Techland and Ubisoft have once again teamed up for a Call of Juarez game. While the first two games were set in a true old school ‘Western’ setting, Call of Juarez The Cartel was a modern day interpretation that didn’t really work as well as the original two entries into the series.
While Techland has once again turned to the old west setting with Call of Juarez Gunslinger, this time around the studio and Ubisoft decided to go the digital only route and make a 15 Dollar Xbox LIVE Arcade, PSN and PC downloadable game. I may be risking you to stop reading right here – Gunslinger is the surprise hit of this summer for me.
Silas Greaves is the name ‘Gunslinger’ refers to from the title as he tells the story of the latest Call of Juarez entry in the form of flash backs. Old Silas walks into a bar and tells his tale to the curious crowd. As Greaves takes on Billy the Kid, Butch Cassidy, Jesse James and other Wild West legends the story often takes turns, rewinds or changes based on questions the bar patrons ask or him remembering something a little differently. I truly loved this twist on the action and it was one of the freshest bits of gaming my old hazy eyes have seen in a while.
The actual gameplay of Gunslinger is pretty tight as well. Even though the game is pretty linear with some collectibles off the beaten path, I enjoyed being funneled into the line of fire over and over again since the fast paced gun play was enjoyable every second of the way. The setting of Call of Juarez Gunslinger is about as ‘Western’ as it can get with locations spanning from barns, to saloons and of course a steamboat.
Gunslinger is not only a well controlling first person shooter but also comes with bullet time and slow motion dodging which may sound like an old hat but has been implemented, making the skill moves something I relied on quite a bit. Killing enemy after enemy will not only put a smile on your face but also earn XP which can be used to upgrade the skill tree including dual wielding, faster draw and reload speeds, or longer bullet time.
One major aspect of Gunslinger are the shootouts against some of the legends in the game which pin Greaves against another gunslinger in ‘high noon’ fashion. The stage is set, both men eyeing each other waiting for the other to pull the trigger. These moments were my favorite part of Gunslinger. I could chose to kill someone the dirty way and draw first or simply wait for the opponent and do him in with quickness. I haven’t seen old west shootouts down this well in a game before.
Call of Juarez Gunslinger is not a full length game and also very linear but that’s why it costs 15 Dollars, the fraction of the price for a full retail game. Techland has done something very special as they created a fresh FPS experience set in the Call of Juarez universe that I actually enjoyed and wanted to go back to. Playing through Greaves eyes and encountering Wild West legends like Cassidy or Kid will something forever ingrained in my memory.
Score: 8.5 / 10
Call of Juarez Gunslinger was developed by Techland and published by Ubisoft for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC on May 22nd. A retail code of the Xbox 360 version was provided to us by Ubisoft for reviewing purposes.
