Product Description

Call of Juarez X360 South Texas, 1882 - Billy Candle has just turned 19 and he stands accused of murdering his mother and stepfather. Hot on his trail is Reverend Ray McCall, his stepfather's brother and an infamous gunfighter who believes the Lord has chosen him to be Billy's judge, jury and executioner. Call of Juarez is an epic western adventure about vengeance,survival and the search for a legendary lost treasure.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5356 in Video Games
• Brand: UBI Soft
• Released on: 2007-06-05
• ESRB Rating: Mature
• Platform: Xbox 360
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .53" h x 5.50" w x 7.50" l, .25 pounds

Features

• Play as two opposing characters - As Billy, use your bow and craftiness to sneak in and out of trouble; as Ray, stop enemies in their tracks with your preaching & take them down with your six-shooter
• Immerse yourself in the most authentic Wild West environments and scenarios ever experienced - Saloon brawls, train robberies, old-time shootouts and bare-knuckle brawling
• Encounter intelligent Old West enemies - they'll use their environments to their advantage, employ suppressive fire and work together as a group to shoot you down
• Take to the dirt roads on your horse & use real Wild West-era weapons -- from six-shooters to bows and arrows
• Multiplayer scenarios put you in the Old West's most infamous events, or lets you become a bounty hunter tracking down outlaws with a friend

Customer Reviews

A "Call" That Should Be Answered...
"Call of Juarez" joins recent games like "Gun," "Red Dead Revolver," and "Darkwatch" as yet another Western-themed shooter. Once a genre that scarcely seemed to exist, it is now quickly filling the Western-themed void that seems to exist in Hollywood. Like the aforementioned titles, "Call of Juarez" is very good at what it does, and ends up just shy of greatness -- but if you've a mind for more gunslinging', you can't do much better.

The plot behind "Call" sees half-Mexican troublemaker Billy Candle framed for the murder of his parents and seeking the lost treasure of Juarez that he might finally carve a name for himself in the world. Meanwhile, his vengeful uncle, Reverend Ray, a gunslinger turned man of God, is on his trail spewing fire and brimstone -- er, mostly just fire.

The storyline and characters are the best thing "Call" has going for it. You will alternate between playing as Billy and his self-righteous Uncle Ray. Billy excels at stealth, platforming, and archery, while Ray is Clint Eastwood incarnate with guns blazin'. The shifts in perspective provide a compelling method of building suspense and filling in the plot gaps, and both characters are so different from one another that each of their respective segments seems to represent a mini-game all its own.

Unfortunately, Ray is the by far the standout character. Billy has a decent arch and is fairly likable in his own right, but Ray is worthy of any "Top Ten Best Video Game Character" list -- and that's some tough competition. Clad in a leather duster and cruciform breastplate, he strikes an imposing image and is voiced to perfection. There's something inherently fascinating about a character that speaks to God and quotes the Bible between shooting people in the face. He's obviously crazy, and playing crazy is just plain fun.

Not only is Ray the best character, his sequences are generally more gratifying due to their action-packed content. He is considerably stronger and more durable than his nephew, and can use weapons that Billy can't even touch. He also has a concentration mode that helps him get the drop on his foes and is pretty useful in a pinch.

Billy, on the other hand, is more apt to avoid combat. His bow and arrow sequences are pretty satisfying, but few and far between. More often than not Billy finds himself trapped inside a first-person platformer mixed liberally with a first-person sneaker. The stealth segments are okay, and less reliant on trial and error than some games who make stealth their primary objective -- but it's been done much better in the past, to put it mildly. As far as the platforming sections go, they work as well as they possibly could given the first-person point of view, but it can be hard to properly line up jumps, and dying from an unplanned fall can be quite frustrating. He can use a bullwhip Indiana Jones-style, lashing on to objects and swinging across some chasms -- and though it works fairly well, there's still an awkward quality to it all.

That is not to say that some of Billy's missions aren't enjoyable -- they are. But Uncle Ray's blastapalooza trumps it in spades. The only downside to the gunplay is the wonky decision made by the developers to have certain firearms overheat and break in the midst of a battle. You get used to it and learn to plan accordingly, so it's not a dealbreaker -- but simply collecting bullets and swapping weapons like most FPS games would have worked better.

Complete with horseback chases, treasure hunts, duels, fistfights, and plenty of shootouts, "Call" is a good game for action junkies to invest in -- particularly those who love Westerns with good characters and a solid story. The gameplay is varied, for what its worth (even if it's not always successful), and when it all works it works splendidly well. Complete with top notch production values (some of the game's vistas are breathtaking and evoke the West quite well), this is darn near a can't-miss on a console that could always use one more actioner.

Answer the "Call." It's worth it.

Short, Repetitive, but Relatively Fun
Call of Juarez joins other Western themed games in immersing you in shoot-outs, cacti, wood fences and tumbleweeds. You switch between the characters of Billy - the young half-Mexican lad, and Ray, his uncle, a gunslinger who is out to kill him.

The conflict is that Billy, coming home after several years of roaming, finds his mother and abusive stepfather are dead. Ray thinks Billy has done the deed. The story then plays out with Billy trying to clear his name and find a fortune, and Ray wanting revenge.

The story is extremely linear, as you might expect in this situation. If you're hopping between the two characters and, as Ray, you were able to Kill Bill, the game would be over. I definitely understand the linear gameplay. Heck, in pretty much any game you want to achieve their end objective, be it take over the town or destroy all the enemies. Still, it's nice to feel you have some control along the way. Entire roads are blocked because of a plot twist??

Also, as much as it is linear, it is very vague. You're told to do something, but then you have to stumble around for a while to figure out what exactly they want you to do in order to progress. It can get frustrating.

The graphics aren't that bad on a high def TV - the individual leaves on the trees are visible and the humans are reasonably detailed. We've taken several trips to the western US region and it really is pretty out there. They did a nice job on some of the cut scenes, with small reflections in metal surfaces, the dull rasp of leather, and other details. The clouds aren't solid objects that drift - they actually change shape as they go.

The voice work in the game is reasonable enough, but while I liked the soundtrack at the beginning, it got really repetitive REALLY quickly. In some games the soundtrack blends in really nicely and you enjoy it. That's not the case here. It's a shame too, because sometimes it's peaceful as you walk along beneath the drifting clouds, with the grasses slowly waving, the birds singing in the trees.

As much as I appreciate the differences of sneaky Billy with his whip vs shooting Ray with his guns, I just didn't like this game as much as some of the other westerns we own. It was too linear, the soundtrack was too maddening, and it was too short. A great game to rent for a week, and that way you can see if you adore it enough to keep it after that.

I tried...
...but I couldn't get into it. Now granted, its a few years old, and graphically we've come a long way, but, the 360 processor is the same as then, and graphically it just doesnt hold up.

Sound is good - I like Western's, ergo, I like Western Games, and all the nuances, such as music that go with it.

However, it can't save the gameplay, which is horrible. Other reviewers have called it linear, and thats an understatement. I mean, you either accomplish the task the game wants you to do, or you spend a 1/2 hour trying to determine exactly the right combination of movements and skewed-logic to move forward. I just didnt get it, and with the wealth of great games available to you, you should skip this one, even as a rental. No amount of clearance-rack-discount is enough to justify purchasing this one.

Which is a shame, because the genre (Red Dead Revolver, which completely rocked in its style, and Gun, which was more or less a pretty good homage to the Western mythos) deserves a good game. Western Games, like Western Movies, don't come out often, and when they do, you expect a level of quality that just isnt there in Call of Juarez.