Techland
Call Of Juarez

About movies set in the good old Far West, you can say anything: that the dialogues were always the same, that the actors had only two expressions, and that the films would have been classics even if the close-ups on the actors didn't last half an hour each. But certainly what helps make the stories of the distant West fascinating is the territory itself, the Far West, with its arid climate, vast desert territories, long journeys measured in days, and the thick aura of mystery surrounding each character.

The stories of Billy Candle and Reverend Ray come together following a single path and alternate in gameplay, adapting to the stories of the two characters. Billy, a boy of Mexican origins, starts his adventure searching for an old Aztec treasure but finds himself having to flee from the wrongful accusations of his mother's murder, amplified by racial prejudices against him. Alone against everyone, his search turns into a flight for his life, and being alone, he finds himself escaping in the stealthiest way possible (hence his missions are of the stealth type). If some games manage to transmit nightmare sensations, CoJ, through the parts featuring Billy, makes you feel the same sensation of the loneliness of a fugitive forced to act unseen, often finding himself alone even in the midst of canyons, encountering only rattlesnakes or the occasional bandits to take down before they can alert the rest of the group, elements that help make the solitary escape truly realistic.

A very different story is that of the Reverend, who decides to pursue Billy after finding him beside his dead mother and being led to think of murder by the boy's instant flight, actually driven by fear of being caught and wrongfully accused. The continuous attacks by revolting bandits and this last sight drive the Reverend mad. Before starting the chase, he goes to church to retrieve two old revolvers from an old trunk, and here begins his adventure, accompanied by the conviction that he can kill on God's behalf(!). The man of faith proves to be a skilled gunslinger (and his missions are therefore of the shooter genre), and he can also enjoy the historical "bullet time" mode (a mode where the protagonist can momentarily be faster than others in a gunfight, dodging bullets in Matrix style and easily focusing on enemies, initially exclusive to the game Max Payne but later used in many other first-person shooters). Additionally, in his inventory, he possesses the most bizarre weapon I've ever seen, not only in the virtual world, the Bible. Used to confuse enemies, it has the limitation of allowing you to hold only a single revolver! FAITH IS TOUGH DEB-COWBOYS!

EXCITING is also the way you face the bosses, that is, the duel in the old-fashioned way, where the more precise and faster one survives.

As for the music, not being able to take anything other than Ennio Morricone as an example, I prefer to avoid the comment. However, the intensity is there, and the music that conveys the smell of danger is there, starting to make you really worry.

A splendid western spaghetti thrown in first-person, for a few more finger cramps!