Wild West games have always been rather obscure efforts for some reason with only couple of higher profile names out there hogging the spotlight. I couldn't tell you why this is the case seeing as, unlike with pirate games, they don't really have the “simulations are anathema to mainstream population” justification the latter enjoys. This gave me great pleasure to finally finish Call of Juarez and oh boy, did it leave me conflicted.

Looking back on mid-late '00s when military shooters were all the craze seeing something like this attempting an actual story must've been a treat. What we actually have is a sequence of episodes rotating between two protagonists: evasive fugitive Billy and gunslinger reverend Ray. Or should I say we take control of protagonist as well as his personal antagonist because good old reverend is chasing after Billy after seeing him flee a burning ranch where Ray's own brother and wife were just killed. Billy's mixed heritage already raises flags in this time and place so it doesn't take long for the entire town to chase him out and for reverend to swear revenge.

Even keeping in mind the upcoming series of backstory revelations, character developments and twists, one cannot change his mind just how UNEVEN these two characters are. Maybe I'm biased as I clearly favored one gameplay style over the other, but Billy's incessant “it's not my fault, I gotta run” mentality started to quickly grate on me and his VA didn't help either. He seems out of place and is used as little more than a McGuffin carrier. On the other hand reverend Ray is that guy – gruff zealot who will stop at nothing until he kills his quarry. His episode narration full of fervor is what will unironically stick with me from Call of Juarez. Lord watches over him and he will not fail to monologue said fact along the way.

Since I brought up game structure I have to point out this is where I had a minor issue escalating into quite a distracting one. Even installed on SSD game takes ages to load and just as long to save sometimes. From what I've looked up it has to do with compiling map files as levels load in while saving is related to frame-rate and object physics spazzing out. Issue came and went randomly which is a problem using level setup where you have one big loading for the entire episode followed by smaller ones for sub-levels + autosaves, on top of whatever also affected manual saves you're doing on your end. You could probably remove good 15-20 minutes from my play time due to this, however. I regularly went and made a cup of coffee to pass the time.

So, gameplay. This is a FPS throughout, but developers don't lie when they bring up “adventure” in game's description. This... is not good.

It won't take you long to realize how this works – Billy is the sneaky type while Ray is guns blazing, pray later. This would make for great variety if not for couple of inclusions on Billy's end. I'm talking about platforming. Physics affected platforming. In a first-person shooter clearly not built for it. Let me tell you something – there were episodes where I almost rage quit the game, particularly towards the end where you end up climbing a cliff and relying on finicky whip and dodgy edge detection to pull yourself up. Falling means death and reloading. Another gameplay diversion breaking up the shooting is the ability to ride a horse which is something both characters get to partake in and feeds into timed chases. Surprisingly this didn't turn out to be a problem as long as you maintain vision on your target. Game tripping you up by throwing low visibility turns while you're galloping at full speed did, though.

Good thing is Ray's episodes function just fine because then it turns into a straightforward shooter with health and ammo pickups. He's the type to take guns from fallen enemies because you've used your own so much they broke down. Yes, there's weapon degradation and it made a difference exactly ONCE in the entire game with replacements are aplenty. There are two noticeable bumps with Ray – dueling mini-game at the end of almost every episode and GOD FORSAKEN last few episodes with him. Dueling is just clumsy as you have to manually draw your weapon and pray slow-mo aim is better than the other guy's while frantically leaning to dodge. End of the game drowns you in so many enemies you'll be grateful you're not Billy with your chestplate pulling double duty. And then there's shooting dynamite sticks from mid-air...

In my opinion game leans a bit too heavily on bloom saturation which gets in the way as you're trying to aim at things on the horizon, especially towards the end when you're in perpetual sunset level, but this could be due to playing the DirectX10 version. There's also an attempt at cost cutting by making characters use the same levels until about half-way point while giving each a different route as reverend is on Billy's heels and just barely missing multiple chances to catch him. Flipping the Bible open and seeing it confuse enemies just enough to pop them with akimbo revolvers did put a smile on my face, though.

Final Thoughts and Rating?

Awkward mix of adventure and FPS meets a rarely seen Wild West setting. As we follow runaway Billy and reverend Ray in a game of cat and mouse former's flimsy whip action and scaling cliffs gets him in more trouble than latter's shotgun and Bible thumping ever could. And yet, and yet. Despite this unevenness, as well as technical problems on the most basic level where loading and saving takes ages, I still liked the variety of gameplay styles included and story taking a turn away from revenge as cards are finally placed on the table. Call of Juarez is a game that could have definitely been better REALIZED, but what we got is fleshed out enough to break out of that dreaded “FPS in setting X” formula. It never managed to bore me even if some platforming bits almost had me giving up entirely. A near hit.