Like westerns? Like FPS's? Then answer the Call...
The story is a little more complicated than the box description tells you. To sum it up, you take control of 2 main characters that you'll swap between for the various episodes. Each has their own story that entertwines with the other. You begin the game as Billy Candle, a teenage runaway returning home from a failed attempt to find the lost gold of Juarez. Right from the start they throw you into a tough situation: working your way down the mountainside without dying. This may sound easier than you think, but one bad step and you go tumbling to your death within the first minute of the game. This sets the stage in two ways; (as Billy) you must move cautiously around the landscape, and the game has an unexpected difficulty to it. After navigating your way down, you're put into a tutorial of sorts that introduces you to the game's FPS stealth mode and platforming aspect. Here, you'll learn exactly how patient you can be as well as how beautiful the scenery is. By this, I mean that you'll spend a good deal of time hiding behind rocks and in bushes as you wait for someone to look the other way giving you the opportunity to sneak by. And believe me, your patience WILL be tested as you will have to time things out right and watch every move. But we'll come back to Billy in a moment...
Moving on to the second main character, you'll take control of Reverend Ray; a grizzly old fire-and-brimstone preacher who reminded me of a cross between Johnny Cash and Dirty Harry. He's also Billy's step-uncle and happens to find his brother and Billy's mother lying dead at their ranch and little Billy is running from the scene. (Now would be a good time to check out U2's song with Johnny Cash, "The Wanderer" from the 'Zooropa' cd.) So old Ray takes off after Billy "with a Bible and a gun" (a line from "The Wanderer") to bring the boy to justice. From this point on you play the story from both sides: the hunter and the hunted. And not to worry; Reverend Ray is all about kicking a** in the name of the Lord. There will be plenty of run-and-gun gameplay for those who love traditional FPS's.
Overall, the switching between characters works well to change up the pacing of the story, but the stealth/platforming sections involving Billy seemed to drag on more than it should; mostly in part to the trial & error method of figuring out how to work past your enemies. Episode 4 in particular posed a real challenge, not in the difficulty, but due to a slight flaw in the game design. The level takes place at night and it makes things really hard to see if you're in a well-lit room. Not being able to see the enemies is one thing, but when they can spot you from across the field AND hit you with precision accuracy, then there is something wrong. A fix to this is also another downfall; if you are spotted, you can merely backtrack through the level until the "alert music" stops playing and the baddies return to a state of unaware stupidity. It helps balance the difficulty, but wouldn't you rather out-wit your enemies as they try running to your location instead of taking a few well-placed shots to your person and then lazily return to patrol? And of course during these stealth missions you get a bow and arrows to help take down thugs in silence, but you still have to keep a close eye on who will see them fall.
Moving once again back to Reverend Ray, the gunplay is quite decent as are the "quickdraw" features. You can enter a "concentration mode", which is like bullet-time, and take down enemies in slow motion. The one-on-one quickdraw scenes are similar, but require a much steadier hand. Both features could use a little fine-tuning, but it serves it's purpose for the game. I just wouldn't want to see the exact same mechanic in another title.
A couple of other minor issues to point out are the lack of weapons and overall content of the game. The designers tried to implement a 'breakable weapons' system by having rusted guns, overheating, and blowing up in your hand. This was a cool concept, but it doesn't come into play enough to really warrant using it. Sure you can find new weapons, but I rarely had to search for a new gun and only once did I use one to the point that it exploded (and didn't kill me???). The game is also a bit on the shorter side as I completed it in just under 9 hours and 30 minutes. There is bonus content but it doesn't quite feel like it belongs. You can unlock duels (which are simply replays of the in-game duels) and bonus missions. The bonus missions add another hour or two of game time and are a bit more difficult, but they don't fit the story. They feel like deleted scenes that were taken out because they didn't fit within the rest of the game. In these bonus missions, you take the roll of a third character who is tracking rustlers, but it never really ties in to the rest of the game. They do, however, add a bit more replay value for those who like Reverend Ray's portion of the story.
Overall, this isn't a title to be missed. It has it's flaws but it's far more enjoyable than I'm sure I've made it out to be. I really liked the beautiful and detailed graphics and I wish now that I had purchased it and not run through so quickly. And considering it can be found for $30 or less, I think it's a title worthy of a spot in your collection...especially if you enjoyed 'Red Dead Revolver' and 'Gun'.