Review by: Dave VanDyk

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is a top-notch foray into the "Classic Western"—is it bursting at the seams with style, enticing storytelling, and some of the best implementation of action movie clichés I've seen since Max Payne.

Taking place during the American Civil War - and as such a good deal of time before the original game - Bound in Blood focuses on the exploits of the three McCall brothers: Ray, Thomas, and William. After the events of the war leave their homestead in ruins and their dear mother dead, Thomas and Ray decide to desert their ranks in the Confederacy in order to chase after a mythical lost treasure in Mexico which they hope to use to rebuild their home. While William is the non-combatant of the three and prefers to fight using words of faith rather than a hail of bullets, he ends up trailing along with the hope of keeping his brothers from straying too far to the dark side.

If you're expecting that Ray will be the same upstanding, unwavering patriot of punitive justice that he was in the original, you'll find yourself sorely surprised. Right from the game's explosive intro you can tell from Ray's mocking tone as he hefts a rifle over his shoulder and asks his brother if he wants to "do it quietly" that he had quite the different personality before deciding to take up the bible. In fact, much of the game's focus is on Ray and his sometimes abusive interactions with his brothers that flesh out the tragic history of this group and how they tie into the events of the previous game. Of course, all of this doesn't necessarily mean that you'll need to have played the original to get proper enjoyment out of this new release - it actually stands well on its own.

There are quite a few cool gimmicks that make the game stand out from other FPS titles, but most notably is how it can almost be defined as a "single-player co-op" title. Just about every mission lets you pick between playing as either Ray or Thomas, with the other character being driven by the AI and following you throughout the level instead. Either choice has some interesting implications; Ray is pretty much the master of barging into a room and gunning everyone down with his grenade-styled dynamite sticks and akimbo handguns, while Thomas focuses more on an assassin-styled approach with the use of a ridiculously-detailed lasso to get to high areas, scoped rifles for ranged combat, and fancy throwing knives for up-close stealth kills.

Selecting a given character therefore also affects what kind of actions you'll need to perform throughout a given mission; a lot of situations may call for Ray to provide cover fire while Thomas scales a building to scout the area or unlock a door, or for Ray to plant explosive charges on something while Thomas picks off enemies from a distance. Since the AI ends up directing these actions for either of the two characters depending on which one you choose, it's actually quite a cool novelty to go through the levels a second time just to experience things from the other side. Just be prepared to play differently for each character - I spent half the game playing through as Ray and getting used to soaking up bullets, which resulted in me getting cut to ribbons when I suddenly switched to Thomas and realized he was a lot more fragile.