• Game: Call of Juarez: The Cartel
• Platform: Xbox 360, PS3
• Publisher: UbiSoft
• Developer: Techland
• ESRB: M
• Genre: Action, Shooter
• Players: 1-3



• What's Hot: Co-op designed gameplay, Secret agenda missions



• What's Not: Inconsistent visuals, pointlessly convoluted plot, unreliable mechanics

Review by: Justin Amirkhani

The first two Call of Juarez games weren’t knock-out hits, but they were competent shooters that provided something different with their unique Wild West setting and classic adventure storylines. Leaving the last game I couldn’t help hoping for a sequel because though rough around the edges the series showed promise and I was willing to accept some grit if it offered an alternative to the rote military shooters. That sequel is finally here, but in name only; Call of Juarez: The Cartel has nothing to do with the flawed but enjoyable Westerns I enjoyed.

Naturally the first step in planning a sequel to a series defined by its genre is to strip it of said genre entirely. Rather than expanding on the heels of Red Dead Redemption, the game is set in the modern gang-ridden streets of Los Angeles. Saloons have been traded in for strip clubs and the Colt .45 has been swapped for an AK-47, robbing it of all charm and personality.

Cartel does expand on the co-op theme, but rather than featuring a pair of affectionate but gruff brothers we get an interdisciplinary group of stereotypical police offers with personalities as defined by their age, ethnicity or gender. The only difference between playing the old character, the Latino character, or the girl character is the introductory cinematic that frames what’s intended to be their unique storyline. Sure, the game postures each of the officers as a particular weapons specialist, but it matters not because the weapons they’re supposedly intended to use aren’t unlocked until mid-way through your first playthrough, meaning regardless of who you choose it won’t matter until you’re in too deep to change your mind.

On a technical level the game is an absolute travesty. Techland’s Chrome Engine 5 seems to have some new depth of field filters its predecessor didn’t, except the effect flickers on and off so inconsistently it’s more than distracting. Trying to aim down the sights of your gun while the game tries to figure out if the guy you’re aiming at is in the foreground or background makes it nearly impossible to aim properly. Combine that with a muddied palette and you’ve got the most inappropriate visual design a first person shooter could have.

The game is also riddled with bugs and glitches of the weirdest sort. For example, during one of the horrendous driving segments, the game decided to stop providing objective markers and, lost without direction, I found myself turning onto a highway. Once on said highway I noticed there were no cars, enemies or anything but the road – something had gone wrong. Then the street signs kept repeating and as I searched for a non-existent way off this desolate highway loop, it became apparent I was trapped in some unreal form of video game purgatory.

Even when you’re not driving through barren streets, the too-frequent vehicle segments are an absolute pain because they force you to drive first-person with the most lopsided camera angle ever seen. Never mind the fact that driving a few feet away from the vaguely outlined course will fail the mission, these sessions give solo players absolutely nothing to do but hold the gas as they’re stuck driving while their NPC counterparts have all the fun shooting stuff. The logic for their inclusion is beyond me and with execution so poor, it’s hard to fathom why they’re so frequent.