Nice graphics and story, but gameplay is not so great.
Year is 1882 in Texas and a man named Billy returns to his home ranch after being away for 2 years. Unfortunately he hears gunshots and finds his mother and stepfather murdered with the words "Call of Juarez" written in blood on a wall. At this point Billy's step-uncle Reverend Ray shows up and assumes that Billy has killed his brother. Reverend sets out in pursuit of Billy and in this way he chooses to become what he was so long ago: a skillful gunslinger. Story switches between these 2 characters all the time, but the story itself stays the same. Game uses cutscenes and in-game dialog, but it's all done in a first person perspective, just like in Half-Life for example.
Environmental graphics are especially well done and it would have been a real pleasure just to explore these lands a bit more. Unfortunately game moves forward in a linear path so you can't get lost. Lighting effects are great and as whole it's a pleasure to look at. Character models do their job well, but they are not as stellar as the environment. Loading times occur quite often, but they are short and the frame rate stays solid. Story progresses during loading screens so make sure to listen. Aside from excellent voice acting the sound design is also done well. Music brings that familiar western feel really close and the sound of wind in the bushes while adding some howling coyotes is really something. In the end I must admit that audiovisual presentation in Call of Juarez is just what it should be. Too bad the same can't be said about the gameplay.
Controls are easy to learn, but changing between weapons and items is far too slow as a shooter. When playing as Reverend Ray you'll mostly solve light puzzles and shoot a whole bunch of bad guys. A bullet-time effect called Concentration Mode let's you do some really fast dueling action and it's always fun to be the fastest man in the West. Billy's parts however are not so great. First of all the platforming is awful and it involves a lot of trial and error. Secondly the sneaking parts are too frustrating since you don't have a clear understanding about how far an enemy can see you or can't see you.
There are numerous historical guns to use and it's something we haven't seen a million times before. But whose bright idea was to make guns explode after a few dozen shots? It adds absolutely nothing into the game, except maybe leaving you defenceless in a nasty firefight.
Enemy AI is decent, but why do I need to fire 6 times to a bad guy's mid-section before he dies? Headshot on the other hand kills instantly, but since these guns are pretty inaccurate it's not that easy to hit people in the head.
Game uses checkpoints to save your progress and this makes the stealth portions and platforming bits nearly intolerable. Trial & error gameplay doesn't mix with the use of checkpoints. Even if you enjoy westerns and want to like this game the save system might be too much to handle.
Call of Juarez also includes a multiplayer component with standard modes like Team Deathmatch and so on. Action is not hindered by the fact that this is a historical game, but unfortunately it might be quite hard to find some people to play with you.
In the end Call of Juarez has a great presentation and a nice story, but its gameplay suffers some serious flaws and the use of exploding guns and checkpoints makes it even worse. If you are a fan of westerns I recommend you to check your bargain bin.