Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is just plain spectacular and is very improved and is lot of fun.
Bound in Blood
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Techland
Platform: Xbox 360
Rated: Mature
Released: June 30, 2009
Visuals:
The visuals for Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood are in fact some of the most improved visuals from a game series when going from a first in a series a sequel or a prequel which is the case in this game it is a origins story prequel and despite that this game is about 2 or 3 years old and it is visually the most improved and the detail to the character's and the environment's are just amazing to look at. The detail of all the environments were all great to look and seemed to keep getting better as the game wore on with all the different local's in the game every part of the visuals in this game was just excellent and their were not any issues with the visuals at all. The detail to the character's in this are also much improved as well and the detail to the character's at some points of this game especially in the cut scenes of this game looked really well and at points they looked almost life-like but not quite but still they looked great. I personally liked how the visuals looked and went from cut scene to gameplay and in fact it went between the two very smoothly. So in short for the visuals in Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is just plain spectacular.
Audio:
The audio in Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is just as great as the last Call of Juarez, but it's a little bit better in this one. The voice acting in this game was just as spectacular in this one with the with the same voice actor from the first game in the series back that played as Ray is back portraying is role from the last game and he is just as great in this one as he was in the last Call of Juarez game and the rest of the the voice work of the cast in this game was all great as well and one of the voices of Ray's brother's in fact kinda sounded like the same guy who did the voice work of Ray's step nephew and maybe it or ir's not but still the voice work in this game is just amazing. The musical score in this game is just as great as the first on and it might be a little bit better than the first but still great. So in short on the audio for Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is just simply great.
Gameplay:
The gameplay for Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is also one of the other things that was the most improved aspects of the series from a great origin story, the improved boss duels and the improved gun play and with all those changes to this game and the series it's a damn shame that this game was just prequel and a damn fine good one at that. Now I'll start with story which was a more hard nose story driven campaign which was just great and it tells the story of the McCall's which are trying to hunt down the lost gold of Juarez to up build their family estate once again after the north beat the south in the civil war and after they became outlaw's after failing a direct order from their commanding officer and they are the run and then they along with their younger brother William they joined up with some gun runner's so they can find the lost gold of Juarez, so I'll leave it at that. Now the gun play for this game is much improved from the last game and in fact it is not as clunky as it was in the first game and in this game you can either play as most of the game as Ray or Thomas Ray's brother except in parts where you have know choice but play as Ray or Thomas and just like in the last game playing as Ray it is more fun then playing as Thomas with playing as Thomas it almost similar as to when playing as Billy in the last game and when playing as Ray it's all about the action and it's a little easier to go through the game as Ray, but gun play is still great playing as either of the two main character's. The dueling is back once again in this game but it is much improved and when in a duel the in view goes from the first person to the side of where the hand and the gun holster is and you follow the boss until the sound of a bell is made then you draw to see is the quickest. So in short on the gameplay for Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is much improved from the last game and is just simply amazing.
Multiplayer:
The on-line for Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is quite fun and in fact I was quite surprise people still played this game on-line, but it is quite fun to play on-line with and this game has a few mode's to play and they are Shootout which is basically a deathmatch, Posse which is a team elimination death-match where one team goes around killing the other team until their is no one left alive on one of the teams, then their's Wanted where only the wanted gains points, Manhunt where you have two teams and one wanted player on that team with a time limit and if the the player that is wanted stay's alive that player's team get the point and then their is Wild West Legends an objective team based mode where is similar to Bad Company's rush mode where you have one team with a bunch of objective's to do hand one team that has to stop them and this mode is with one team playing as the Lawmen and the other team is the Outlaw's and this mode is quite fun with the team work that cab go in to it. Their is about thirteen classes about five to start with and about eight or so to unlock. I would like to point out that you should have no problem finding a match because this game is quite active on-line. So in short on the multiplayer for Call of Juarez is that it is quite fun to play and could be a little competitive but it's just plain fun.
Overall:
The overall point on this great game is the fact that this game is the most improved prequel/sequel to a series and the new engine that was used in this game made this great game look amazing and the audio is just great as the last game and the gameplay was really improved from the last game and it was also amazing and the story itself should last you about 12 or 15 hours or so in the campaign and the on-line is all great and fun to play. So in short for a game that you can find for around $10 to $20 in a retail store and about less then half on on-line some where and in fact this game is absolutely worth picking up if you are in to western's. Great work to the developing team at Techland and publishing group at Ubisoft keep up the great work.
9.5 out of 10