Call of Juarez makes an inspired design decision, which impacts on the game in such a hugely positive way that I can't work out whether its creators are actually geniuses in terms of understanding gaming psychology or just got incredibly lucky. The case for the former is, pretty much, how good it is and how it makes the game better in just about every way. The case for the latter is how rough and awkward many other sections can be. I suspect it may be a little of both - Call of Juarez is a maximalist game which lobs pretty much every idea it can think of at the wall and sees what works. That it's not incoherent in the slightest is one of its greatest assets and a direct consequence of its Inspired Design Decision.
Call of Juarez is a first-person action game with a western setting, from Techland who you'll probably know - for better or for worse - from great-white-hope/great-white-elephant Chrome. And its inspired design decision is to have two characters with hugely different abilities, then alternate levels between controlling one and controlling the other.
Doesn't sound like much. In fact, it sounds like the sort of thing we've seen in games forever.
It's all in the details.
The dual leads of the game are a man of the cloth and a borderline outlaw. Our religious fella Reverend Ray is like Lee Marvin got Brokeback Mountain with Clint Eastwood, somehow managed to get him pregnant and gave birth to the hardest son of a bitch who ever walked the Earth. Who then became a preacher to repent for being the hardest son of a bitch who ever walked the Earth.
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And then decided, actually, God wanted him to use being the hardest son of a bitch who ever walked the Earth for a Higher Purpose. Our rogue is Billy, orphan child, wanderer, searcher of lost Gold (though he's given that up for a bit), who spends the vast majority of the game without any weapon whatsoever. He does have a whip, however, which allows him to climb like a latter-day Garrett from Thief when he still had his rope-arrows. Essentially, Reverend is the fighter character and Billy is the stealth character.
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Posted by GameGuideDog.com Member on October 23, 2008