Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood

Overview

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is a western themed first person shooter. It transports players from a ravaged Civil War-era Georgia to Aztec ruins of Mexico. Players can embody both McCall brothers, Ray and Thomas, in an intense Wild West story line full of greed, lust and lawlessness that takes place during a legendary period of American history. The McCall brothers lived in Georgia during the time of the civil war. They were called in for service for the Confederacy. Both brothers were holding the line somewhere near their family farm, but they were given orders to retreat back. The McCall brothers did not want their farm and family to be over-run by the Yankees. They refused the order and abandoned their positions to save their farm and family. This leads them to the lawless land of the west where they're being chased like fugitives with hope to find unimaginable riches in order to rebuild their lives.

Gameplay

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is a first person shooter that borrows a lot from the gameplay from many others of the same genre. Due to its time frame, there are technological differences that effect the game play in a large way. Since it is set in the 1800s during and after the civil war, the player will be using Six Shooters, Rifles, Dynamite, Gatling Guns, and the classic bow and arrow

to kill the enemy in a large variety of mission types.

Before each level, you get to pick which brother you want to use. They both have different strengths and weaknesses based on the players play-style. Ray is more of a strong gun slinger type that is best used with dual wielding pistols and shotguns, and Thomas is more of a stealth oriented character that uses a lasso to climb up trees or ledges.

One the things in Bound in Blood that sets itself apart from other shooters is Concentration Mode. This differs depending on which brother your playing as. Ray's concentration mode slows down time and allows you to "paint" the enemy with your crosshair. When it's over, Ray shoots everything that you painted. Thomas has a slightly altered concentration mode that also slows down time, but then locks onto the nearest enemy and allows you to get a quick headshot. This can be repeated on multiple enemies until concentration mode is gone.

After certain missions, the player will be able to access a little open world area were they can complete side missions and buy weapons and ammunition. The weapons all vary depending on the weapon type, each type of weapon has a 1-5 rating, 5 being the best. The open world missions include bounty hunting, defending a set zone (train station, farm etc), or collecting items such as cattle. The money made from these missions can then be used to buy more powerful weapons.

Plot

The story is divided in 5 Acts:

• Act I -- We Are Family
• Act II -- She Looked Like an Angel
• Act III -- I Don't Know Who You Are Anymore
• Act IV -- Deep Into a Wilderness
• Act V -- My Faith Is My Shield

Bound In Blood begins with a cutscene showing Ray and Thomas pointing guns at each other in an argument. Before anything else happens, the game flashes back to several years in the past where Ray and Thomas are fighting in the American Civil War. Ray fights his way to his brother Thomas, who got separated from him. After regrouping, the two destroy a large bridge but are then ordered to retreat to the town of Jonesboro. The brothers pull a gun on their commanding officer and abandon their posts to save their family farm. When they arrive, they find their mother dead and the home and all the land a wreck. The two of them, along with their brother William, flee the scene, knowing that Colonel Barnsby will kill them if found.

The game moves forward one year to a town in Arkansas. The brothers get into an argument with the town sheriff and end up killing him in a duel. With the whole town shooting them, the three brothers escape and decide to head to Mexico where Ray believes the Lost Treasure of Cortez is located. He believes they can use the gold to rebuild the family farm and their lives. Once in Mexico, Ray sees a woman named Marisa who is being harassed by some burly gentlemen. Ray and Thomas kill the offenders and are invited to her home for dinner. There they meet her partner, Juan "Juarez" Mendoza. Juarez is the most notorious criminal in Mexico who is also trying to find the gold, and he promises the brothers to give them a share if they help him. They agree, and their first task is to kill a man named Devlin who is trying to find it for himself. At this, Marisa and Ray flirt with each other.

At this time, a tribe of Apaches is planning on making a war with "the white people". The tribe leader asks his son, Seeing Farther, to get 300 rifles for the tribe. Juarez knows that the tribe has a medallion which he believes is key to finding the treasure, and he asks Ray and Thomas to get the medallion in exchange for the rifles. At this time, Marisa expresses her love for Thomas.

At the meeting, they discover that the gun runner for Juarez was captured by the Pinkertons (a private US security guard) and jailed. Ray and Thomas bust him out and return him to Juarez. The brothers head to a meeting at a mine with Juarez, but it goes horribly wrong when the gun runner, having revealed himself as Colonel Barnsby, ambushes them and ties the brothers up. William manages to set everyone free, and the three of them meet up with Juarez and Marisa once again. However, the Apaches approach Juarez and reveal that William told Seeing Farther that the none of the rifles actually worked. Marisa and the brothers are taken back to the village, but Seeing Farther agrees to help them locate the medallion.

Ray and Thomas, with the help of Seeing Farther, manage to get the medallion after fighting through Navajo territory. Seeing Farther comes up with a plan to get Marisa and William out of the camp. He orders Ray and Thomas to distract the Apaches so he can teach William how to use the medallion. Ray confronts Thomas about his love with Marisa, and the two of them start brawling, effectively drawing the attention of all the Apaches in the area. However, the whole area is lit up when Colonel Barnsby and his men find the tribe and start firing cannons. Seeing Farther, Marisa and William are taken hostage. Ray and Thomas kill all of Barnsby's men, but are too late to save Seeing Farther who tells them that William and Marisa were captured by Juarez before dying.

William is questioned by Juarez about how to use the medallion, but he refuses to tell him. Simultaneously, Ray and Thomas split up and head into the camp. Thomas finds Marisa, who convinces him that only she knows how to use the medallion, and the two of them leave. Ray manages to rescue William, but has trouble finding Thomas. Ray kills Juarez and realizes that Thomas abandonded him and Ray.

Ray tracks Thomas to the gold, and confronts him with pistols drawn. The two aim guns at each other, which is the scene players are shown at the beginning of the game. William moves in between the two and faces Ray, saying he won't let him shoot Thomas. William reaches into his coat as if to pull out a gun, and Ray instinctively shoots him. The Bible, which is what William was actually reaching for, flies out and lands at Colonel Barnsby's feet. William hits the ground and dies. Suddenly, a trap is triggered and the entire place begins to fill with sand. After retreating to higher ground, Ray and Thomas kill Barnsby's men and Barnsby himself in a duel. Ray, Thomas, and Marisa abandon the treasure and head back to the farm. Ray becomes a priest and carries William's Bible. Thomas and Marisa marry and have a child.

Weapons

Please note that you start the game with rusty weaponry, but as you progress through the story, new and higher quality weapons are unlocked.

Weapon's quality description are as follows:

• Rusty
• Normal
• Prime
• Superb

Note: the better the quality, the higher the weapon's damage, accuracy and reload speed will be, in regards to their maximum stats.

In addition to these weapons, the player can also:

• Throw Oil Lamps at a group of enemies in order to stun them
• Use Chairs as a strong melee weapon

Multiplayer

Bound In Blood features a deep multiplayer mode with game modes like

Team Deathmatch

and a VIP-style mode. During a match, players get money from kills and completing objectives (instead of experience points) that they can use to buy more classes and upgrade the ones that they're using.

PC System Requirements

• • • OS: Windows® XP SP2 and SP3/Windows Vista® (only)
    • Processor: 3.2 GHz Intel® Pentium® 4 or 2.66 GHz Pentium D/AMD® Athlon™64 3500
    • Memory: 1024 MB RAM (2 GB recommended)
    • Graphics: 256 MB DirectX 10.0/9.0-compliant video card with Shader Model 3.0 or higher (see supported list*)
    • DirectX®: 9.0c/10.0 (included)
    • Hard Drive: 4 GB free
    • Sound: DirectX 9-compatible sound card
    • Peripherals Supported: Windows-compliant keyboard, mouse, gamepads
    • Multiplayer: Broadband connection with 128 kbps upstream or faster

*Supported Video Cards at Time of Release

• • ATI RADEON X1650-1950 / HD 2400-2900 / 3650-3870 / 4650-4870 series
  • NVIDIA GeForce 6800 / 7600-7950 / 8600-8800 / GTX 260-280 series

Note: Laptop versions of these cards may work but are NOT supported