With their ten gallon hats tipped down to cover their eyes, and six shooter yearning for an itchy trigger finger, the previous Call of Juarez games were effectively interactive spaghetti westerns. Played from the first person perspective, the games focused on storyline and characters over mindless shooting, but bought the old west to life in a way that no others had. Until GTA creator Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption came along, anyway. Seemingly spooking Ubisoft into making a few changes to their own western series, Call of Juarez: The Cartel transports the action to the present day, with a gang of lawmakers seeking to bring a different type of criminal to justice - a Mexican drug trafficking Cartel, with their pockets in everything from prostitution to protection rackets, running across the Mexican border, and into southern California and Texas.
Things come to a head on the 4th of July, on American Independence Day, as "unknown assailants" launch a bomb attack on the United States, specifically the offices of the Drug Enforcement Administration. With the prime suspects being the Mendoza Cartel, a notorious gang of Mexican criminals, the Government pull together a trio of Sheriffs, with orders to march in and win the west - detective Ben McCall, a Vietnam veteran and more foul mouthed, and ruthless, American version of Gene Hunt, FBI agent Kim Evans, and the sole survivor of the DEA blast, DEA agent Eddie Guerra. At the start of the game, you can choose to play as either one of them, although their stories are all mostly exactly the same, differing only in terms of objectives.
Your gang of lawmakers. Sunglasses not necessary.
Like the previous games, Call of Juarez: The Cartel treads the line between fact and fiction, with the whole game presented in a way that actually seems strangely plausible. News bulletins form the breaks between levels, as Fox News style presenters discuss whether America should respond with a full scale military invasion of Mexico. That the game's titled Juarez, after Ciudad Juarez is also fitting, as, although the game only makes a fleeting stop there, this is one of the deadliest places in the world, and a hub for drug trafficking activity, with over 1,400 murders in 2008 - and it's also where my brother's CAD company have their manufacturing plant, fact fans.
Anyway - back to the game. Much like the agents, who're pulled together and plonked onto the case without much in the way of an explanation, you too are dropped in at the deep end. To say that Call of Juarez isn't that user friendly would be an understatement, as the game begins without anything in the way of a tutorial, or any prompt of what to do - which isn't all that great if you're new to first person shooters, and isn't much better for those with any experience, as the buttons are a bit mixed up, when compared with other shooters. Reloading, for example, is found on Y, rather than X like on most shooters, so a quick pop up prompting you the first time you have to reload would have been nice. Like the agents, you're on your own.
Unlike many other shooters, The Cartel's driven by a strong storyline that affects everything you do. You're never just shooting people indiscriminately, and often don't actually have to shoot anyone at all, as you walk into clubs to find informants, burn fields of drugs, and even drive cars, as you're hunted down by an angry bunch of Mexican gang members. The story develops both through the levels, and in cutscenes, helping keep you in the middle of the action, and keeping things moving apace.
Looks like you've scared the pants off that gangster. Or shot him.
The only problem is, the story in Call of Juarez moves so quickly, you may have trouble following it to begin with. With characters being introduced at a Lord of the Rings rivalling rate, you won't initially be sure who's who, or what's what - but, thankfully, the more you play, the more obvious things get (as things should do), and sooner or later, you'll find yourself playing along just to see where the story goes next - something which is made even more intriguing thanks to a "who dunnit" style atmosphere between the three agents.
At various times in the game, you'll receive phone calls from various higher ups, who all seem to be rather suspicious of your colleagues - and not without reason. Kim Evans has a brother engaged in gangland activity, and so can't be relied upon to make clear judgments when it comes to dealing with gangs, as her main priority will be keeping her brother, not her country safe, while Eddie Guerra garners the most suspicion - as the sole survivor of the blast, strong questions are being asked as to where Eddie's loyalties lie.
Sadly, though, the story's never taken to the heights it could have reached, as the characters feel like complete and utter scumbags. Kim is far and away the nicest person there, but the entire script's peppered with entirely unnecessary swearing (if a sentence hasn't got at least two f words, it probably got cut, seemingly), and racial slurs ("cracker" and "gringo"). Some of the actions of McCall, too, who on more than one occasion throttles a woman to get information, don't exactly help you relate to the characters, who seem to have had their "hard nut" status turned up to 11.
Annoyingly, your partners will yell at you throughout the game whenever you miss a shot - moaning that you should "TRY AIMING". Looks like McCall's had enough of their "advice"
Thankfully, though, the "don't trust anybody" atmosphere plays into the gameplay as well, with an interesting idea called "Secret Agendas". From time to time, you'll be phoned by higher ups, or other characters you've come across in the game, and asked to perform certain tasks without your fellow agents spotting you - for example, you may be asked to steal a mobile phone from a known drug boss, to see if there's any information about Eddie on there. While it's an interesting idea, it's obviously been designed for use in multiplayer, where you can genuinely go behind your partner's back, as in single player, your fellow agents never seem to leave your side, unless you're in a firefight. And while the game lets you play online with two friends, it's disappointing that there's no option for split-screen play - especially as the game's been designed to be played in co-op. Admittedly, it may have been a bit hard to receive secret agendas with two other people watching the same screen, but a prompt to look away at the start of each mission, while each agent gets given their secret objective, would have been a reasonable workaround.
Along with the secret agendas, each level is scattered with between four and eight hidden items - wallets, mobile phones, and other things of that nature, that you need to try and collect in secret - again, without any of your teammates spotting. Adding an extra incentive to go off the beaten track and explore the levels, whilst trying to lose your AI controlled teammates (again, this would be much easier in multiplayer), the hidden collectibles are a nice touch - and when you successfully manage to nick them, you'll earn XP, which in turn will help you level up, and unlock more weapons.
On the downside, however, hunting down the secret items can also sometimes lead you astray. On one level, we began with our weapons holstered, as we were meant to be making our way into a nightclub to speak to a man about a missing woman. Instead, however, we decided to explore the entire area, leaving no corner untouched in our search for the hidden items. Somehow, we then managed to find our way into an area of the level we weren't meant to reach until much, much later - where we promptly found ourselves under fire, without a way to defend ourselves. Sometimes, OCD can be a bad thing.
While you drive in single player, your partners can lean out the windows, and blast things.
As you're policemen and women, though, you don't tend to pull your gun until someone pulls one on you. Of course, this being a shooter, that tends to happen quite a lot, but as servants of the people, you'll need to be careful who you shoot - while there's no problem if you take down a gangster who's firing shots off with gay abandon in the middle of a nightclub, you'll actually fail the mission if you kill just two civilians. In situations like the aforementioned nightclub, that's a bit tricky. When enemies seem to look and dress just like civilians, and aren't highlighted in any way (bar when you put your gun's cursor over them, and even then only if you're not specifically aiming), it can be difficult to distinguish friend and foe, which can lead to one too many cases of blue-on-blue, and a failed mission. It's a problem made worse by an annoying depth-of-field effect which blurs out almost everything bar the thing that's directly under your reticle, making it impossible to see enemies moving around in the distance - or correct your aim.
Mostly though, the actual shooting is fine. Aiming, and the whole game seems slower than most shooters, giving you time to react, whilst also giving you the precision you need to aim effectively. At the start of each mission, in an awful menu that's actually quite hard to understand, you'll be given the chance to choose three weapons to take with you on your mission - and you'll be provided with stats for damage, rate of fire, and accuracy, etc for each one, letting you choose weapons that'll play to your own strengths. Those who trust their aim and want to plough through the game will carry a six shooter or Magnum, as one bullet, so long as it hits, is enough to take down most enemies in one shot, which, when combined with the Spanish guitar that seems to sometimes start twanging away in traditional western combat when you enter combat, it can make you feel very, very cool indeed.
With an inventive, and involving storyline twisting its way through a decently sized single player adventure, Call of Juarez: The Cartel is an enticing prospect, let down mainly by its poor dialogue, which makes characters completely impossible to relate to, or sympathise with. It's also far too gory, with even punches sending incredibly unrealistic quarts of blood flying, and staining the walls with claret. It's all a bit sad, really, as had the game tried less hard to be so "mature", by including buckets of blood, excessive swearing, and nudity, we'd probably have been left with a much better game.
Still, with a story it's well worth seeing through to the end, and more twists and turns than a bale of tumbleweed, Call of Juarez: The Cartel is well worth picking up if you're in the mood for a story - so long as you know your way around a first person shooter.
Format Reviewed: Xbox 360
