Call Of Juarez Bound In Blood, portrays you as the perfect 'Wanted Man' And lets you explore and tame the Wild West
The full, though compact, length of the story plays out in fewer than 7 hours, but it makes Bound in Blood stronger because there's no attempt to draw out the proceedings.
Some of the one-off set pieces – particularly the optional ones found in the "Free World" sections not connected to the main story line – are awesome. Forests, canyons, caves, mines, dusty wooden towns – the way developer Techland has textured and painted these areas completely jibes with how the American West looks like and feels in my own imagination. Maybe the outlaws had less dynamite and shooting accurately while on horseback is nigh impossible, but the fact it takes a long time to reload any of the guns; the priest uses the word "Savages" to describe the Apaches; and the voices sound so authentically gravely and dusty that I found it hard not to begin another run through the game just to see how the story might be filled in a little bit more by playing as the other brother.
In the next few weeks I'll be playing more of the multiplayer. Honesty being the best policy, due to my Xbox Live account expiring while I was out of town last month, I've put in only enough time to say that Brothers in Blood has multiplayer.
The fact the game has multiplayer makes me wonder why there's no option to play co-op through the story. The only part when the brothers are separated is during one of the final levels, but even then both Ray and Thomas are involved in parallel events. I think about how awesome it would be to have a buddy responsible for completely different objectives in a slightly different location that affects the outcome. As it is, you play first as Thomas retrieving horses for a quick getaway then as Ray to bust out the third brother, William, to get the full picture.
Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is one of those games that has "cult hit" written all over it – maybe it won't hit critical mass with a general audience but those that appreciate a good shooter and a well-told story should be happy. I'm in that camp for sure and I have no problem recommending Bound in Blood.
This game deserves a 9, for satisfying my hunger for such a great Western themed game.