Call of Juarez review

Get biblical in this Wild West shooter

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A handful of problems keep this away from scoring 9. Most harmfully, it has a tendency to go overboard with the instant player deaths. First-person exploratory/jumping games always have problems with exact body placement (ie, you falling to your death), and while Call of Juarez does better than most, there's still a series of jumps where you'll be thankful for the quicksave.

It's a game packed with one-off situations, and occasionally these are not signposted well enough - leading to your death while you figure out what's going on. Given the occasional unskippable cutscene, this really can grate.

The game's charm makes other problems more excusable, such as its imperfect physics allowing you to lob barrels in a manner more akin to some manner of superhuman than a cowboy. And Gun was right: the camp, limping wolves are a distinctly laughable nadir.

Above: Well, at least the one on the right obeyed when you said 'sit'

More info

GenreShooter
DescriptionA fire-and-brimstone shooter that pays homage to the spaghetti western with plenty of duels, wagons, Stetsons, sheriffs and quick-draw shootouts.
Platform"Xbox 360","PC"
US censor rating"Mature","Mature"
UK censor rating"Rating Pending","Rating Pending"
Release date1 January 1970 (US), 1 January 1970 (UK)
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