Set as a prequel to the original Call of Juarez game, this game tells the story of Ray and Thomas McCall and the breakdown of their relationship through greed, jealousy and gunplay.
When playing this game, it feels as though everything has been done to make you feel as though you are taking part in a Western. Grand sweeping vistas, riding galloping horses through sun dappled canyons, blazing away with six-shooters against bandits who are trying to doing the same to you... and it mostly works very well.
At the beginning of most levels the game gives you the choice of playing as either of the brothers. Ray is the gruff dual pistol-wielding dynamite throwing brother, while Thomas is better with long range weapons, sneaky throwing knives, and is also more agile as he can climb over obstacles using a lasso. However, the game seems more suited to relentless action rather than the sneaky stuff. This is exemplified by the Concentration Mode feature; you shoot bad guys to fill your ‘concentration gauge’ (which is designed to look like the chamber of your six-shooter). This enables you to trigger a sixty second ‘bullet-time’ period to encounter some more bad guys and blow them away in a suitably dramatic fashion. A similar slow motion mode is adopted on the occasional set piece when you surprise a group of bad guys and with careful aiming of the reticule and careful trigger fingers you can clear a room with a blaze of bullets.
Boss battles take the form of a quick draw against a similarly armed opponent. To win, you have to keep him centred in your sights as you circle around one another using the left stick, whilst simultaneously keeping your right hand as close to your gun as possible without touching it using the right stick, then finally draw and fire when a bell tolls before your opponent does the same. As a mini-game it is fiddly but the brief brutal nature of the confrontation fits the mood of the game. It also helps that the game autosaves before the standoff, so it doesn't feel quite so unfair when you are occasionally the one with a bullet in your gut and you have to try again.
Despite the game being a fairly linear shooter, there are a couple of sandbox levels that give you the opportunity to ride a horse around and take side missions. Sadly these sections feel like a diversion from the main plot and there is a temptation to ignore them just to get on with the story.
As far as multiplayer options go, it's surprising that there is no co-op mode, given that the game is based on two brothers’ adventures. Perhaps this was a conscious decision given the nature of some of the game’s solitary levels where one of the brothers goes it alone, but it seems a shame. There's fun to be had on Live with a collection of multiplayer games. Rather than play as either Ray or Thomas you get to choose the character type you play and have access to different weapons. The character types may be upgraded between games and more specialized character types may be unlocked using money earned by taking part in games, and more can be earned by winning (obviously) and completing in-game objectives.
This game isn't perfect though and here's a list of gripes: As well-told (and acted) as the story is, the McCalls almost ever-present and God-fearing (but non-playable) brother William (who seems to want to act as your conscience) has a mildly annoying and whiny voice, and really got on my wick. Some of the scenery is absolutely stunning, but you don't have to stray far from the beaten track to discover textures that look horribly stretched or unfinished. The lack of a co-op mode is a real miss, especially considering the game's scenario and how popular co-op play is right now. Bad guys have astonishingly good long distance aiming, and always seem to spot you before you can get a shot at them, coupled to this, some enemies are incredibly difficult to pick out from the background - we haven't played Bound in Blood on a CRT but at times it must be a nightmare. And finally, whilst the sandbox sections add a nice change of pace, they don't quite fit with the main storyline; one minute you're in a real hurry to catch up to someone or be somewhere, the next you're riding around on your horse looking for completely unrelated cattle rustlers. However, none of these complaints take too much away from what is a essentially very good game.
Yes, Bound in Blood is another first person shooter that doesn't really provide a great deal more than any number of other first person shooters on the market right now, but the Wild West setting and the odd gimmick here or there make it a lot more fun than being just another WWII soldier or a gruff Marine, shooting aliens in some dystopian future.
Minimum requirements:
Windows XP (with SP3) / Windows Vista (with SP1)
Intel Pentium 4 3.2 GHz, Intel Pentium D 2.66 Ghz, AMD Athlon 64 3500 +
1 GB for Windows XP / 2 GB for Windows Vista
Graphics card with 256 MB RAM, compatible with DirectX 10.0 or DirectX 9.0c with Shader Model 3.0 - supported cards: NVIDIA GeForce 6800/7600-7950/8600-8800/9600-9800/GTX 260-280, ATI RADEON X1650 - 1950/HD 2400-2900/3650-3870/4650-4870
4 GB of disk space
Sound card compatible with DirectX 9.0c
DVD-ROM
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