Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood

For everyone who ever dreamed of being a cowboy, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood lets them experience the wildest Wild West ever created. This Western-themed first-person shooter takes its inspiration from Spaghetti Western movies, and features all of the elements that those movies are famous for:

gunslingers, outlaws, duels, prison breaks, bank robberies, stagecoach chases and conflicts with red Injuns (Native Americans to you and me).

The game takes place during and after the American Civil War. Brothers Ray and Thomas McCall start the game as soldiers of the Confederate army (so they may have called it the "War of Northern Aggression"). Discovering that their farmstead in Georgia is under threat from Union forces, the brothers become deserters in order to return to defend their home. As a result of their desertion, they are wanted criminals, and they head for America's wide, wild West; both to seek refuge and also to search for the Gold of Juarez, which will enable them to retrieve their home and their reputation.

Ray and Tom have different characters, which results in them favouring different styles of combat. Ray favours close-up, melee-style combat, and duelling, and as a result is a demon with pistols. Thomas favours long-range combat, so as a result he prefers rifles and throwing knives. The weapons in the game are accurately modelled after real 19th century weapons.

The multiplayer aspects of the game are team-based, with players taking part as either "Lawmen" or "Bandits". Some multiplayer maps are directly inspired by famous Western movie sets.

An interesting feature of multiplayer is the scoring. It uses a "Bounty" system in which players who have killed more opponents are worth more.