Editor's Say - "Good" "Don't let the first, over shadow it" Find out what i thought...
Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood – PS3 review by Simon a.k.a. [TheDevilDweller]
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*****Introduction*****
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The Good:
Great visuals – Great gameplay – Great sound effects – good online multiplayer
The Bad:
Characters modelling and animation – short campaign mode
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Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is a prequel to the first Call of Juarez, which was quite a good game, but it was nothing really great or special. Bound in Blood is over shadowed by the first Call of Juarez's problems which may cause people to neglect Bound in Blood, but overall Bound in Blood is a great game nonetheless. It does loose its momentum after a certain amount of single player playthroughs, but Bound in Blood has a good single player mode, a strong multiplayer mode, and a fun gameplay.
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*****The Plot*****
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Story:
Bound in Blood is a typical story about revenge, envy and love. The story is set in the old west, 1864 and revolves around the McCall brothers. Ray, the oldest of the three brothers and the most arrogant, self-centred, has a hair-trigger temper and is faster with a gun than anyone alive. Thomas is considers more of the ladies man, but he's just as dangerous and almost as fast. William, the youngest out of the three, is a preacher and the better half of the McCall brothers who fears for his brothers' immortal souls. The story starts of with both brothers, Ray and Thomas, with pistols drawn at each other as the story goes back to previous evens during the Civil War where Ray and Thomas both fought at Gettysburg and Shiloh. Both brothers abandon their duties to aid their mother and younger brother, William. To the McCall brothers' family comes first more than anything thus due to their actions and abandonment to their duties; Ray and Thomas are considered as traitors and are wanted men. Ray and Thomas are both outlaw that decide to head to Texas in search of the ancient treasure of the Call of Juarez. Their brother William willingly aids them in hope he can lead his brothers into the light of God, thus to save there souls.
Of course Bound in Blood is a prequel to the first Call of Juarez, in which you see Ray before being the priest he is in the first game, and also tells you why he became a priest. The story is quite good, fluent and it makes you want to continue on just to see how it will end, and to see what becomes of the relationship between both brothers, Ray and Thomas.
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*****The Graphics*****
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Overall Design:
The graphics are great with great landscapes and background sceneries. The character modelling and rendering can look a little weird at time with some poorly animated face expirations, and some awkward animations. Shadow effects can look fuzzy at times, some texture when up close can look flat and dull and objects such as rocks and trees popup in the distance. Nevertheless Bound in Blood is a great looking game.
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*****The Game-Play*****
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Game-Play:
The game-play is pretty standard as a first person shooter. The controls are great and responsive. At the start of every mission (or level) you get to choose to ether play as Ray, or Thomas. There are a few levels that require the use of a specific brother, due to the story. Both brothers are good to play as, but you'll probably find it easier and maybe even better playing as Ray. Ray is the strongest brother. He wears armour to protect his chest from bullets, which basically means he can withstand more gunfire. He can use two revolvers simultaneously, use dynamite and can carry a gatling gun. Thomas is more agile than Ray. Thomas can move faster, climb ledges and cliffs, use a bow, throw knives, and use a lasso to reach higher places. Both characters are good as said, but playing as Thomas can feel a little bit like Mirror's Edge. It can be sometimes hard to see where to climb, what to do and how to proceed as Thomas on your first playthrough. It's certainly not frustrating to play as Thomas, but due to the choice you have, it's probably better to play as Ray. Each character has different abilities and actions, i.e. Ray cannot climb anything, but he can kick down doors. Ray uses two revolvers, in which Thomas does not. Thomas can use stealth weapons i.e. a bow and throwing knife, in which Ray only uses noised weapons. Ray can use dynamite to blow through certain areas to proceed, where Thomas must climb and use his lasso. On many occasions the brothers have to cooperate to overcome an obstacle or enter the fighting ground together. This consists of both brothers standing at ether side of a door and burst in. This even causes a slow motion timed event where two crosshairs (one for your left hand and one for your right) move from ether side of the screen toward the centre. You can move your aim slightly but the main objective is to shoot an enemy whenever the crosshairs is on target. Even though the event is rather simple, it's still cool nonetheless and no matter how many times you do it it's still pretty awesome.
Both brothers have a special concentration ability, which you can think of as an adrenaline boost. The more enemies you take down, the more your adrenaline (or "Concentration") boost fills. You can only use your special ability when your boost is full. Ray's concentration is about aiming. When in concentration mode, time stops of a certain amount to time and in the time limit you must move the crosshairs and target any visible enemies. Once you have targeted all enemies, you can force the action by pressing the action button or wait till the time limit runs out. When the concentration ends, you'll see a quick event where Ray shoots down all targeted enemies lightning quick, and I must say it's pretty sweet. Thomas's concentration is a quick-shooter. When in concentration mode, Thomas will automatically aim at any target in sight and within range. Pulling down the right thumb stick acts like pulling down the hammer on a revolver. You have a time limit to pull down the hammer and take out your enemies in a quick-shooter event, which again much like Ray's, it's pretty sweet.
On other occasions you'll be forced into a duelling match. Duelling relies mainly on reflexes. Use the left stick to move and keep your enemy in front of you. Use the right stick to control your hand. Keep your hand close to your gun but don't reach for it too soon. When the duel starts and you hear the bell, reach for your gun with the right stick, aim, and shoot. The duelling mode again is pretty cool, but it can be quite challenging (if not frustrating) at first to get right, and can even hold you back from proceeding. Once you get the hang of it, it's pretty sweet.
The A.I. system is quite good. Enemies will take cover, shoot around objects, and throw dynamite. Sometime enemies will just stand in one spot, or run straight towards you but other than that, it's pretty good.
The cover system in Bound in Blood is great, and it's probably the best cover system I've seen in a first person shooter. Whenever your next to a covered surface, your body will automatically act toward the surface i.e. if you run toward a table, you'll automatically crouch down next to the table and take cover without pressing a button. If you step away from the table, you automatically stand up. When in cover, moving the right thumb stick up, down, left and right will move your view around the object or surface you're covering on. You can peek all the way around the edge of a wall and back again without leaving cover and it work really quite well and easy to use.
Throughout your playthrough you'll find a handful of weapons that you can use. Some weapons can only be used by one of the two brothers, ranging from revolvers, rifles and sniper rifles, shotguns, dynamite, a bow, and knifes. There are also sub-weapons like gatling guns and cannons throughout some levels, as well as oil lamps you can shoot which will cause a fire.
Bound in Blood starts of at a normal linear type shooter, going for A to B, but as you proceed further you'll find an open world in which you can explore freely. There are also gun shops where you can buy more guns and ammunition, plus a few side quests that consists of you ether hunting down wanted men, helping or retrieving certain items.
There are a few problems with Bound in Blood. Sometimes you'll find it hard to see and know exactly where your enemies are because most of them are ether high up on rocks and cliffs, or behind bushes and camouflage to the surrounding. Also sometimes you'll find yourself playing along concentrating on what's ahead instead of what your bothers are saying, which can cause game over due to you heading too far ahead and leaving your brothers behind. This can be very annoying when it's game over and have to restart from a checkpoint. Normally when the checkpoint loads up you'll continue straight away, but sometime the game forces you to listen to in game dialogue you've already heard, resulting in game over if and when you leave the area.
Multiplayer mode consists of five online game modes, "Shootout", which is basically deathmatch, "Posse", which is like team deathmatch, "Wanted", where one player is assigned as a wanted target and every one else has to kill the target. The killer becomes the next wanted target. "Manhunt" consists of two teams and one wanted target. The wanted target must stay alive long enough to earn his team point, while his or her team must protect the wanted target from the other team trying to kill them. The last game mode is "Wild West Legends". This mode consists of two teams and each team must complete objectives while the other team much stop them. You start of with five classes a gunslinger, a miner, a rifleman, a sniper, and a native. As you play you'll gain money from killing other players, which you can spend to unlock more classes i.e. a spy, a scout and so on, and gain their weapons. You can of course host your own game and play with friends. The online multiplayer is pretty solid, but with other online first person shooters out there, Bound in Blood's multiplayer doesn't really stand out from the more popular ones. If your looking for something new, a little different and a little change with your online gaming, Bound in Blood is worth a try.
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*****The Sound*****
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Sound Design:
The sound design is great. The music fits great with the game, story and the western theme The voice acting is great and the sound effects in general are great as well.
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*****Life Value*****
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Lifespan / Replay Value:
Call of Juarez will last you somewhere within the 7 to 10 hour mark, and you could even finish Bound in Blood in one sitting. Even though 7 hours is pretty decent for a single player campaign, Bound in Blood can feel a bit short. Bound in Blood is about 4 hours long if you go from A to B, but doing the side quests and looking for hidden items can boost up a few more hours onto the single player campaign. There are trophies to collect if you're into that sure of thing and a multiplayer online mode to pass even more time. The life value is pretty decent, but the campaign mode can feel a bit shorter than it should have been.
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*****Editor's Final Thought*****
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Overall I did enjoy Bound in Blood very much, more than I did with the first. The game-play is good and fluent, the story is good, the characters are awesome even though there are a few graphics problems. The music is great and fit the western theme very well. The multiplayer is pretty solid and fun to play. Overall it's a good game. If you like first person shooter and maybe didn't feel too much with the first Call of Juarez, don't let it over shadow Bound in Blood, because it is a good game and I would recommend it.
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*****FINAL OVERALL SCORE*****
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Story - 7/10
Online Multiplayer - 6.5/10
Life Value - 6/10
Presentation - 7/10
Graphics - 8.5/10
Atmosphere - 8/10
Game-Play - 8/10
Controls - 7/10
Sound Effects - 8/10
Concept - 6/10
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***** EDITOR'S OVERALL THOUGHT SCROE: 7.5/10 *****
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Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood – PS3 review by Simon a.k.a. [TheDevilDweller]
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