Conclusion
Time to sum up Call Of Juarez and make a decision on whether it’s worth buying or not. When I started playing and saw the gritty, realistic recreation of the Old West, I had high hopes for Call Of Juarez. Sure, the Billy-stealth sections were a tad tedious and relying on quick saves isn’t my idea of fun, but I was willing to put all these aside as the Reverend Ray sections were a lot of fun.
But the more I played Call Of Juarez, the more I realized that I was only playing through the Billy parts to be able to play Reverend Ray again. It was then I realized that I didn’t actually give a damn about the Billy parts and they were becoming a chore to play. It felt like I was twelve again and had to tidy my room before being allowed out down the park with my mates. Billy had become the hoovering I had to do before I could go down the park on my BMX of Reverend Ray.
Click for larger imageAnd that’s what really kills Call Of Juarez, the massive difference between the two types of play. The Reverend Ray sections are just so much more fun than the Billy parts that all they do is highlight how much less Billy is. To be fair, the Billy sections do become less frustrating later on but by then you’ll just be wanting to get through them to get to Reverend Ray blasting away again.
Click for larger imageWhat Techland should’ve done is make the Billy levels a third-person affair. This would’ve added much more variety to Call Of Juarez and would’ve made the stealth sections that little bit easier. Add in the long load times and you’ve just killed what fun there was. In fact, if I’m going to be totally honest, I’d can the stealth altogether and just focus on making a credible Old West inspired first person shooter. We need a new one of those. Call Of Juarez tries to appeal to too many genres at once and even though the gun slinging Reverend Ray is a success, he’s dragged down by Billy. Sad to say, but unless you’ve got an uber-PC and the patience of the Pope, this is one to leave alone.
Pros
Looks great (provided you have the ‘oomph’)
Lots of Old West realism
Hints of Unforgiven
Great gunfights
Cons
Billy/stealth levels frustrate
Needs a Cray (almost) to run well
Looooooooooooong load times
Characters talk too damn much
Auto-save from hell
A flawed gem.
HEXUS Awards
Call Of Juarez
