Call of Juarez

Long before Polish developer Techland S.A. found their true fame with Dying Light games, they've developed a number of titles, and Call of Juarez being one of the most well-known: a series of Westerns (neo-Westerns in case of CoJ: Cartel) in a videogame form.

I have to say, that Westerns are near and dear to my heart with Dollars Trilogy starring Clint Eastwood being among my most favourite movies. I think it'll be fair to say that the early 2000s were a prime time for westerns, with Gun, Red Dead Revolver, Desperados 2, Dead Man's Hand, and first Call of Juarez coming out in a span of 2-3 years.

So, was it any good? Let's find out.

Story:

It's 1884, Wild West in its prime and we're playing as Billy "Candle" - a Mexican boy, who reluctantly returns to his hometown after his unsuccessful attempt to find "Gold of Juarez". Why reluctantly? Well, his step-father Thomas hates him, his step-uncle hates him, the sheriff hates him, and even the salon owner where Billy's childhood friend Suzy works hates him too.

The only person who will be happy to see him and who he will be happy to see is his mother. Well, too bad it wasn't meant to be and he finds his parents murdered and their farm burning. Oh, and there's "Call of Juarez" written with their blood.

At the same time, Reverend Ray McCall - a brother to Thomas - Billy's step-father and our second protagonist is informed about gunshots heard on Thomas's farm. He rushes there and sees Billy, fleeing the scene. Mistakingly assuming that Billy is the killer, he goes on a crusade believing he's sent by God to deliver "righteous justice" to Billy.

So starts the story, where we're gonna switch from one protagonist to another. With Billy trying to get to Mexico and Ray following him everywhere he can.

Billy is cowardly and still trying to find out who he is and his place in this world.

Ray is a madman with a dark past, fighting his demons and finding solace in faith.
 
The story is nothing extraordinary, it's linear and somewhat predictable but still fun (and easy) to follow.

Graphics:

For a game from 2006, it still looks nice. The game presents you with the option of using either DX9 or DX10 modes, with the latter providing more options for better graphics.

Maps still look great, with a bit of variety present as well. You'll visit towns, farms, canyons, deserts, forests, mountains and mines.

The atmosphere is on point: heat haze in deserts almost makes you feel how hot it is out there, and gentle sunlight piercing through clouds gliding in the sky relaxes you in a quieter moment. 

Character models are fine and decently detailed.

Gun models are great, and newer guns have that metal shine, while older ones are covered in rust.
 
 

There are a couple of things that you have to keep in mind.

Textures do look a bit old at this point, which is not a big surprise, but you can remedy it with a mod or two.

Animations (including facial) are pretty much non-existent. In cutscenes, characters mostly move like wooden dolls.

LOD is not that great, and you'll often see objects change or disappear right before your eyes, especially in more open locations.

Screen tearing is quite bad, and there's no native vsync option. No matter what you do, if you use fullscreen mode, you'll see it. I've searched the internet, and in the end, I had to resort to using the 3rd party tool named "D3DOverrider" which forced the vsync.

Also, despite using the right resolution and fullscreen mode, the game had those annoying "cinematic" black bars, so I had to use a mode to remove them.

Gameplay:

Since the game has two protagonists, there's a bit of variety in gameplay.

Billy is more nimble, so he takes more damage from enemies, but he's more agile and can use stealth.

In levels where you play as Billy, you'll be using a whip for platforming and a bow & arrows for stealth sections.

I have mixed feelings about stealth in this game. There are two types of stealth: mandatory and optional. The thing is, that you can only use the bow in optional stealth sections, but since they're optional, they're quite easy and there's no reason to be stealthy other than for your amusement.  Mandatory ones are annoying at best. If you get spotted, it's a game over.

In your lower right screen, there's a character icon with a number of hit points you have, which doubles as a stealth indicator, but it's pretty much useless. Why it's useless? Well, because you can't be seen only in the dark or in the foliage. Except all the mandatory stealth sections happen in broad daylight with only a few places to hide.

Whip is useless outside of platforming. The bow is a god-tier weapon. The bow slows down time when aiming, allowing you to hit targets accurately. Arrows are limited, but you can always get your arrows back from the enemies you killed.

Ray is one mean and hard son of a gun. His armor allows him to tank a lot of damage, but he's slow and can't climb anywhere.

In Ray's levels, you'll be fighting large-scale battles, killing a ton of enemies, and engaging in honorable duels.

Ray can use concentration mode, which slows down time and allows you to kill a lot of enemies in a short span of time. It would be fun to use it, except it's so unintuitive.

First of all, you have to holster your revolvers. A dumb thing to do mid-fight. Then you press a button and look at two crosshairs slowly appearing in both lower corners of your screen and slowly moving towards the center. Who the hell thought that this was an acceptable way to do this? I'm not Pennywise, I can't make my eyes look on opposite sides. 

It's safe to say I only used this a couple of times.

Ray also has a Bible, which he can wield in his right hand. Why would you use it over the gun? It's cool, for 5 minutes or so. The thing is, Ray only has about 5 or 6 Bible quotes, so using it gets annoying pretty quickly. Supposedly, using the Bible "stuns" or scares enemies, but I haven't noticed that being a thing.

Level design is okay. Despite the game being super linear, there were times when I had no idea where to go or how to do something. Yes, you do have a compass which shows you the direction you need to go. But it can't help you in some moments. I'm not asking to mark the right way with the yellow paint, but a more clear indication would be nice.

Overall, gameplay is fun-ish, doesn't matter what character you're playing. A couple of episodes dragged on longer than I would've liked.

Bugs and physics:

Physics is quite weird. Half-Life 2 came out in 2004 and showed us how intuitive physics can be. Chrome Engine is not the Source, that much is clear. Those rare times when you had to stack boxes or climb somewhere were frustrating.

Weird collisions either stopped characters from grabbing ledges or pushed objects into each other. One time glitched a box into the other, prompting it to be thrown in my direction, killing me as a result.

The game crashed once in episode 4 upon picking a gun in my left hand, which is a well-known bug.

Audio:

The soundtrack is varied: the music changes depending on the situation: chases, shootouts, dramatic scenes, and calm moments all have their own tracks. I loved some of the tracks but didn't care about others.

The voice acting is mostly great if a bit theatrical: the actors get into their roles, and although Billy can sound a bit monotonous, Ray with his fanatical monologues and Bible quotes is simply outstanding.

Other characters are fine and mostly doing a solid job.

Despite being a budget title from 2006, with no expectations, Call of Juarez has a soul. It's not perfect by any means: dated textures, wonky physics, and other minor cons. But it still delivers a solid 6 hours of gameplay in a believable Wild West setting.

Techland S.A. since then went on to do some great things, giving us both Dead Island and Dying Light games, as well as releasing three more games under the "Call of Juarez" name.

If you like Westerns, don't mind a little bit of jank, and have a couple of bucks for a one-time adventure, you should buy this one.