Hi strangers, I'm new in town and I'm up to no good. I'll die with the boots on. Seriously, I don't know what the magic of this game is but I love Call of Juarez.
So move yourself to the Wild West, times of duels in the high noon, bank robberies and gold rush. Face legendary gunslingers and take part in spectacular gunfights and horseback chases.
For me it was my father -since he was a TRUE fan of America's Old West movies-, who cemented my liking for western movies and the far west theme and games like this make me think that I was right in doing so.
Have you ever heard about a game which appeals both to casuals and hardcore gamers definitely running at more than 30 fps with gigantic scenarios plus great graphics? I really couldn't answer this question but there aren't many games like Call of Juarez in that regard.
Besides the fact that the graphics of this game are worth seeing, those genious of Techland have created one of the best next generation engines I've ever witnessed in a game.
GRAPHICS
Gorgeous. You will be amazed at the huge vistas that appear, old west villages surrounded by the far-away mountains, everything nestled within the beautiful countryside, the detailed foliage, the rocks and the trees.., among other things.
The textures are HIGHLY detailed and you'll find yourself stopping every now and then to admire the environments. Oblivion -even patched by interested gamers- for PC does look very empty in comparison, especially the far off surroundings.
You'll know what I'm talking about once you climb Eagle Rock to the top, from where you can see for miles and miles of breathtaking landscapes. You can even see the pollen, not in the beak of a bird of course but floating around.
The game runs at a rock solid framerate (many thanks Quaz and Dave Glue), I might add, which is a deciding factor for some people.
SOUND
The music is great sometimes. The sound is quite functional overall. It's nice done and very realistic. Great voice acting also, especially Reverend Ray and most other characters except Billy Candle. The actor that plays him talks too fast like he is in a hurry, I didn't like that.
STORY
Not the most amazing story ever. It involves a search for a hidden treasure, the lost gold of Juarez, as well as a tale of the hunter (Reverend Ray) and the hunted (Billy Candle).
You alternate between playing as Billy Candle and Reverend Ray, in a crossed ways fashion, the way both characters' stories intertwined is very well done.
CHARACTERS
Reverend Ray: As I already pointed out time ago, he is one of the coolest videogame characters of all time, in my opinion.
He is an old man, a talented gunslinger who now spreads the voice of the Lord. He is not only a great gunslinger but also he excels at bible slinging (a tribute to Clint Eastwood's movie "Pale Rider"), a feature meant to distract enemies.
I love his quotes (is it ancient english? Just curious.... I don't live in an english speaking country -Europe has many languages and my mother's tongue is a minority language- so english isn't my mother's tongue, therefore I am not sure.
I perfectly understand what he says but I've never heard quotes like -- "For every one that doeth evil hateth the light".
Holding a bible in one hand, spouting religious stuff, and shooting badasses with a gun in the other is so fun and original... I love that.
It does help a lot the quality of the voice acting, it's as good if not better than any game out there.
The actor who voices Reverend Ray sounds so professional and believable with the effective and smooth expression in his voice. Hollywood stuff -it's not hype, people, trust me-.
Billy Candle: He is a loser and that's it. I have a weakness for some kind of "losers" but this one is too much of a loser. He doesn't stop complaining until the end of the game. His voice acting is average at best. I still can't say I dislike his missions, though.
There is a "hidden character" once you finnish the game and some extra missions which could perfectly be part of the campaign mode because of their quality. Techland are new developers and you can notice that they are EAGER to please customers and for that, franky, I'm thankful. The extra missions are challenging and interesting.
I wish them good luck with their future games and stuff.
GAMEPLAY
CoJ is a standard FPS with some stealth and platforming elements, a pretty decent AI and a strong personality. The game is so fun, it appeals to hardcore gamers like me and more importantly it's also "casual gamer proof".
A friend of mine played the first two chapters of the story mode a month ago or so for a couple of hours straight. He rarely plays games except from time to time and for that I mean once every two months (mostly soccer games).
Last week he wanted to play "that gunmen game" again, multiplayer mode this time. He must've played for 4-5 hours straight (that's not an exaggeration people) Firstly learning the mechanics while having fun and then playing every single MP mode, it is so addictive.
Earlier today he asked me to play MP again, he spent two hours playing with other people.
MULTIPLAYER
After the juggernaut that is Halo 3 arrived I thought the multiplayer wouldn't seem as special but as weird as it sounds I am not playing Halo online nowadays but CoJ instead. The multiplayer of this game doesn't feature as many MP modes as Halo but it's funnier!
The game offers up four character classes with individual characteristics for online play; the rifleman, the gunslinger, the miner and the sniper.
The rifleman is the "universal" class, a good overall character. The gunslinger is the fastest character when running and he also reloads guns faster than any other class. The miner is a decent gunslinger with lots of dinamite charges. The sniper.., well, he is the good ol' sniper we all know.
MP mode is full of varied, well thought maps that make things interesting. You take part in typical western situations such as train and bank robberies, chases, town gunfights... etc.
There are a lot of good maps; some of my favourites are Mississipi and its spectacular horseback chases -Capture the Bag mode especially-, Den, Twilight... and many other maps which I can't remember of. There isn't a single mediocre map.
It also features the Famous Events mode in maps with the following names: the Fall of Dalton Gang (1892), Showdown at Stinking Springs (1880), Gunfight at the OKCorral (1881), Head'Em off at Panoche Pass (1853), Wilcox Train Robbery (1899), Robbery of Jessy James (1876) and really fun mp modes like Wanted or Goldrush plus the classic team deathmatch (Skirmish) and the standard deathmatch, of course.
It's my favourite X360's game and I would score it with a 9, but reviewing games is not my job and I love Eurogamer so here it is my favourite and, imo, perhaps the most accurate review of this game:
http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=78707
p.s. It took me a LOT of time writing and editing this post. What a relief I finished it.
So move yourself to the Wild West, times of duels in the high noon, bank robberies and gold rush. Face legendary gunslingers and take part in spectacular gunfights and horseback chases.
For me it was my father -since he was a TRUE fan of America's Old West movies-, who cemented my liking for western movies and the far west theme and games like this make me think that I was right in doing so.
Have you ever heard about a game which appeals both to casuals and hardcore gamers definitely running at more than 30 fps with gigantic scenarios plus great graphics? I really couldn't answer this question but there aren't many games like Call of Juarez in that regard.
Besides the fact that the graphics of this game are worth seeing, those genious of Techland have created one of the best next generation engines I've ever witnessed in a game.
GRAPHICS
Gorgeous. You will be amazed at the huge vistas that appear, old west villages surrounded by the far-away mountains, everything nestled within the beautiful countryside, the detailed foliage, the rocks and the trees.., among other things.
The textures are HIGHLY detailed and you'll find yourself stopping every now and then to admire the environments. Oblivion -even patched by interested gamers- for PC does look very empty in comparison, especially the far off surroundings.
You'll know what I'm talking about once you climb Eagle Rock to the top, from where you can see for miles and miles of breathtaking landscapes. You can even see the pollen, not in the beak of a bird of course but floating around.
The game runs at a rock solid framerate (many thanks Quaz and Dave Glue), I might add, which is a deciding factor for some people.
SOUND
The music is great sometimes. The sound is quite functional overall. It's nice done and very realistic. Great voice acting also, especially Reverend Ray and most other characters except Billy Candle. The actor that plays him talks too fast like he is in a hurry, I didn't like that.
STORY
Not the most amazing story ever. It involves a search for a hidden treasure, the lost gold of Juarez, as well as a tale of the hunter (Reverend Ray) and the hunted (Billy Candle).
You alternate between playing as Billy Candle and Reverend Ray, in a crossed ways fashion, the way both characters' stories intertwined is very well done.
CHARACTERS
Reverend Ray: As I already pointed out time ago, he is one of the coolest videogame characters of all time, in my opinion.
He is an old man, a talented gunslinger who now spreads the voice of the Lord. He is not only a great gunslinger but also he excels at bible slinging (a tribute to Clint Eastwood's movie "Pale Rider"), a feature meant to distract enemies.
I love his quotes (is it ancient english? Just curious.... I don't live in an english speaking country -Europe has many languages and my mother's tongue is a minority language- so english isn't my mother's tongue, therefore I am not sure.
I perfectly understand what he says but I've never heard quotes like -- "For every one that doeth evil hateth the light".
Holding a bible in one hand, spouting religious stuff, and shooting badasses with a gun in the other is so fun and original... I love that.
It does help a lot the quality of the voice acting, it's as good if not better than any game out there.
The actor who voices Reverend Ray sounds so professional and believable with the effective and smooth expression in his voice. Hollywood stuff -it's not hype, people, trust me-.
Billy Candle: He is a loser and that's it. I have a weakness for some kind of "losers" but this one is too much of a loser. He doesn't stop complaining until the end of the game. His voice acting is average at best. I still can't say I dislike his missions, though.
There is a "hidden character" once you finnish the game and some extra missions which could perfectly be part of the campaign mode because of their quality. Techland are new developers and you can notice that they are EAGER to please customers and for that, franky, I'm thankful. The extra missions are challenging and interesting.
I wish them good luck with their future games and stuff.
GAMEPLAY
CoJ is a standard FPS with some stealth and platforming elements, a pretty decent AI and a strong personality. The game is so fun, it appeals to hardcore gamers like me and more importantly it's also "casual gamer proof".
A friend of mine played the first two chapters of the story mode a month ago or so for a couple of hours straight. He rarely plays games except from time to time and for that I mean once every two months (mostly soccer games).
Last week he wanted to play "that gunmen game" again, multiplayer mode this time. He must've played for 4-5 hours straight (that's not an exaggeration people) Firstly learning the mechanics while having fun and then playing every single MP mode, it is so addictive.
Earlier today he asked me to play MP again, he spent two hours playing with other people.
MULTIPLAYER
After the juggernaut that is Halo 3 arrived I thought the multiplayer wouldn't seem as special but as weird as it sounds I am not playing Halo online nowadays but CoJ instead. The multiplayer of this game doesn't feature as many MP modes as Halo but it's funnier!
The game offers up four character classes with individual characteristics for online play; the rifleman, the gunslinger, the miner and the sniper.
The rifleman is the "universal" class, a good overall character. The gunslinger is the fastest character when running and he also reloads guns faster than any other class. The miner is a decent gunslinger with lots of dinamite charges. The sniper.., well, he is the good ol' sniper we all know.
MP mode is full of varied, well thought maps that make things interesting. You take part in typical western situations such as train and bank robberies, chases, town gunfights... etc.
There are a lot of good maps; some of my favourites are Mississipi and its spectacular horseback chases -Capture the Bag mode especially-, Den, Twilight... and many other maps which I can't remember of. There isn't a single mediocre map.
It also features the Famous Events mode in maps with the following names: the Fall of Dalton Gang (1892), Showdown at Stinking Springs (1880), Gunfight at the OKCorral (1881), Head'Em off at Panoche Pass (1853), Wilcox Train Robbery (1899), Robbery of Jessy James (1876) and really fun mp modes like Wanted or Goldrush plus the classic team deathmatch (Skirmish) and the standard deathmatch, of course.
It's my favourite X360's game and I would score it with a 9, but reviewing games is not my job and I love Eurogamer so here it is my favourite and, imo, perhaps the most accurate review of this game:
http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=78707
p.s. It took me a LOT of time writing and editing this post. What a relief I finished it.
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