It was a while ago that I stumbled across this game for free. You can still find it on steam often going on sale still. I downloaded it and honestly forgot about it pretty quickly. It’s a good thing that I did.
A couple weeks ago I was looking through my library wondering what games I could write about and stumbled across Call of Juarez again. Since then I have been trying to find every spare second in the day to get onto the computer and get in some gun slinging. Without work or the holiday season at hand, I would have burned through this game in two, three days max. Even now I just want to go right back to it and start a new game+
Call of Juarez: Gunslinger isn’t the type of game that usually grabs my attention. Like I said earlier I only got it because it was free. What I didn’t realize is that there was so much more to the game than it showed in previews.
Yes there’s a large “first person shooter” element to it, which was done wonderfully. There is also a lot more actual history in the game. While not everything Silas Grieves (your character) says is completely true, it’s all based around the truth. More so there are “nuggets of truth” to find around in each level that not only give you the accurate rendition of what happened. They also give you a nice boost in experience as well.
Another thing that this game does extremely well is story telling. Literal story telling. The cut scenes and build up between chapters is largely just your character at the bar drinking and retelling his tales to the few people there. Usually this is something I would kind of just zone out for or skip. The was Silas tells the stories had me captivated. I don’t know if it was the timbre of his voice or the semi-true history that I was learning, either way I was hooked.
To make things more interesting most of the bosses in this game weren’t just out in the open. Much like the old west that a lot of us image, it comes down to who has the faster draw.
While the first time you’re up against someone it was laid out pretty simple, they do manage to make it more complicated later on. Slowly introducing elements that, if you can manage them all, give you a better chance of surviving the duel. As an honorable cowboy you don’t want to be the one to draw first, just faster. Managing an honorable kill gives you a lot of bonus experience as well.
There are a lot of ways to advance your gameplay as well. Depending on how effective you are at gaining the high point totals with specialized shots and/or carrying a combo, you could upgrade all the skill trees by the end of the game. Even if you don’t, there’s always the “new game +” to go through again and finish off the skill trees.
I tend to play a slower, sneakier and from a distance type of game so I specked my character that way originally. By the end of the game I had gone through a second skill tree and was starting up on a third. Although close range combat isn’t normally my thing, the skills I was gaining in those other trees really did make that style of gameplay enjoyable as well.
The further and further I got into the game I wanted to know more and more of Silas Grieves history. As he delves into it further and you learn more about how he got to where he is, it makes a lot of sense.
It’s a story worth hearing till the end.
TLDR
Call of Juarez: Gunslinger is an interesting game with an amazing story. Based largely in the truth surrounding the wild west, Silas Grieves recollects some of his wild life for those at the bar. As you play through his stories you get to learn a little about old west history and even more about Silas.
A leveling system that is well geared to a few different playstyles and some other features that elevate the first person shooter experience. If you have any interest in the old west or first person shooters I would say give this game a shot.
You can find Call of Juarez: Gunslinger on steam as well as a more recent port over to the Nintendo Switch. Originally released for the Xbox 360 and playstation 3, its graphics are a little dated but still a lot of fun.
Game Rating: Time Well Wasted
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