Call of Juarez: The Cartel Image
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47

Generally unfavorable reviews - based on 12 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
3.5

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 168 Ratings

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  • Summary: Call of Juarez: The Cartel is the third game from the Call of Juarez series.
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Call of Juarez: The Cartel - Coopetition Trailer
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 12
  2. Negative: 6 out of 12
  1. Sep 9, 2011
    57
    If Techland would have called this one "Stupid shooter with pathetic characters full of cliché", it would have been less of a disappointment.
  2. Sep 9, 2011
    55
    The PC version of Call of Juarez: The Cartel is still a game that should be worked on for a couple more months. Some strange and unprofessional gameplay solutions and technical issues can surprise many Techland fans. We got used to the fact that this Polish developer makes some mistakes because they are hard to avoid with more and more complicated games. This does not explain, however, why The Cartel is so mediocre - the entire Call of Juarez franchise suffers from it.
  3. Sep 15, 2011
    55
    Call of Juarez: The Cartel proves that good ideas mean little when they don't have a solid foundation to support them.
  4. Jul 21, 2011
    45
    The game is generic at best, broken at worst, and falls short in its attempts to innovate cooperative play.
  5. Sep 16, 2011
    45
    A poor change of pace for the franchise. Taking the story into modern times seems to have robbed it of its passion and charm, replacing it with asinine characters and more cuss words than an Al Pacino flick.
  6. Aug 5, 2011
    45
    Although Techland brings some nice ideas into the Call of Juarez universe, the game ultimately fails to deliver because of a way too typical story, dated graphics, loads of bugs and a total misunderstanding of the concept 'Wild West'. The Cartel is a major step back for the franchise and we would have been better off without it.
  7. Nov 9, 2011
    35
    The Cartel's finest feature is a mess. Everything else is merely bland, repetitive, and dull. [Holiday 2011, p.80]

See all 12 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 31
  2. Negative: 25 out of 31
  1. Oct 16, 2013
    8
    This game ain't that bad. If you can feel the atmosphere in it then it's a beautiful game and you will have a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it.This game ain't that bad. If you can feel the atmosphere in it then it's a beautiful game and you will have a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it. I've been playing almost all first person shooters since Quake 1 (1996) and this is just another one with a great atmosphere. South of U.S. and Mexico in a hot sun and a lot of criminals. Expand
  2. Feb 20, 2019
    5
    This game is not a total disaster... if you play it with a friend in coop. Alone, I would probably give it 2/10, because I hate FPS games withThis game is not a total disaster... if you play it with a friend in coop. Alone, I would probably give it 2/10, because I hate FPS games with regeneration and lots of bugs. But in co-op you can survive it. The story is boring and predictable. The driving is awful, the bugs are everywhere, but the game was funny. If you want to play this, do it with another person. Alone this could damage you. Pickens rethinks his life choices. Expand
  3. Dec 4, 2011
    4
    oh wow.....just wow.....i never seen such a crappy AAA games and a game with passion turn out to be a horrible shooting game.The story feelsoh wow.....just wow.....i never seen such a crappy AAA games and a game with passion turn out to be a horrible shooting game.The story feels awkward,the gameplay is like i playing another shooting game,graphics was dated,swear-fest game and of course,$49.99 was totally burn out your money to waste this piece of crap.The worst Call of Juarez Series ever played,seriously,if you wanna buy this game,i totally not recommended,just go buy a game named Dead Island who make by a same company and a lot more fun. Expand
  4. May 31, 2013
    3
    This game fails at everything, it fails to represent whats really going on in the drug cartels, the casualties, the sex trafficking,This game fails at everything, it fails to represent whats really going on in the drug cartels, the casualties, the sex trafficking, (mexican's kidnapping American women? No, thats stupid, really risky and not nearly as profitable.. they are bringing Mexican women into American to sell as sex slaves), the blatant racist violence, level where you kill nothing but black men because... they live in a slum neighborhood and you're trying to start a turf war to destabilize the gangs? Yeah I suppose that could work
    BUT ITS RACIST.
    A achievement to kill as many black guys as possible in that level.
    It gets facts wrong like the phrase "Gold or lead".. thats not the real phrase, it's actually Silver or Lead and was coined by Escobar.
    The games about 3-4 hours and even that felt painfully long. Terrible controls, AI are stupid, they don't even know how to drive cars and the guns feel flimsy pee-shooters. The games design is for coop so all the good guns are now allowed for us singleplayers, not that I care enough to be angry.
    It's linearity wouldn't be an issue if it could back it up with a stellar narrative, but it's got a paper thin storyline with very weak justification for every new intel you find. Characters are stereotypical that you really care nothing for.

    Its probably one of the worst designed, short, boring, and misinformed games I've ever played.
    Why in the 7 hells does it have Call of Juarez in the title, I'll never figure out.
    Expand
  5. Apr 17, 2021
    2
    The only positive things about this game is Co-Op Campaign and the soundtrack.
  6. Nov 12, 2011
    1
    It has no 7.1 sound support so when I put on my headphones most of the time I don't hear anything or I get static. I searched this on googleIt has no 7.1 sound support so when I put on my headphones most of the time I don't hear anything or I get static. I searched this on google for a patch and there is none. Also it has bad 3D stereoscopic support; it at least runs in 3D but the shaders are in 2D. I thought well no problem, I'll just turn off the shaders like in MW2/black ops. In this game it isn't an option, and there are very few video controls in it either. I couldn't get into this game because of VERY POOR PROGRAMING. Check out CALL OF JUAREZ: BOUND IN BLOOD IT'S A GREAT GAME!!!!! Expand
  7. Oct 19, 2011
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I find it disappointing no one has pointed how utterly inaccurately the story paints the drug war that it comes off cartoonish and racist. The boring wave after wave of black and latino badguys, the achievement for killing 40+ black people in one level, this all has a damaging psychological impact that actually does decensitize it's player to the gory racial, and gender violence that is being committed, and without any honest context.

    This is the worst part. When you are chasing down the missing stripper, after strangling TWO OTHER STRIPPERS TO GET INFORMATION (this is so offensive, but it doesn't even matter because of what comes next), they paint the picture that human sex trafficking, one of the most heinous crimes in the world, has the cartel kidnapping American women and selling them in Mexico? Whoah. Whoah. Whoah. That has no basis in reality and is an INSULT to the women and children sold as slaves in the United States. It's Mexican women who are kidnaped and sold in the U.S. and other countries. To even entertain the opposite without recognizing the actual truth of it is so... brainless and I will say it. Misogynistic and Racist. I don't know if the game designers actually are stupid, bigoted and hate women, but they definitely think their audience is. Glad I didn't buy it and just watched some play through. No money should go toward this game. Ever.
    Expand

See all 31 User Reviews