controlling, you have access to most of the same weapons, but with the abilities differentiating between the two.In the Reverend's chapters, the sole focus is gunplay and chasing down Billy. As soon as you take control of him, the game hints at a past for the Reverend in which he was a feared gunfighter, and initially you think it can't be true at all, as his only weapon is his Bible (and if you're holding it and press the fire button, he will begin quoting scripture). But early on, he decides the Word of God won't be enough to bring down justice, and decides to take it into his own hands.
He wields dual revolvers, and the ability to quick-draw during gun duels, as well as wield both guns simultaneously to lay waste to a line of enemies in front of him. Drawing both guns from your holster activates the Reverend's focus ability which slows down time and brings up dual reticles on the screen. The two reticles slowly move towards each other, meeting in the center of the screen, allowing you to fire off as many rounds as you can before they join together. He is also the only character that is able to kick down weakened and older doors, which comes in handy when chasing Billy or someone else through a closed off house.
In Billy's chapters, your focus leans more towards stealth and escape. While Billy is a good shot, since he's being accused of murdering his parents, he tends to try and keep things quiet and stay away from gunplay. There are numerous areas where he must sneak through avoiding detection completely, or else be forced all the way back to the beginning of the area. While you're sneaking your way through, though, the character icon in the lower portion of the screen will change to all black if Billy is completely hidden.
Billy can use the same weapons as the Reverend, but he has two that are exclusive to him in the game. One is the whip, which can be used to swing over branches to either cross gaps or lower yourself to a ledge below you. The whip can also be used as a weapon, killing most enemies in one or two hits. Also exclusive to him is the bow and arrow. You can fire it just like any other gun, or if you press the left trigger to aim precisely, it slows everything down a little bit much like the Reverend's focus ability when drawing both guns from the holster. Lastly, Billy has the ability to climb up on ledges and pull himself up to higher places, simply by jumping into them and as long as you're close enough, he'll automatically grab on and climb up.
Other than these differences, the game plays exactly the same for both characters. The story is broken down into episodes, and each of these broken down into levels. They are all very linear and don't allow too much for exploration. The only real example of this is during Billy's stealth levels, you'll come to bigger areas that allow for a few different options for traversing through.
All of the guns take damage and wear down over time from use. Once a weapon is close to breaking, it's icon will begin flashing red. You can swap it out at anytime by snagging one of your downed enemies weapons, otherwise if you continue to use it, the gun will jam up and explode in your hands. Your weapon choice is split between single-hand guns, which are just the revolvers, or two-handed guns such as rifles and double-barrelled shotguns. You can also pick up sticks of dynamite to either lob off like grenades, or if you utilize the Reverend's focus ability, you can light one up and shoot it out of the air.
Aside from the gunplay, there is a very minute aspect of puzzles in the game, but it is focused completely in the platforming. There are certain areas you need to reach that aren't easy to get to, so you must utilize boxes and crates in the environment and stack them in a way so you can climb up them and reach your goal.
Just about all your enemies in the game are other people, but there are some areas you go through where you'll have to fight off a number of wolves. And the boss fights are limited to the various gun duels that the Reverend takes part in, which I will go into more in the next section.
So, Call of Juarez is a pretty good game, with a unique way of telling the story. But is it challenging?
The Challenge (or lack thereof?)
In this game, the challenge is pretty well spread out over all the different aspects of it.Starting with the enemies, as I just said above, most of your enemies are other people. There are no special gimmicks to any of them like brutes or armored enemies, nothing like that. They all are just regular people, firing at you regardless of which character you're playing as, and taking cover as they need to. They aren't easy, but they aren't difficult. Their biggest strength is their numbers, as long as you take care of yourself they shouldn't prove to be too difficult. The wolf enemies, however, are pretty easy. They only attack you in the woods, and only after you hear a howl letting you know that they're coming. So there's no surprise, and they only come at you in groups of a few.
The platforming is fairly easy on the surface, but it is far from perfect. Most of the areas where you have to build yourself a makeshift climbing surface aren't level at all. So the challenge not only lies within stacking things properly, but also making sure that the environment isn't working against you and letting the crates slide off of themselves.
Billy's stealth areas are what present the largest challenge in this game, although to be fair, the challenge only comes from the lack of checkpoints in these areas. You'll either find yourself having to sneak through a few consecutive areas while avoiding detection, or in one area where you have multiple things you need to do; for instance one of the stealth sections requires Billy to steal a horse. You need to sneak onto a farm, avoiding being spotted by the farmer, find your way to the stable only to discover the horse doesn't have a saddle. To get it, you need to sneak inside his house, get the saddle, and carry it all the way back to the stable. But, the only way out of the house is to poke out far enough to see where the farmer is which most of the time results in you being detected.
The boss fight/gun duels are a little difficult to get used to at first, but they are pretty easy to pick up. They all start with the Reverend facing off against his duel opponent, and a timer counts down. Once the timer reaches zero, something in the environment goes off marking that it's time to draw and shoot. It could be the bell in the clock tower in town, the whistle of the train, anything in the area. You draw your gun by flicking the right stick down, and then back up (mimicking the motion of the gun draw) and, depending on how smoothly you've done it, the reticle will either be ready to go in the center of the screen, or swinging wildly around the edges. After this, it's just a matter of ducking and weaving to avoid your opponents shots while you try to center your aim and hit him.
Overall, the challenge in Call of Juarez while not perfectly balanced, is spread out over all the areas of the game, some being more difficult than others. But before we get into the final verdict, let's take a look at what was good about this game, and what was bad.
PROS
- Old west setting. It's a setting in video games that isn't done a lot, but isn't avoided either. It's seen a lot more notice in the newer console generations with games like Gun, Red Dead Redemption, and Dead Man's Hand, but going back prior to PS2/Xbox gen, there aren't a bunch. This one captures all of the good western feel with the looks of the towns, and the dual-wielding combat.- Unique storytelling method. Getting to experience both sides of the story play out firsthand is such a nice touch with this game. You get to feel Billy's desperation to get to the bottom of the truth, while at the same time witness the Reverend's narrow-minded determination to enforce the Will of God and bring down the man he believes he caught red-handed committing a crime.
CONS
- The game gets a little repetitive with the levels. It's understandable as you're playing as one character who's chasing the other character you play as, but it's a downside of the levels being as constricted as they are, you see the same level through two set's of eyes and nothing changes either way.- Stealth areas. While the idea behind them is fun and makes a lot of sense, the execution could have been done better. It's frustrating getting through the majority of the area, and being spotted sends you all the way back to the start. What makes it more frustrating is the knowledge that in the PC version of the game, you can make your own saves whenever you want, a feature that is sadly missing from the Xbox 360 version. If they had put it in, it would have made these areas infinitely better.
Final Verdict
In the end, Call of Juarez is a pretty great game. It's a fun setting, a good story, and a different way of telling the story that is well done. There are a few things about the game that could have been done better, but they don't really take away from the game itself. If you're a fan of old western settings, I definitely recommend picking this game up for your library.Just so everyone knows, I may be skipping the review next week as I will be hosting me and my fiancee's baby shower. I'll try to squeeze one in still, but if you don't see a new review next week, I will positively
