Review: Call of Juarez

[Russ Pitts]

Review: Call of Juarez

Call of Juarez puts the player into the twin roles of Billy, a half-Mexican kid falsely accused of killing his kin, and Reverend Ray, Billy's uncle and gunman turned God man, who takes up the gun once again to hunt down and kill his nephew for falling afoul of the law; both God's and man's. It's an interesting juxtaposition, both in terms of gameplay and story, and one which, after ripening for a few levels, is quite impressive.

Read Full Article

 

[nbarbour]

I think it's easy to say that setting the weapons bar lower would help the game scale to the time period, but it's way easier said than done. There's all kinds of ways it would mess with the pacing and atmosphere of the original design plans. Or is that the point?

 

[Russ Pitts]

I'm not sure what you're asking, nbarbour. My point was that Western games pose an inherent difficulty to design because the "weapons bar" if you will, is already set so low, relative to other games. I'm not sure what's to be done about that and still remain true to the Western Experience.

Games like Darkwatch, which broke the mold in favor of offering an expanded experience are panned for not being "true westerns" and are kinda goofy besides. Darkwatch was a fun game (for 15 hours or so), but it was a bit anachronistic as far as Westerns go.

 

[Ian Dorsch]

I'm with you on this one, Russ. I liked Call of Juarez enough to finish it, but I'm a sucker for Westerns so I was willing to overlook the flaws you mention.

Funny that one of the more competent Western games of recent years comes out of Poland.