Call of Juarez

Ubisoft takes on the western genre.

	Version Xbox 360, PC	Developer Techland	Publisher Ubisoft	Genre FPS

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By Alex Wollenschlaeger

Call of Juarez is a game of twos. There's the obvious part, the bifurcated story, which jumps between the two main characters as you work your way through the 15-odd missions that comprise the singleplayer experience. And then there are the playing styles, similarly divided, which disrupt the consistent quality and keep the game from being great.

The game starts with Billy Candle, a young man returning to his home after being on the run for two years, a journey prompted by worsening relations with his stepfather. Early in the game Billy is falsely accused of murder and it's as second character Reverend Ray - who just happens to be the brother of Billy's stepfather - that you spend the alternating sections of the game, giving chase to the fugitive.

Reverend Ray's missions are by far the more interesting. As an ex-gunslinger turned preacher, the Reverend is more than capable with weapons, whether he's armed with a pair of pistols or taking out baddies from afar from with one of the rifles on offer. The action is smooth and the justice delivered is satisfying. There are also neat quirks, like the ability to read from your bible and have enemies momentarily taken under God's spell, or the bullet time-like concentration mode, which lets you slow time to see enemies off. It's almost as if this was the game in its entirety and the rest was just thrown in.

That impression is strengthened by the dismal quality of some of the levels that cast you as Billy. Either they're too long, too boring, too difficult or just too damn confusing for you to care. You see, Billy, despite being the one accused of murder, isn't much of a killer. So you spend his sections of the game avoiding enemies or navigating the meandering levels.

One particular grating example is an early level set at night, when Billy is trying to sneak into a mine. He has to creep around in the bushes, avoiding scores of enemies, as he tries to make it to the entrance. It's a full stealth mission with no room for error, since once you're spotted there's no chance of recovery. Needless to say, I was spotted - a lot.

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