Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood

Call of Juarez Bound in Blood is a relic of its past. It's the game designed for 7th-generation consoles in the time when developers kept churning out below-average PC ports that had intensely claustrophobic FOVs, lots of blur that messed with the player's view, and copious amounts of screen shake that sometimes was so intense it felt nauseating. The former can at least be solved by installing a mod, which I am very thankful to the modder for, given that, according to them, it was a huge pain to implement.

Even with the FOV out of the way, one can't help but see all the other 7th-gen mechanics that make the games of that era so reviled. Cover systems, scripted sequences (lots of them), and, specific to this game, companions that make the experience feel mildly like a never-ending escort mission. Playing this game on a PC in 2021, as more games actively embrace the higher skill ceiling of FPS players on the platform, feels pretty jarring, to say the least.

That said, this game does have some noticeable highlights.

The setting instantly differentiates the game from other 7th-gen console shooters that typically focused either on WW2 or the contemporary conflicts of the time. Described by the developers as sort of an inspirational mishmash between classic and spaghetti westerns, it definitely leans towards the latter as gunplay sacrifices authenticity for the sake of flow and dynamicity. The McCall brothers blast single-action revolvers like they're six-bullet Glocks, and the game does embrace the absurdity of the combat somewhat by also giving them special abilities that help the player trounce through the shooting galleries of enemies. Both emphasize the different gameplay mechanics of the two protagonists: Ray, who dual-wields the weapons, specializes in explosions and prefers to come in guns blazing, got the ability that has the player mark the enemies on the screen to then end them in one fell swoop, while Thomas, who's agile and uses long-range weapons like bows and rifles, insta-locks onto the enemies and has the player pull the hammer, killing them one-by-one.

Character differences play out not just in-game, as the story at its strongest explores their relationship on the quest towards finding the medallion, the series' MacGuffin. The brothers' desertion from the Confederate army drives both to the life of crime, as their younger brother, William, tries to be the voice of reason and direct them away from the path by preaching Christianity and reciting the Bible. The spiritual undertones are prevalent in the story as the overall conflict is essentially portrayed as the McCall brothers straying further from God as the story goes on, ending up finding him in the tragedy that happens during its most climactic moment.

Although it's not preachy whatsoever, Christian themes do bring to question the story's various moral judgements. The game was entirely written by a white Polish team of developers drawing inspirations from multiple western movies, so some of the bad stuff can probably be attributed to that, but the game slips a lot when it comes to addressing race politics of the time. It does acknowledge those things, McCall family being former members of the Confederate army and likely owning slaves, while Barnsby, the game's villain, justifies his motifs by wanting to restore the Confederacy and being extremely racist, but the themes are never addressed meaningfully. Worse, the portrayal of Native Americans in the game is not good, as they are for a solid 70% of their presence portrayed as savages and targets to shoot, and the subplot involving two Apache members of the cast resolves in one of them turning peaceful by essentially realizing that he was racist against white people.

Christian ideals in question also preach not being corrupted by material possessions, yet one thing that is lumped in with those moral corruptions ends up being a woman who is the romantic interest of both main characters of the game.

The romantic subplot itself sucks and is the worst part of the game, as the misogynistic writing shines in its incredibly corny segments that interject the story cutscenes and rarely the gameplay moments where the supposedly tense situation abruptly turns into a badly written romantic exchange between her and the main character. This does sour the experience midway through the story quite a lot, although it's easier to tune out of it somewhat by the end of it as the core conflict wraps up and leads towards the dramatic resolution.

Call of Juarez Bound in Blood did not age quite well. The 7th-gen FPS shenanigans keep reminding the player of themselves, and the plot has some pitfalls, which, admittedly, are not unique to the titles of that era. Still, I feel like the game has an ounce of genius in it, and I'd probably suggest it to someone seeking to revisit or experience the better of the 7th-generation console shooter wave outside of the massive titles that defined it.

really solid from start to finish with great gun mechanics and good pacing. never feels boring or forced. fun fun fun

7/10

Its pretty weird considering how big the western genre is popular in films, but there have been very few games that sucessfully translated that feeling into a game. I feel that this series hasnt quite done it as smoothly as it should, it feels more like an FPS with a western skin instead of a proper western game. But more than that, its just a really mediocre game despite the cool ideas.

You play as the two titular brothers and you take turns playing with either of them throughout the chapters of the game. They have different weapons and abilities, but they are not vastly different gameplay experiences. Unfortuantly the story is about a treasure hunt and they couldnt write compelling characters in the game, which makes it really hard to care about the story.

Visually its solid but far from being impressive, since it looks like an early 7th gen title and yet it came out in 2009. Way too many greys and greens.

The gunplay is solid itself, but the poor enemy AI and their bs aim make the fights get too repetitive. Its clear from the autoaim how this game is primarly design for the consoles and not the pc, but i dont mind that too much. Also dislike the standoff moments. They are really clunky and they were the moment when i had most trouble with the game.

Still fun to play, but Gunslinger took this concept and improved virtuosly everything about it.

The original Call of Juarez was a creative and artistic endeavor that unfortunately lacked the polish of a triple-A title. With an expanded budget, longer development period, and newfound familiarity with Xbox 360 hardware, developers Techland were given an opportunity to expand on what they achieved in the first game. Bound in Blood rather than serving as Call of Juarez 2.0, outdating its prequel (which is actually its sequel in terms of narrative), turns out to be a companion piece to the former title. I think this is something to be applauded in an industry where sequels often feel like expansion packs that only update a successful format. It’s hard to call Techland daring however, because Call of Juarez has always brought comparisons to the Call of Duty series and this time it fits.

Bound in Blood is a great example of why prequels are often favored over sequels. Instead of being caught up in a narrative that reaches further back then new comers can take in, such as in Halo, Bound in Blood tells its own compact story yet offers emotional depth to those who played the original. Being a prequel, the story follows the three McCall brothers from exile in the Civil War to treasure hunting in the South. The real reward for playing the first game is seeing the relationship of the brothers and how the characters of the original Call of Juarez came to be how they are. The game’s story still isn’t worthy of film adaptation, but in the realm of first-person shooters it is among the very best. Each character is believable, their actions make sense, and the drama is interesting. There is a cheesy villain but that’s hardly enough to call the story a misfire. Like the first game, Techland have done an excellent job of evaluating what makes a Western a Western and avoided slavishly copying established films, like Gun and Red Dead Revolver did.

The original Call of Juarez was split between a dark Western narrative and an Indiana Jones lighthearted treasure hunt. This provided a great balance in narrative, atmosphere, and gameplay. Sadly, Bound in Blood is much more typical of the FPS genre. From beginning to end, you are playing a straight up Call of Duty clone. With that said, it is by far the best I’ve played. There are memorable set pieces, fun on-rails sections, and a great variety in weapons. There are also two chapters (out of the 15) that leave the player in an open world which feels like Far Cry 2. I liked these portions a lot and the freedom it gave the player to quit at any time. It doesn’t make up for the absence of adventure and exploration levels that the first game contained, but it helps give the game an identity in this crowded genre.

Also note-worthy is the new cover system which doesn’t work like any I’ve played before its release. Rather than pressing a button to latch onto a wall, you just walk up to an object or wall and you will automatically cling to it. This feels incredibly awkward for the first hour or two, and you’ll die a lot because of this new cover system. After the steep learning curve, I found this cover system really fun and preferable to the Gears system. It helps ground the game in reality and help the player think of the battlefield in a logical manner. Once you start acting as you would in real life, by going to a corner and slowly peaking out, it works very nicely. I think many will continue to fault this system, mainly due to how used to the Gears system we’ve become. It also suffers from a lack of polish, but I’d love to see the Call of Duty games adopt it.

There are two other places of innovation in Bound in Blood. The shootouts of the former game have been rebuilt from the ground-up, and are all the worse for it. While the original had you press a button in response to a countdown, Bound in Blood requires a much more complicated input. One stick will move your character and the other will move your characters hand. The goal is to keep the enemy in site while keeping your hand close to your holster but not too close. It often feels like you are piloting a helicopter in Grand Theft Auto, which isn’t a compliment. The other big feature is the multiplayer which is surprisingly original and fun. It lacks the depth of Team Fortress 2, but it entertained and became addictive for a short while. I especially like “Manhunt” mode which turned VIP mode from Counter-Strike into a sport, where there is a back-and-forth momentum between teams. This is made possible by only scoring points for defending the VIP, not shooting him. Shooting him only gives you the VIP to defend on your team, much like football or tennis.

The graphics are outstanding in Bound in Blood. This is the first next gen Western that really pushes the hardware to create impressive Western vistas. The character models also look pretty good. Where the game’s presentation suffers is in the animation which is really terrible. Graphics aren’t everything and when you compare the stiff animations to what Naughty Dog have done in the Uncharted series, it seems like generational leap between the two. The voice acting makes up for this and helps sell you on the characters. There is only one glaring flaw in the casting, which can be found in the Native American character voiced by Dante Basco (who voiced Prince Duko in the Avatar series). The voice just doesn’t match the character, and every scene with him just feels incredibly awkward. Thankfully he doesn’t have the biggest role, but it’s still a noticeable flaw in the game.

Bound in Blood doesn’t quite have the variety or creativity of the original, but it’s a successful genre exercise that brings some new things to the table and wraps them all up in an enjoyable story. We rarely see story taken seriously in the FPS genre, even though Half-Life 2 has been its poster boy for the past decade. Bound in Blood is pushing the medium forward in this respect and shows us that there is no excuse for distanced, incoherent plot that every other FPS has been paired with. It’s sad to see Techland ditch many aspects that made the original so great, but at least they went all out in making Bound in Blood a Call of Duty clone worth remembering.