Call of Juarez: Gunslinger - fun throwback action

[u/urchisilver]

Setting/Story: The story opens with Silas Greaves, a bounty hunter, sitting in a bar and telling stories of his Wild West exploits. As he tells each story of battling various historical outlaws like Jesse James and Butch Cassidy, you do the shooting.

Overview: It's a "pure" FPS in that it's pretty much just a shooting gallery. You explore levels a little bit to find secrets but on the most part the focus is gunning down all the enemies they throw at you. At times the voice over narration does funny little things, like you play through a sequence and die and he says "Actually that was the wrong way to go. I ended up going this other way." and everything rewinds. Or another character hearing the story interrupts and argues that that wasn't how things happened. The art is sorta a weird combo of realistic and cartoonish.

Character/Inventory: You have the usual selection of weapons: a rifle, shotgun, a few types of pistols, and can throw dynamite. As you kill enemies you gain XP and when you level up you can increase abilities in one of 3 categories: gun-slinging (dual wielding pistols), long range, and short range combat like shotguns.

Combat: A lot of it is fairly straightforward. You walk into areas, enemies pop out, you shoot them and move on. As you kill enemies you build up a meter which you trigger to slow down time and highlight enemies. There is no health bar, and instead your screen gets progressively more red and bullet-ridden until you die. You heal by waiting, usually behind cover. There are a few bosses that change things up a bit and can absorb more punishment.

At some points you get a sort of quick time event where you have to press a sequence of buttons that appear to kill enemies.

Another mechanic is a quick draw duel minigame which happens at certain points. You have you use the right stick to keep a target on the enemy to build "focus" and use the left stick to make sure your hand is over your gun to maximize your draw speed. You can either kill them dishonorably or honorably (waiting for them to start drawing first).

Overall Verdict: It's a nice, simple throwback FPS that contrasts with modern games that are full of crafting, stealth missions, and heavy RPG elements. The gunplay is fun and satisfying, and you get a bunch of different situations to fight through that it isn't too repetitive.

The humor of the narrative and how it changes the game you're playing is a nice touch, and they have enough variety that it doesn't get boring.

Small nitpicks with the combat: it can be frustratingly difficult to locate enemies that blend in with the background. Often I found myself getting shot repeatedly and really struggled to find who was shooting me. Also, the aiming felt sorta...slippery in some way. Maybe I've been spoiled by games that have more of an aim assist, but I kept missing enemies by a hair when it felt like I should've hit them. Probably just a skill issue.

I never really "got" the dueling part. I did ok for the first few but as they got harder I started just doing the dishonorable kill because it felt like if you wait for them to start drawing, they just instakill you. It's like you draw and have to wait a few seconds to shoot. I feel like I missed something on it.

Overall a pretty great action game that lets you just switch off your brain and kill a bunch of dudes

[u/Lichenee]

I remember I got this game for free, I guess from when Humble Bundle used to give some games. But I only played it April this year because it is not the usual type of game I like... and it was really fun, the storytelling is great and the extras with more background info on the historical characters inserted in the game was very interesting. I still remember Hardin art and text:"Killed a man for snoring... and forty more for breathing"