Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood (mini review)

I succumbed to the lure of an impulse buy on Steam, and got "Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood" (PC version). I'm only in chapter 3 so far, and will probably put it aside to finish the Point Lookout DLC and then get back to it this weekend.

Speaking as a PC-only gamer here, it has a very strong "console port vibe"... simple controls, quickly regenerating health, action that pushes you forward on rails to the next checkpoint save (although you can save at any other point also). A little gold star floats on the screen and pulls you by the nose to the next action point. It's basically Call of Duty as a Wild West movie, right down to the scripted shoot-from-vehicle racing through town, blocked dead end, "Drat, we have to turn around!" sequences. About the only original element is the way they're doing one-on-one gun duels, and that requires a tricky mouse move I still haven't quite got the hang of, but maybe it will feel more natural later on (lots of save/reloads in that sequence for me).

The game is reported to be very short also, maybe 5-6 hours if you rush through it, and the game is set up for you to rush through the action. You have barely a chance to catch your breath and appreciate the environment, which is very well-done, for the most part. It feels very "authentic," if authentic means a classic Spaghetti Western movie. You have a small amount of choice in the style of combat, playing one of two brothers -- one's a bruiser who goes in with guns (and dynamite, and gatling gun, etc.) blazing, the other a more sneaky type who prefers sniping with a rifle, silent knife kills, etc. It does add some variety, but there are still a lot of sequences where you're basically going to be shooting everything in sight with a pistol and reloading like crazy.

The game does have a very good cover system. No manual leaning key, you just sweep the mouse around to look up-and-over cover, or peak around corners, once you've reached a programmed cover spot. Combined with very fast auto health regeneration, any battle with good cover is winnable, and I mostly have to do the savegame reload dance with scripted situations where I'm out in the open or riding a vehicle or horse.

It's really not my type of shooter. I'm more into open-ended, tactical FPS's, and I hate linear choke points where I have to re-load multiple times to beat a sequence (I've had more than my share, playing on Normal difficulty). But the story is good, the voice acting is very good, and all those scripted sequences do make it feel like you're inside a Western movie. The game is very "cinematic" that way, like the best parts of the CoD series which this is obviously emulating. I'm trying to enjoy it for the plot and those cinematic episodes, and ignore the more arcade-gamey aspects.