12) C is for... Call of Juarez
The challenge: To play through each of the games on my Steam library.
The rules: I have to play at least 1 hour of each game, in alphabetical order.
After having a break over Christmas and New Year (Who am I kidding, I've been playing Overwatch and The Witcher 3), I've made a resolution to try and blog at least once a week. So here we are again, and today's game is Call of Juarez.
Call of Juarez is a fairly famous cowboy-themed first person shooter, perfect for people who's favorite time period is the old West instead of the future (Why??).
The plot, or at least as much of it as I got from the hour I played, is that there's some possibly cursed gold in them thar' hills, and the lust for this gold is called, yep, 'The Call of Juarez'. The story alternates between two characters who are at odds with each other, a gimmick that I really liked. The first is Billy, a young man returning to his village after seeking (and failing to find) the gold, and the second is Reverend Ray, a crusty old preacher who apparently used to be a gunslinger. But mostly is very crusty. His grody yellow nails are rendered in loving detail.
Anyway, Billy returns to his home village, and I think you're supposed to be sympathetic to him, but he literally steals a gun, causes property damage, is relieved of the gun, plots to steal another gun, steals a whip, actually steals a gun whilst breaking and entering, and then steals some bullets, within the first fifteen minutes of returning.. Yeah, he does get framed for some murders by the end of this sequence but if I know anything about Old West Times it's that stealing stuff was usually punished pretty harshly.
The gameplay then switches to Rev. Ray, who sees Billy standing over the bodies of his family and assumes he did it. Which is fairly reasonable since Billy had committed so many crimes already. You go to hunt Billy down and are told not to by the Sherriff, who is then shot at random by a villager. All the villagers then go insane for some reason and start trying to kill you. This is as far through the plot as I got, mostly because I died a whole bunch. I kept falling down holes and getting shot up, and maybe I'm just bad at the game but also it feels like it was designed to hate you. FWIW I played on medium.
The sound and animation of this game are kind of...off too. If you've played Half Life you'll know what I mean. All the voices sound like the person speaking is standing a few inches from your ears, and everyone is bobbing and weaving like they're in a Boxing match whilst chatting to you. It is a twelve year old game though, so I'm probably being picky here.
One thing I really liked about it is the oddly competent and specific physics engine. If you want brilliantly calculated rope physics, then this game is for you. Ditto for being able to smash glass with super precision. I'm not sure why it's like this, but it's pretty fun to mess around with.
Overall though, sadly this games flaws don't endear it to me. It's just too dated, and although I have no doubts that this game was fantastic in it's day, for me it has to go in my BG folder. Sorry!
The rules: I have to play at least 1 hour of each game, in alphabetical order.
After having a break over Christmas and New Year (Who am I kidding, I've been playing Overwatch and The Witcher 3), I've made a resolution to try and blog at least once a week. So here we are again, and today's game is Call of Juarez.
Call of Juarez is a fairly famous cowboy-themed first person shooter, perfect for people who's favorite time period is the old West instead of the future (Why??).
The plot, or at least as much of it as I got from the hour I played, is that there's some possibly cursed gold in them thar' hills, and the lust for this gold is called, yep, 'The Call of Juarez'. The story alternates between two characters who are at odds with each other, a gimmick that I really liked. The first is Billy, a young man returning to his village after seeking (and failing to find) the gold, and the second is Reverend Ray, a crusty old preacher who apparently used to be a gunslinger. But mostly is very crusty. His grody yellow nails are rendered in loving detail.
Please wash your hands, Rev Ray
Anyway, Billy returns to his home village, and I think you're supposed to be sympathetic to him, but he literally steals a gun, causes property damage, is relieved of the gun, plots to steal another gun, steals a whip, actually steals a gun whilst breaking and entering, and then steals some bullets, within the first fifteen minutes of returning.. Yeah, he does get framed for some murders by the end of this sequence but if I know anything about Old West Times it's that stealing stuff was usually punished pretty harshly.
The gameplay then switches to Rev. Ray, who sees Billy standing over the bodies of his family and assumes he did it. Which is fairly reasonable since Billy had committed so many crimes already. You go to hunt Billy down and are told not to by the Sherriff, who is then shot at random by a villager. All the villagers then go insane for some reason and start trying to kill you. This is as far through the plot as I got, mostly because I died a whole bunch. I kept falling down holes and getting shot up, and maybe I'm just bad at the game but also it feels like it was designed to hate you. FWIW I played on medium.
Imagine this but with 'You Died' on it
The sound and animation of this game are kind of...off too. If you've played Half Life you'll know what I mean. All the voices sound like the person speaking is standing a few inches from your ears, and everyone is bobbing and weaving like they're in a Boxing match whilst chatting to you. It is a twelve year old game though, so I'm probably being picky here.
One thing I really liked about it is the oddly competent and specific physics engine. If you want brilliantly calculated rope physics, then this game is for you. Ditto for being able to smash glass with super precision. I'm not sure why it's like this, but it's pretty fun to mess around with.
Overall though, sadly this games flaws don't endear it to me. It's just too dated, and although I have no doubts that this game was fantastic in it's day, for me it has to go in my BG folder. Sorry!
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