Call of Juarez

The original and bold, Call of Juarez draws you into it’s brutally clichéd Wild West adventure complete with a fun online mode, interesting story, gritty violence, and authentic gun play.

It's easy to look at Call of Juarez and see a game split down the middle, one half great and the other horrible, but to give it the credit it deserves, such a bold use of divided narrative just about makes it worthwhile for the most part with the style of both sections always perfectly in character and the ever switching perspective from hunter to hunted driving the game along even when the on screen action becomes less enjoyable.

Anyone looking for the next great western-themed game will no doubt adore Call of Juarez. The switch between characters adds depth and variety and the addition of multi-player gives the game legs outside of finishing the single-player adventure.

Most importantly the game is FUN in a way that immerses you completely in its cheese ball single player adventure.

Considering there have been so few western action games over the last dozen years or so, anyone who's a fan of this style owes it to themselves to at least give Call of Juarez a shot.

The dual-protagonist storytelling manages to be both compelling and original, the multiplayer is a guns-blazing good time, and the entire aesthetic (not just the graphics, mind you, but the art direction, music, and sound) will have you ordering up a good sarsaparilla in no time.

At any rate, call of Juarez is a solid, serious and pleasantly woven first-person action yarn with a lot of value on the disc. [July 2007, p.64]

Like a lot of grumpy Eastwoods, Juarez treads the line just West of parody with Ray's juxtaposition of gravely scripture one minute, and then little red circles with lines through them hovering over whiskey bottles the next.

Incredible atmosphere. [Issue #22, p.84]

While not a purchase for everyone, it's still a solid if not groundbreaking game with just enough fresh ideas to make the game fun to play.

The outright fun this game brings should result in a higher score, but the gameplay snafus on Billy's missions really weight it down. I still highly recommend this game to FPS and Old West fans, though.

Refreshing, and sure to delight all those men with no names out there. [Aug 2007, p.71]

There's plenty of extra goodies to keep you busy if you like to eke out every scrap of play-time for your money, but multiplayer is a fairly token addition that is underwhelming and under-populated as a result.

Take two doses of Clint Eastwood badassness, a great Old West story, a slight bit of cheese, and the occasional frustrating misstep in level design, add them all together and you have Call of Juarez in a nutshell.

A game not afraid to take chances and have fun with itself. The atmosphere is excellent, thanks to a great cinematic score and a great variety of gameplay including horses, dueling, stealth and flat-out action.

Playing as Billy isn’t bad but you’ll start feeling like Reverend Ray should have been the real star of the game. In the end, the single-player game just doesn’t hold a candle to the enjoyable online multiplayer.

Despite the flaws, Call of Juarez is a decent effort from Techland that is definitely worth a look.