Call of Juarez: The Cartel

The story is decent but lacks a spark. Supporting characters and dialogue are flimsy and uninspired. Shooting is solid – especially the slow-mo moments – but that pretty much exhausts the topic of the core gameplay elements. I have to admit though dual wielding is fun. There are a couple of car chases that were supposed to raise your adrenaline level but their execution is poor. And there are bugs and run-of-the-mill graphics that add to the smell of low budget that hangs over The Cartel. I hope Call of Juarez 4 returns to the Wild West, because it seems that's where Techland feels much more confident. [August 2011, p.42]

Sub-Par shooter that has its rare moments when playing the co-op campaign. Otherwise, a bottle of Tequila is more fun.

The new look of the popular Techland francise it isn't enough to reach the shooters standard quality. Just the cooperative represents a good feature to enjoy the story.

It's depressing to think that Techland took a popular franchise, came up with some brilliant ideas for a new entry, and then botched the execution-but that's exactly what happened.

Perhaps with more development time, The Cartel would have been a more compelling experience but, with a game engine that's showing its age, a confused new identity and a fair few technical issues, it falls sadly short of most FPS fans' high expectations.

Call of Juarez: The Cartel is a poor videogame. Gameplay lacks in term of precision and variety; graphics is distant from the top of this gen.

Call of Juarez: The Cartel isn't going on any short lists for 'Game of the Year', but not every game has to be a complete masterpiece.

The game is shot down by bugs, poor design choices and dreary presentation.

Some distinguishing features give this shooter a touch of class, but bugs and execution flaws cast a long shadow over Call of Juarez: The Cartel.

A perfectly decent game (although in no way spectacular), with a three-player drop-in co-op mode and the characters' different secret agendas adding some replay value. But all the way through, the abandonment of the Western theme nags at you.

There's just not enough at stake to make this secrecy worthwhile.

The original Call of Juarez had something that had not really been explored, particularly in modern titles. Moving into modern times without maximising the modern gunslinger character this is just another run of the mill first person shooter.

Call of Juarez: The Cartel doesn't add anything special to the FPS landscape except for the three-characters storyline, with a mediocre and unpolished technical production. A big step backwards compared to Bound in Blood, and departing from the old wild west setting didn't help.

Quotation forthcoming.

As long as you know this game has nothing to do with the Wild West and don't mind playing just another mindless FPS game with a vulgar script it's probably worth a rental, or possibly a budget purchase if you have some really low standards.

On the whole, Call of Juarez: The Cartel had the potential to be a fantastic game. The plot's many twists and turns would have been superb if it wasn't for the game's poor execution and the multiplayer could do with improving. Nevertheless, it's still a solid game. If you're looking for something to fill the time during the summer drought, this is the title for you.

The Cartel has some charm, style and can be fun. Unfortunately it's not a good game - mediocre at best and the developers should work on it for several more months. Maybe then gang fights wouldn't be so frustrating and embarrassing. Techland has produced a low quality game but fortunately it doesn't make your brain permanently damaged. We wait for another delivery and redemption in the form of Dead Island.

Call of Juarez: The Cartel, isn't a very good game when you get to the basics. Its low production values and simple gameplay drag the experience down, while an erratic pace to the storyline makes it worse.

Compared to the previous Call of Juarez titles, The Cartel is a colossal disappointment.

It's almost as if Techland rushed this through testing merely to get back on Dead Island development…which would make sense if they had an idea how bad this game was getting.

The Cartel is a mediocre game. Something disappointing because we know the Call of Juarez saga, with much better games and far superior action.

The convoluted story is almost pretentious in its efforts at complex character development.

It's your basic shooter without any impressive features and that's the problem: It's a game that doesn't stand out from the rest. It feels like the game was developed with an idea, but the idea wasn't executed to its fullest.

It may be time to close the saloon doors for good on this one – we've just witnessed the fall of Juarez.

Far from polished enough. We miss the Old West.

Taking the series out of the Wild West has stripped The Cartel of character. While I understand Techland's desire to move forward, its lost its edge. In a crowded genre, The Cartel is solid, at times fun, but ultimately uninspiring.

The Cartel has some interesting ideas behind it. However, too many of them are dependent on co-op, and even with them, long stretches of the game feel like boring, soulless slogs. More damagingly, the charm and sense of fun from the earlier games is largely gone, replaced with what appears to be a desire to ape the low-fi look and grittiness of Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days.

The Cartel isn't a Call of Juarez title; it's an extremely average paint-by-numbers shooter channelling the Juarez fanbase for a modicum of credibility it simply doesn't deserve.

It's shallower than the shallow end of a kiddie pool during a drought, and dammit, it's such a disappointment, because the series has delivered compelling storylines and settings, if nothing else, up to this point.