It seems that I’ve been seeing Ubisoft a fair bit this last month! After visiting Ubisoft to talk about The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot I went to get a hands on with their new addition to the Call of Juarez series: Call of Juarez: Gunslinger.
The Call of Juarez series has now gone back to the Wild West which is very much welcome. It could just be me but there really is something about games set in the Wild West period, maybe I just have a strong interest in the Wild West. So you guys are probably itching to find out what Call of Juarez: Gunslinger is like, so let’s get down to my first impressions of the game.
Call of Juarez: Gunslinger is a first person shooter set in the Wild West. The game lets players live the epic and violent journey of a ruthless bounty hunter, on the trail of the Wild West’s most notorious outlaws.
The artistic style to the game stood our straight away and it suits the Wild West time period. The style isn’t realistic like Red Dead Redemption but it isn’t a cartoon style either, it seems to be a nice mix between the both – heading more towards the realistic style.
On top of the brilliant artistic style, Call of Juarez: Gunslinger has a great story telling method. The game is focused around the main character telling a story to a group of people, as he tells the story you play through the events which he mentions. At one point in the game it is mentioned he is fighting the “Apache”, though when questioned by one of the listeners he corrects himself stating “Oh no, they were fighting apache style” and then the enemies change to match this. While this may not seem like a big feature of the game it was a great method of storytelling which shows how stories can be easily changed by those who tell them.
Gunslinger’s controls are also very easy to learn, being similar to that of Red Dead Redemption which means that the game is very easy to pickup and play which suits the games ‘arcade style’ gameplay. Due to the game having an ‘arcade style’ feel to it the game tends to not have much varied gameplay other than shooting enemies and running between locations. It would have been nice if there were some horse riding segments or even perhaps just more free roaming abilities, allowing you to explore the beautiful environments.
Arcade mode was another game mode which I was able to play, other than the story. The arcade mode is where you will fight enemies without a story and your main aim being to collect the highest score possible. It is an interesting mode and I can see players staying here for a while competing against their friends when they have played the story. Due to spending more time on the Story Mode I didn’t spend that long within the arcade mode, though gameplay and upgrades are identical to that in the story mode from what I saw.
One part of the game which I found slightly disappointing was the boss fights or duels you have with enemies in game. When you have a duel all you have to do is keep your crosshair focussed on the enemy for as long as you can to get a more precise aim, then as they pullout their gun – shoot as fast as you can. While it was fun the first time, the second time you are able to have a duel they feel short and easy to do. I feel like the difficulty should be increased slightly to make the duels slightly harder or even make duels have differences so that they do not feel repetitive.
I enjoyed the levels I was able to play of Call of Juarez: Gunslinger and am very impressed with how the story is told, it definitely sticks out as a one of a kind in storytelling. Personally I also am very happy that we’ve gone back to the Wild West with Gunslinger and feel like this game is already greatly improved compared to the last addition to the Call of Juarez series; The Cartel. Call of Juarez: Gunslinger is planned to be released on Xbox Live Arcade and the Playstation Network as a downloadable game with no word of a physical release of the game so far.
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