GamesRelay

Name: Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood

You would be forgiven for not thinking “Yet another western” but rest assured there isn't half as many Western era games as there are movies. Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is the prequel, not sequel, to the first game, which was released back in 2006 on PC and later the 360. Being set in the Western era is slightly refreshing to a point, having a different graphics style, from the landscape to the buildings and clothing; it's something we rarely see on any format, so it makes a nice change from your usual action – first person shooter.

Being a gun-slinger is most boys' childhood dream from watching the old westerns in the 60's and 70's, for the more mature folk. In Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood you get to play as one of two brothers, Thomas McCall or his older brother Ray. The two brothers have deserted the confederate army to defend their family home and head west with their other brother William McCall. The McCall's hear of an Aztec treasure in the bandit-infested area of Juarez, Mexico, and while the brothers make some unsavory choices and alliances during their hunt for treasure, at heart, all they want to do is rebuild their family home which was destroyed by a Yankee invasion. As you start the game with Thomas, your goal is to fight your way back to Ray using an assortment of period specific weapons including rifles, pistols, explosives, cannons and even an emplaced gatling gun just to name a few. In between the 15 chapters of the game, the load screens act as more of a storyboard with William narrating the plot with sketches to help describe the situation, the game has a good story to keep you attached to the characters and motivates you on to figure out what is going to happen next.

Most of the levels throughout the game give you the opportunity to play as either Thomas or Ray, while the other acts as a sidekick, similar to how Army of Two works. The two brothers have their own distinct advantages, Thomas is like Indiana Jones of the Western era, climbing around the environment with a lasso and using his rifle to take down enemies from afar, where as Ray is more of an up close, get down and dirty in the grit of it all with his six shooters, William however is not playable, and since he's a priest, you would probably be blessing people more than blasting them.

The original Call of Juarez had a pretty good story with some good action in for good measure, but what really let the game down were its stealth sequences. Thankfully the prequel Bound in Blood, throws this out of the window and replaces it with gun-toting blockbuster type action. Whichever brother you decide to use in battle, you don't need to worry about the story being different. Regardless of which you choose, the gameplay pans out pretty much the same, bar a few sequences where your skills are used for a certain purpose.

The brothers abilities should really stand out and set the characters apart, but unfortunately they don't. Where you use Thomas' cunning stealth ability for a silent kill, Ray is the type of character that you can just run and gun with, but because Thomas' plays nearly the same, you get the impression that the stealth ability is not really needed when you can just run and gun like you would with Ray. It's a shame really, but if they had tried to implement the awful stealth action from the previous game where it was forced upon you more often than not, then this review might probably be totally different.