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- Innovative Western-Themed Multiplayer
- Dual Collaborative Gameplay
- Become a Gunslinger
- Experience the iconic settings full of outlaws
Product Description
The prequel to the Wild West action shooter Call of Juarez. As the McCall brothers, players enter a doomed quest for the legendary Gold of Juarez leading them from a ravaged Georgia during the Civil War to the Aztec ruins of Mexico. They make their lawless trail into the wildest West ever depicted, using their gunslinging skills and killing all of those that stand before them. But when the brothers face lust, their bond of blood feels thinner than ever… More >>
Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood
02/02/2010 at 4:20 pm
TechLand and Ubisoft have reteamed for Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, an origin story of Reverend Ray, his brothers and their quest for gold with more action than the first game. Bound in Blood is a rather complex tale that once again raises the specter of revenge and cursed treasure, amongst a backdrop of the western frontier.
Players are introduced to Ray and Thomas McCall, two brothers in the Confederate army that desert their posts to save their family home from Union soldiers. Seeing the destruction of their land and swearing that they’ll rebuild their property one day, the McCalls head west to seek fortune and glory. However, going AWOL infuriates their former commander, who declares that he’ll hunt them down to the ends of the earth for their abandonment of the Confederate cause. Fleeing both the Confederate troops on their heels and various lawmen from some of their illegal activities throughout the country, the McCalls eventually connect with the Mexican bandit leader Juan and his concubine Marisa, who has information regarding the treasure of Cortez. The McCalls will also have to deal with the Apache, whose connection with the gold could potentially threaten the entire West.
It may sound convoluted, but the story is told rather well and all ties together in the end, providing a solid background for the events of the prior Call of Juarez game. Like the previous title, you’ll play as either Ray or Thomas, and you’ll have the option to choose which brother you’d like to play as for most of the game. As far as fighting is concerned, the two McCalls have completely different gunslinging styles. I’ll say no more.
The multiplayer of Bound in Blood is expanded from the original game, featuring thirteen character classes that you’ll eventually be able to play as once you unlock eight of them by winning multiplayer matches. Each character class has a variety of weaponry, but also has different health and speed stats as they are deployed into battle. As you kill other players during a battle, you’ll receive money during that match which can be spent to upgrade that character’s stats.
As a prequel, Bound in Blood does a good job of presenting the characters, their storylines and what eventually leads back into the franchise history. It also packs in a ton of fast action, loads of explosions and a heavy dose of duels against opponents that want to see you in the dirt.
Rating: 4 / 5
02/02/2010 at 6:55 pm
This game is definitely a large improvement from the last but like similar titles GUN and Red Dead Revolver it lacks the depth in open environments and game play. Its story line and extras are definitely well put together and its an entertaining game that I would recommend as a rent first before buying.
Rating: 3 / 5
02/02/2010 at 9:42 pm
Call of Juarez starts out strong during the civil war. You play as the McCall brothers, who must make a crucial decision – stay in the war or desert to try to save their family. It’s a storytelling method that works well – you get some diversity, able to play as either brother. There’s a third brother, William, that tags along on a number of missions, too. He’s a priest, however, so he believes in nonviolence.
The gameplay is pretty good. The weapons are fairly balanced, and you get to upgrade by collecting money left by the dead. You can also do a few special side-missions for some extra money. Throughout the game, I alternated between brothers. I’m not sure if this is the best or most desirable way to play, but it does offer for some replay. My only complaint about the game is the use of the duel. It’s pretty cool at first, but it’s used against every boss. If it didn’t have this, I’d probably rate it a 5. I found it a little hard and cumbersome, and sometimes just repeating it a few times wasn’t a lot of fun.
The graphics were good but not great. I really enjoyed the sound – the gunshots, the score, voicework, etc., were all great.
Overall, this game was very enjoyable.
Rating: 4 / 5
02/02/2010 at 10:21 pm
Call of Juarez: BiB is a great game for anyone who enjoys single-player first person shooters on the 360. It took me about eight hours to play through this game.
The environments looks fantastic and, if not anything else, are a great change of pace from most current FPS games. Most of the voice acting and dialog is pretty good (except for some from the Native American characters and a few lines of laugh-out-loud sexually-oriented dialog). The story is interesting and the McCall brothers are well developed characters (for a video game). Using some of the placed weaponry (canons, Gatling guns) is a lot of fun.
As someone who games quite a bit, I noticed that there are a couple of minor things that hold the game back a bit..
The quick-draw mechanic can be infuriating. Basically, your character stands on-screen for what seems like an eternity while you wait for a bell to ring, at which point you flick the right analog stick and fire, hoping to hit your opponent before he hits you. The main problem with this is that if you screw up, you reload the fight and end up standing there again for what seems like another eternity as you wait for the bell to ring. Another problem (which could easily just be me) is that by the time I got to the second quick-draw, I couldn’t remember what controls to use because I’d been through a good 1.5 hours of additional regular FPS shooting and the game didn’t bother to remind me in any way after I’d managed to lose the draw about ten times in a row.
Another issue is that auto-aim and sticky-aim can be turned on/off, but cannot be set to a specific sensitivity. Further, these settings seem to behave quite differently depending on which playable character is being controlled. I personally prefer to have little or no auto-aim, but it does help on some console shooters. This game either has it on full blast or not at all.
Lastly (and this is an issue in Call of Duty too), the computer players have better throwing AI than the NFL quarterbacks in Madden because they can practically throw dynamite into your lap from twenty to forty yards away without much trouble.
So, I would recommend that you buy this game for PC (if you are a hard-core gamer who prefers no auto-aim), or buy it for 360 once the price comes down to about $35. I have no comments on the multiplayer because I did not try it out and don’t plan to do so with so many high profile FPS games coming out in the next two months.
Rating: 3 / 5
02/02/2010 at 11:58 pm
GREAT GAME UNTIL I COMPLETED ABOUT 1/3 OF THE GAME. I GOT TO ONE OF THE CHAPTERS AND IT WOULD NOT LOAD THE NEXT CHAPTER. STILL TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHY IT WON’T LOAD, BUT IT WAS GREAT UP TO THIS POINT.
Rating: 3 / 5