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Call
of Juarez
games are fun
because of the
western ties. The
western movie is a
rarity in American
cinema now, and
there have only been
a few western video
games made that were
worth playing. One
obviously is
Rockstar’s amazing
Red
Dead Redemption,
the other is
Ubisoft’s
Call
of Juarez
series. The series
was
never perfect, but
it was forgivable
due to its western
ties.
Call
of Juarez: The
Cartel
branched away from
those western ties,
and it suffers a ton
due to that
departure.
In
Call
of Juarez: The
Cartel,
you can choose from
three different
characters from
three different law
enforcement agencies
that have been
assigned to a
special task force
to take down a
Mexican drug cartel.
Kim was raised on
the streets and has
family and friends
active in L.A.
gangs. Eddie was on
the streets too and
he’s a bit seedy. He
has a gambling
problem and we’re
not altogether sure
that he doesn’t have
something to do with
the cartel itself.
Ben is the
old-school
gun-slinging cop who
shoots first, shoots
again, and then he
might think of a
question when he’s
done. The three
characters are tied
together in the
campaign mode and
you can choose to be
one of them and play
solo, or you can
play as one of the
characters and you
can have up to two
other friends join
you online for some
co-op campaign mode.
That’s really the
lone highlight of
Call
of Juarez: The
Cartel.
The
story isn’t
terrible, but it’s
not easy to follow.
The voice-over, the
cut-scenes, and the
narrated load
screens make this
have the feel of an
old school early
90’s arcade shooter
mixed with
Where
in the World is
Carmen San Diego.
It doesn’t help that
the graphics are
terrible in the cut
scenes (they’re
blocky), and the
voice-overs outside
and inside of the
cut scenes are so
epically bad it’s
hard to get involved
with the game.
Briefly speaking,
there’s some drug
business going on,
and we have to shoot
people because of
it. The end.
The graphics aren’t
just terrible in the
cut scenes their
awful throughout the
game. Everything is
blocky, there are
clipping issues, and
on top of that, the
game doesn’t load
smoothly- it chops…
really bad. Then on
top of that the load
times are bad too.
The
controls aren’t bad
with
Call
of Juarez: The
Cartel.
They’re pretty
standard, switch
weapons, aim and
shoot. It has that
going for it, but
the aiming system
was made for
one-player action.
You can’t rely on it
during multi-player,
or you will get
smoked.
Call
of Juarez: The
Cartel
could’ve been
better. It's not
great like the
previous games in
the franchise. The
story sucks and it
struggles
graphically… oh and
the audio is
laughably bad.
Still, it’s got some
decent controls and
there’s some fun to
be had if you’re
looking for a
shooter to tide you
over this summer.
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