[Review] Call of Juarez

[Lunix I]

Call of Juarez: Gunslinger is a Western-themed first-person shooter video game, the fourth in the Call of Juarez series. Announced at PAX 2012, it was released on May 22, 2013, via PlayStation Network, Steam and Xbox Live Arcade. Unlike its predecessor Call of Juarez: The Cartel, Call of Juarez: Gunslinger returns to the traditional Old West setting and features three unique game modes (story, arcade and duel) while the setting is the life story of a bounty hunter named Silas Greaves. On March 30, 2018; the game, along with The Cartel; was briefly removed from Steam, Xbox Live, and PlayStation Network citing a publishing dispute with Ubisoft. The game returned to those storefronts in April 2018 with Techland as the sole publisher.

Call of Juarez: Gunslinger is a linear first-person shooter game. Like the previous Call of Juarez games, the game consists of completing objectives to progress through the game. Staple gameplay elements of the series such as bullet-time and gunslinger duels make a return. A novel element is the occasional ability to dodge bullets via a quick time event.

The player can earn experience points and level up their skills, specializing in either dual pistols, shotguns, or rifles. The game allows the player to carry their accumulated skills over to replays, so they can eventually fully master all categories. Scattered throughout the game are collectible secret items called "Nuggets of Truth", which recount the historical truths behind Silas' tales.

The story levels take place in the imagination of one of the bar patrons as Silas Greaves, an unreliable narrator, relates his travels. As his audience challenges the lies and inconsistencies in his tales, Silas revises his story, which results in abrupt changes to game environment (such as the sudden appearance and disappearance of an Apache army). Aside from the Story mode, there is an Arcade mode wherein the player can fight off waves of enemies and a Duel mode where they can have a series of classic gun-slinger showdowns.

In 1910, a legendary old bounty hunter named Silas Greaves enters a saloon in Abilene, Kansas and regales the patrons with tales of his adventures in exchange for free drinks. The patrons, Steve, Jack, and a teenager named Dwight, awe-struck at first, grow increasingly incredulous and irritated the more they listen to his ludicrous stories, in which he takes credit for the killings of numerous legendary outlaws including Butch Cassidy and Newman Haynes Clanton. At the end, just as the patrons are about to become fully enraged by Silas' over the top accounts of his travels, he reveals that Ben, the bartender, is in fact Roscoe "Bob" Bryant, one of the three bandits that murdered Silas' brothers and set him on the path of a bounty hunter. The player is then given a choice whether to challenge Bob to a duel, thus fulfilling Silas' vendetta at long last, or letting him go, in which case Silas finally lets go of the hate and anger that has been driving him for years.

The ending reveals that Dwight is indeed Dwight Eisenhower on his way to West Point. If the player chooses the "redemption" option and forgives Bob for his actions, Silas reveals he had been deliberately exaggerating his tales to confirm his suspicions, with details Ben would know only if he were Roscoe. Silas then asks Dwight what he plans to do with his life, and upon hearing that he's becoming a soldier, Silas says: "Well, you do it right then, son. Don't tear down the world out of anger and spite like I did. You build it up. You do something decent with your life.

You hear me?" to which Dwight says, "Sir, yes sir" and sets out to become the 34th President of the United States, and if the player chooses the "revenge" option, Silas duels with Bob, with Silas emerging as the victor. Everyone present at the bar becomes cautious to Silas, with Dwight being highly disturbed.

Call of Juarez: Gunslinger received positive reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the PC version 78.18% and 79/100, the Xbox 360 version 76.87% and 76/100 and the PlayStation 3 version 71.69% and 75/100. Colin Moriarty from IGN gave the game 7.5/10, praising the excellent storytelling twist, fast-paced and arcade-style gunplay, and voice acting, while criticizing the long load time and occasional crash. Mark Watson from GameSpot awarded the game an 8/10. He also praised the satisfying and accurate shooting mechanics and the well-designed levels, while criticizing the predictable ending of the story and shallow boss battles.

Jim Sterling from Destructoid was surprised by how polished the game is, stating that the game has many fewer bugs and glitches than other games by Techland like Dead Island and Call of Juarez: The Cartel, and considered the game as the best entry in the series. He awarded the game an 8.5/10. Lorenzo Veloriafrom from GamesRadar give the game a 3.5/5 as he thought that the game succeeded in creating a score-based shooter with an interesting, constantly morphing environment and charming narration, but fail to design charming and exciting boss battles. Edge gave the game a 7/10, and praised the leveling system, abilities and weapons featured in the game, as well as the highly replayable levels. They also described the game as a terrific genre piece.

The game puts you into the boots of two distinct characters. Billy Candle is a half-white, half-Mexican drifter of sorts who had been on the hunt for the legendary Lost Gold of Juarez, a treasure trove of gold buried somewhere within the titular town. Unable to find it, Billy decides to come home to the town of Hope to visit his mother and stepfather--only to find them murdered upon his arrival. The other character is Reverend Ray, Billy's step-uncle and the town preacher. Ray's a reformed gunslinger now dedicated to spreading the Lord's word, but when he hears of the ruckus going on at his brother's farm and arrives to see a panicked Billy running away from the bloody corpses of his brother and sister-in-law, Ray vows vengeance, and begins tracking his step-nephew until he can satisfy it.

The dynamic of having two playable characters would be more interesting if there weren't such a distinct separation of quality between them. The more entertaining of the two, both in story and gameplay, is easily Ray. Voiced by an actor who seems to be equally channeling Sam Elliott and the creepy priest from Poltergeist II, Ray's sequences are filled with enough amazing, self-righteous bible quoting immediately followed by heavy amounts of murdering that you almost wish they'd gotten Samuel L. Jackson for this role. Heck, Ray's even got what we'll affectionately refer to as a "bible button."

One of the weapons he can hold is a bible, and if you press the fire button while he's holding it, he'll start reading random passages to any nearby enemies, who will then stop for a second to listen, at which point you can shoot them in their stupid faces. That's either genius or awful--or possibly both.