Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood (BiB) is a sequel that actually serves as a prequel to 2007’s Call of Juarez. It tells the tale of two brothers Ray and Thomas McCall on the run from the law after they abandon the Confederate army to protect their family. Of course their General treats this as an act of treason and is hell bent on wiping them off of the face of the earth. During this period they happen to meet up with a Mexican outlaw called Juarez who appeals to their greedy side with stories of the legendary God of Juarez. If greed wasn’t bad enough you even have lust coming into the picture with the arrival of Juarez’s girlfriend who somehow appeals to both Thomas and Ray causing a rift between two brothers. Finding himself in the middle of all this depravity is Thomas and Ray’s younger brother, a man of God who believes in non violence and the path of righteousness. This plot unfolds really well thanks to some stellar voice acting by all the lead characters.



Gameplay in BiB is pretty much your standard first person shooter fare with a bit of variety sprinkled in as both characters have their distinctive play styles. Ray is the more aggressive one of the lot so his segments mainly involve killing everything that can pretty much move. He can also absorb more damage and carry heavy weapons making him an ideal choice for your first play through. Thomas on the other hand relies on stealth to a certain extent and is equipped with throwing knives and a bow and arrow (among other weapons) that help him kill silently. He’s also a better shot than Ray and that allows him to wield scoped rifles.







Both characters even have their own versions of special moves that can be activated after killing a certain number of enemies in succession. During Ray’s Concentration Mode all you have to do is paint your targets by moving the mouse over them, after which you can sit back and watch in glee as he cuts them down with a hailstorm of bullets. For Thomas it’s a bit different as you’ll have to activate Bullet Time and then move your mouse (or analogue stick) up and down to mimic the action of a pistol’s hammer.



In between certain levels you’ll be granted a bit of free roaming, which actually comes as a breath of fresh air from all the on-rails shooting. During this time you can earn money by apprehending outlaws or by, umm... herding cattle. Money earned by completing such missions can be used to purchase faster and more powerful weapons. The game also has a few boss fights scattered around the place and since this is the Wild West you can only take them out in a fair duel. The dueling system has been vastly improved from the first one and is sure to test your reflexes since it takes only one shot to kill or be killed in this mode.



Unlike the previous game, you can actually select which brother to play as before every mission begins. Unfortunately the game does not support co-operative play so when you play as Ray or Thomas, you’re left with the enemy AI controlling the other one. Friendly AI isn’t too bright but it doesn’t get on your nerves either. The only stupid aspect over here is that you can’t stray too far away from your brother or the mission gets terminated immediately. Thankfully the excessive amount of platforming that plagued the first game has been cut down drastically and unless you’re playing as Thomas, you have nothing to worry about here. Visually the game is very impressive and even though Techland axed DirectX 10 support from BiB, you never really miss it. The game packs in a ton of detail and variety into existing locales. Enemy models tend to get a bit repetitive but both Thomas and Ray are well detailed. Weapon detail is pretty stunning as well and if you’re a fan of American history or weapons in general you’ll appreciate the effort put into them.



Like I mentioned earlier, voice acting is pretty stellar and I really like the chemistry between Thomas and Ray. They love each other like brothers should but at the same time they also rag on each other like two brothers would. The banter exchanged between them during the game is also pretty entertaining.




Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is a marked improvement over the first game. Techland has fine tuned many gameplay aspects to make this game thoroughly entertaining. They’ve axed the annoying bits and replaced it with high production values and balls to the wall gunplay. Its a solid shooter backed by solid production values, high octane gameplay, stellar voice acting and an interesting plot. Buy it now!