Thanks to it's Western Setting, Call of Juarez feels alot more fresh than it would if it was set in WW2..
Playing as Billy was a real chore for the most part. The stealth is simply far too annoying and uneven to be enjoyable, and a lot of the time it felt far too dependent on luck and chance as to whether or not I'd get through a particular area or not. One sequence a couple of hours in that lasts a while has Billy having to sneak through a camp full of cowboys in the dead of night without being spotted, having to time movements so you aren't caught out in the open when lightning lights up the sky. It's frustrating and slow and was almost enough to make me give up on the game. The platforming bits with Billy are only slightly better, where you have to use your whip to swing across gaps and onto rocky outcrops on cliffsides. These are actually quite hard, as most jumps depend on Billy's ability to grab a ledge he gets near and pull himself up, but I found he only did this about 2/3 the time, leading to a number of unnecessary deaths. The Billy stages are slow, uneven, and a bit broken to be honest, and if the whole game was like this, it would have been awful to be honest. Thank goodness for the Ray levels.
The Ray levels in the game are mostly out and out gunfights, with loads of weapons to use and a handy 'quickdraw' function that slows down time for you to shoot multiple opponents quickly(A FPS cliche I know, but handy all the same). These stages are just fun to play, with some nicely large scale shoot outs taking place in a manner that does authentically capture the 'old west' feel perfectly and really is just how you'd want a game like this to be. There isn't much variety to your objectives in Ray's levels, true, but the Billy levels keep you wishing you were playing as Ray at least, so they do serve SOME purpose in that much at least. I will say that the 'duels' in the game aren't too great though, requiring you to time how you flick the left stick to shoot your opponent at the right moment, these feel unnecessarily tacked on when simply letting you use the regular controls would have been easier and more enjoyable in my opinion.
The game is visually quite nice, with decent textures and some nice, if unspectacular character models at work. The distance blurring effect is nicely used when aiming your gun, but things too far off in the distance look a bit poor to be honest. The sheer size of many of the game's areas also is offset by just how empty and lifeless these areas look and feel. You can literally travel miles on horseback in one level looking for a spot to hunt rabbits and you will see no other animals around anywhere and very little in the way of vegetation around. It feels a little too 'bare' in places(Oblivion it ain't). While not really an issue during desert areas, in the forested bits, it really stands out. Overall, the visuals are more than adequate, if not overly amazing.
The sound work is good on the whole though. Decent, authentic Western themed tunes, authentic and realistic gunshots and explosions on the go and some stellar voice acting(Especially from Marc Alaimo as Ray) make this an aural treat for cowboy buffs, and helps to compound the atmosphere of the game impressively, something which is all important for a game attempting to do what this one is.
I only briefly tried playing the game online, but had a lot of trouble with lagging and disconnects. Whether this is due to ongoing issues with this mode or if I just caught it at a bad time of day I don't know, but the experience left with no desire to revisit the multiplayer aspect. Besides which, the single player is sizeable enough, and there's a decent extra mission mode that extends things nicely, so it's worth what you'll pay for it nowadays if nothing else.
Overall, I had a lot of fun with Call of Juarez once I'd gotten past some of the annoying design flaws and bugs at work during the Billy sequences, and would recommend it to anyone with an interest in Western themed games.
The Good:
- It's not WW2
- Some gameplay elements are well done
- Voice acting is pretty decent
- Extremly cheap nowadays
The Bad:
- Stealth elements are boring and buggy
- Multiplayer feels Tacked on
- Apart from it's western setting it feels pretty much like every first person shooter
- Climbing that damn mountain.