July 23, 2007 - Ah, the old west; a tried and true tradition that has given us some of the most memorable films in Hollywood's repertoire. Since the video game industry seems to emulate a lot of Hollywood's moves, it's rather shocking that the old west isn't a more common theme in video games. The first person shooter genre in particular is ripe for some rootin' tootin' gun slinging action. With the massive amounts of World War II, Sci-fi, and military based shooters on the market today, it's about time that we're given a new setting to blast away in. Enter Ubisoft's new FPS Call of Juarez, the second western themed shooter on the Xbox 360 (the first being Activision's GUN). While the title would suggest a Call of Duty clone set in the Old West, Call of Juarez is a more cerebral, methodical approach to the first person shooter.

Throughout the course of the game, you play as Billy Candle and Reverend Ray. Having dual protagonists in the game allows for a deeper storyline that is presented from two very differing points of view. Billy is a misunderstood vagrant who comes from Spanish and Native descent. Billy is on his way to visit his parents when he finds them slaughtered in cold blood. No sooner than he arrives on this grisly scene does his uncle Ray spot him standing over the corpses. Billy flees the scene and Ray vows holy revenge upon his brother's murderer, whom he assumes is his nephew Billy. Ray in particular is a bible-thumping psychopath who believes that he is a divine angel of death, destined to deliver divine justice at the end of his six-shooters. The rest of game has Billy on the run with Ray hot in pursuit, with a legend of buried Aztec gold thrown in for good measure.

The two characters vary more than just in demeanor and storyline. The two characters play fundamentally differently. Ray's levels are usually straight up blast-a-thons that have you whipping out your six shooters and delivering holy justice unto the many sinners that populate the Old West. Billy, on the other hand, relies more commonly on stealth and environmental puzzles to avoid conflict. Billy isn't defenseless either, as he commonly wields a bow and arrow and a whip.

Generally, Ray's levels are far more entertaining than Billy's. Billy's levels involve a lot of jumping puzzles and crate stacking in order to navigate the environment. With the exception of the Metroid Prime series, platforming in first person has never been a whole lot of fun, and Call of Juarez only serves to strengthen that theory. The game uses an extensive physics engine that allows for destructible environments and realistic object interaction. However, the physics commonly go wonky when you're trying to stack crates one on top of the other, resulting in goofy glitches, clipping errors, and frustrating gameplay. Ray's levels ignore the crate stacking for the most part, as Ray doesn't even have Billy's ability to climb objects. Further compounding the frustrating Billy levels is that he commonly uses a whip in order to latch on to branches and swing over towards his next objective. The problem arises in that you have to be far too precise in your aim to latch onto the branches, which results in many cheap deaths when a dozen enemies are all firing six shooters into your backside. Once the whip is actually latched on, the swing mechanic is extremely poor, resulting in even more cheap deaths. The problem is that it's nearly impossible to get any momentum going on your swing, which means making the jump is more of a matter of luck than timing or skill.

As stated above, Ray's levels are all about shooting first and asking questions never, while Billy relies on stealth. The stealth sections play a lot like last year's Far Cry Instincts. Billy can hide in bushes and shrubbery in order to conceal himself, but the enemies are far too aware of their surroundings, and one misstep will bring dozens of banditos down on you. At least when stealth fails, Billy can activate slow motion with his bow and arrow and take out a few enemies at a time.