Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood Review

New franchises were once hard to come by. Lately, however, many big time publishers like Electronic Arts, Activision and Ubisoft have been experimenting with new IP that prove to be incredibly risky (Mirror’s Edge, Beyond Good and Evil), yet can also perform exceptionally well (Prototype, inFamous, Dead Space). Call of Juarez was one of these new properties when it came out a couple years ago on the PC and Xbox 360. While that game received only mediocre reviews, Ubisoft had enough confidence in the franchise for a second go-around, this time also on the PS3.

In Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood you play as a Confederate soldier (two to be exact). Their names are Ray and Thomas McCall, a couple of brothers serving side-by-side in the uniform. The first level has you defending Atlanta as Sherman marches through the South. Shortly after you become deserters as you refuse to take orders to withdraw from Atlanta (your home) where Sherman and his troops will burn down the city.

I certainly think that the story is pretty well done. We don’t see a lot of historical shooters in the Civil War era so to fight on the battlefield as Sherman made his march on Atlanta was cool to play. Going AWOL in the Confederate Army doesn’t hold over too well and the McCall’s commander puts out the notice that they will be hunted down. This inevitably leads to a retreat westward where the McCalls will have to fight off the law and Native Americans out West.

The gameplay is fairly solid with appropriate weapons for the era. You have a rifle, shotgun, dual pistols, even dynamite. I wasn’t overjoyed with excitement from playing the campaign, but it gets the job done nicely. There is a decent amount of challenge involved requiring a keen sense of your surroundings, cover and accurate fire, as well as using the correct weapons for the situation. You automatically go into cover near corners and standing next to boxes. Using the right analog stick you can peek around corners. For the most part the enemy A.I. tries to overwhelm you with numbers more than outwit you.

The main gimmick with this game is concentration mode, which allows you to target multiple people when it is charged and unleash a string of shots without the enemy having a chance to return the fire. Obviously this has been done before, but it’s a fairly neat way to dispose of enemies in a quick and efficient manner. Naturally, you refill your concentration bar by killing people. Once it is full you only have 60 seconds to use it.

My primary concern with Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is in the glitches that pop up. The game actually freezes for a few seconds during checkpoints and when the game saves. It completely ruins the flow of the game and just screams that the developers needed more time to work on the final product. Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood could have been a lot better game if not for these technical flaws. The online multi-player adds to the amount of time you will spend, although you probably will get tired of the single-player’s load screens pretty fast. Still, this game is good enough for a rental.