Call of Juarez
Preview
It has taken its inspiration and material from lots and lots of Western movies and boiled them into a stew that will certainly please any would-be gunslinger or native bowman
by Marko Susimetsä
previewed on PC
Bringing the world alive (Cntd.)
There will also be horses to ride. It was pretty hard for me to learn to control and ride a horse while simultaneously looking around ? but I suppose it was meant to be a bit more difficult than a stroll down the street. Unlike in other games, where horses are usually just a vehicle to be used to get from one place to another, the horses in Call of Juarez will have their own personalities and can make riding hard even for a seasoned rider. Riding one of these beasts through beautiful scenery of valleys and mountains truly takes one's breath away!
These small but important features of the environment make sure that many of the puzzles can be solved in a variety of ways and the player never feels locked on one straight path through the episodes that form the full story. As such, these features will certainly set this game apart from the usual FPS games and immerse us into a more realistic environment.
This town is too small for the two of us!
Duels and gunfights are naturally a big part of the Western genre and Call of Juarez does not disappoint in this area! While controlling a veritable gunslinger like Reverend Ray, players will constantly find themselves in situations where they need to practice their draw and aim. And, for once, hitting the targets is not as easy as in many other games in the genre. The enemy AI knows where and when to hide and the enemies can even move wooden crates into positions that will offer them more cover when they crouch behind them.
The most common weapons are the normal six-shooters, but they appear in varying degrees of quality (e.g. a border gun, a quickshooter) and can be in a state of rust if the previous owner did not take too good care of them. Billy will also use a bow and arrows to bring down enemies more quietly and seems to be eager to use his whip as well. In addition, there will be rifles and other types of weapons available. For once, the range of the weapons is modeled decently, and you usually cannot drop an enemy at long distance with a six-shooter. I find this one of the most welcome things in an FPS in a long time.
For all those who just love the scenes where Clint Eastwood (in one of this Western roles) faces four enemies at once and drops them all before anyone can shoot him back, Call of Juarez offers a trick that allows for similar miraculous gunfights: a concentration mode. In effect, the player can activate a bullet-time mode (enemies slow down) where Reverend Ray draws both of his guns simultaneously and two cross hairs start moving towards the center from both sides of the screen. With good aim, the player can click on either left or right mouse button to fire each of the guns at various targets and then admire the bloody work when the time returns to normal and all the opponents fall on the ground at the same time.
Similarly, duels are pretty well represented with the player moving the mouse down quickly to go for his gun and then moving it back up in order to aim at the other duellist. One needs to be fast in both the draw and in maneuvering the cross hairs over the enemy figure in order to shoot the opponent before getting shot oneself. Of course, when you do get shot or fall from high places, you will lose ?energy? that can be replenished in the usual FPS fashion with various items found in the environment. In Reverend Ray's case, the best healer seem to be bottles of whiskey.
Riding into the sunset
It seems that we are finally getting a game that truly deserves to represent the Western genre. The graphics are excellent and the environment is well modeled, and the ragdoll physics work very prettily indeed. And even for a FPS, this game seems to also provide some adventure and RPG elements that should entertain also the more mature audience. Having now seen part of what the game has to offer, I can only say that my childhood dream is finally coming true and we will have a great Wild West game in our hands.
