Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood for Xbox 360

It's a popular refrain among gamers that Westerns are an underserved niche in the industry, but that's simply not true. Red Dead Revolver, GUN and the previous Call of Juarez, which came out 2007, have all been recent examples. Plus, a few more are in the pipeline.

As Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood (COF:BIB) shows, the genre has little in the way of innovation to offer gamers, as this one is nothing but a by the numbers shooter. However, the tradition of compelling story that's so closely associated with the Wild West shines through even here.

The original Juarez was actually a more interesting and diverse mix of action tropes, combining some platforming with quicktime sequences and plenty of gunplay across an expansive and varied landscape. The sequel gets rid of the jumping and roping parts almost entirely, which isn't a big deal, but does sin in the way of repetitive scenery and infuriating control problems on consoles.

Gamers take on the personas of the two brothers shown in the first game, Ray and Thomas. Ray a hulking gunslinger with little affection for heights, water or anything even remotely sophisticated. Thomas, aside from looking a lot like Eric Bana, is more of an intelligent, sentimental type, and excels in finesse. He lassos over obstacles and can pick up bows and arrows and let rip.

In practical terms, these differences don't matter much, players can generally choose between the two at the beginning of each chapter, but the game cheats you out of making the most here. Sure, Ray's ability to carry a Gatling is pretty neat, but you only get a couple chances to do so, and even then the next checkpoint quickly forces you to abandon these specialty weapons.

No matter who you choose, the crux of this game is bullets and more bullets, feeling a lot like the old Medal of Honor games. Hordes of enemies stand between you and the next stage, but at least there's no endless spawning. Clear a location and move on. While enemy AI isn't too bad, stages do feel quite samey and most of your opponents look uncannily alike. Shoot enough of them, and a special bullet time ability pops up that lets you aim at a bunch of bad guys at ease. It's not a bad addition, and at least much better than some of the other set pieces. The worst of these are the new duels, which are downright broken. Players have to use the right analog stick to guide an onscreen hand in drawing a piece, but this is so inaccurate as to be maddening.

But while the action is nothing to write home about, the story and characterizations are at times nothing short of two thumbs up impressive - this is the rare game that refers to and applies Civil War history. Both brothers are nicely detailed, while the narrator of the story, their young priest sibling William, does a spectacular job. Even old Juarez from the original now feels properly fleshed out, and not just another cardboard cutout villain. Voice acting is superb throughout.

Alas, this isn't a DVD of some 1960's classic, it's an interactive video game, and the interactive parts fail to captivate.

Visually, COJ:BIB is alright, just not gorgeous. Character animations aren't especially fluid, and there's some horrible clipping and pop in throughout. The soundtrack, other than voice talent, is overall after a fashion.

As was the case with several Ubisoft games in the past, this one also suffers from a promising online component that falls flat on its face thanks to horrendous netcoding. Constant lag, freezing and disconnects make enjoyment impossible. Otherwise, it could have been awesome - some of the game modes are very unique, much more so than the single player, and the implementation of late 1800's weaponry here is quite fetching. There are numerous unlockable classes, each very distinct, and scoring is done based on bounty - the more kills you rack, the more points other players earn for taking you out. This is also unique, but all's for naught since it doesn't work, and at any rate, this isn't the kind of game to hold a following over time.

There's no pressing need to heed this Call of Juarez, it may even be a step down from the first with regards to the main action parts. However, for the excellent storytelling alone it may be worth the effort, and at the end of the day, it's not bad. You'll certainly get something out of it.