Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood

I played this game for the gritty gunslinging and stayed for the melodrama between two brothers who make Cain and Abel look like brunch buddies.

A lot more fun than the first game. With no forced stealth sections, and the ability to choose your playstyle for each Chapter.

I'll have a YouTube playthrough out soon. Watch this space.

Dog-water generic shooter with questionable design choices. Play Gunslinger instead

was really fun and the story was good

gunfighting feels balanced with reload times, distance difference in slower/faster guns and a lot of enemies.

I have played through once and I played as Ray with a Quickshooter, Shotgun combo which worked really well for CQB and barrage attacks. On Ray I'm guessing the ideal combo would be Scoped Rifle with a Quickshooter and a Ranger.

i also liked how different Ray and Thomas' fighting styles are, especially the deadeye.

its very fun and I think it actually has aged really well, feels like an arcade style rdr.

if you are thinking to play call of juarez I think its better to start off with Bound In Blood because it gives you so much lore for the first game and also it runs a lot smoother. first one is a bit janky at times so if you arent invested in the story it can be a bit of a turn off.

I like this game, it's really cool.

The background story before the first Series. New characters and conflicts make this prequel very perfect. The selection of two main characters with their own skills is quite an element. And also, weapons and Dynamite look visually improved.

A bit more COD-ified than it's predecessor, but still a very solid game with gunplay that holds up in 2025. Voice acting is solid, but the music has taken a steep dive compared to the OG. The weapons feel great, though I wish you could dual wield a pistol and a sawn off like in the OG. Nothing beats winning a quick draw using a gold plated derringer, though.

It's dirt cheap like it's younger, more distinguished brother, so I recommend picking it up and giving it a whirl. Takes like 8 hours to finish a campaign on Medium and it has at least one replay in it thanks to there being two playable characters with different arsenals.

Maybe THE BEST EVER western video game. Great plot, Great character writting, Great mechanics!

Amazing Game 1000/1000 And The Servers Are Back We Use A Server Mod To Have Lan Servers Without The Use Of Gameranger And Radmin

Really dang good game. Fixed every issue I had with the first game. Though I do still suck at the duel minigame. :/

Not bad at all. Some issues, as one could imagine, story wise. The controller DOES work, at least an XBox One controller does. Can't speak for other controllers though.

Oof I feel my age playing this one. I recall waiting for it's release happy we were finally getting a Old West shooter for modern consoles back then. So a few things: for it's time it was fairly unique to have a western shooter, the lasso and climbing was new to shooters, and having a partner while not new felt better than Army of Two.

Yes does it feel like COD? What FPS didn't in that time? IS the AI braindead, of course but it's more about their accuracy in hitting you than their own ability to save themselves. Few games now get that right.

Plotline wise I would say a modern western for that time and if you're woke on any level from the quotations of the Bible, non white characters not automatically being the best at everything, a white person actually being able to best them in combat etc...it's not for you but then again neither is history or reality.

For the rest of you: The two McCall brothers are serving in the CSA when the Sherman marches through Georgia and destroys their family home: fun fact: he pefects them on the South before he used them on the indians. They have to ditch the army to save what they can, see their mom die, and meet their younger brother who was in seminary (preacher school to you non christians). Anyways the war ends, and they begin to head West. Eventually meet some Natives and a hispanic femme fatale in search of this ancient indian legend about piles of gold. She screws both brothers they begin to infight, there's a half bred (think Quannah Parker) indian who's out to prove to his indian dad he's a real indian, and so on. Pretty edgy stuff for then and would make a liberal cry that it's unrealistic now because again, they don't know anything about the Old West other than "white man did all the bad things in all of history so why learn it?" But if you're a fan it hits familiar beats with the actual history and movies.

Ray is the brother from the first game, he stupidly wears a curaiss it's never explained other than to make himself bullet proof. He mostly uses dual weld pistols, Thomas his brother is the rifleman. You can choose whichever one you want for the play through and it keeps you to their specialties.

It was good for it's time, a solid B. RDR came out a year later and blew it away. That said RDR was always a tad gutless to handle any of the indians wars, Civil War, etc unless it's from the most out of touch modern perspective and the Redemption series is barely in the 1800s to begin with. I love RDR and RDR2 but the plot of the second is woke and stupid.

This one is literally in classic era but with lots of unrealistic firearms for the time, so think a 1858/1851 combined that's covered for shells, lever actions are common, and the Colt SAA is in there well before it should be. I take it they saw the sales of History Channels Civil War game and decided not to stick to accurate black powder shooting mechanics.

Kinda wish they'd stayed in the era and kept on but they went to Cartel next and then tried to right the ship with Gunslinger far too late. I think if there was a real Old West shooter out there it'd keep Rockstar a lot more honest in much the same way when Battlefield tried to go woke with WW2 we all just turned to games like Hell Let Loose. I can let the history be the history I don't need gays shoved into everything, unrealistic girl bosses, or magic negros who can't lose like Black Panther.

I say this next part as a native american but I'd take any of these natives over Charles or the Waipiti Tribe in RDR2. Better written, more realistic, and straight up not everyone is a good guy and the old ways are not necessarily better. The half breed stuff, ugh that hits close to home, and I'd say that's mostly true. Moreso I love that its a nod to Quannah Parker and straight up admission that the Natives totally did kidnap and make white women into sex slaves then hate the kids they made with them.

Anyways it's a dark game with a ray of light shinning through which is the brother and his Christianity. Hearing it came from Poland now makes the plot make more sense because even for 2009 the religious drops in this are shocking. Far better religious character than anything from the AAA titles. Sets up the original game well and explains Ray's transformation.

good

A little rough around the edges, well worth the 2$ I paid, but maybe not worth 20$ for everyone.
A good story, great core gameplay, fun gimmicks, but not the most polished.

Takes a while to click, but it becomes fun when you get past the jank.

call of peak

I don't know. I would not give this a recommendation nor is it that bad to make me put a negative outright. This is a neutral in my book.
The game is almost a rail shooter with you needing to be close to your NPC brother all the time or the mission fails. There is almost no point in replaying missions with a different brother than you played before. There is slight difference in their gameplay but everything else is the same.
The story has quite a few issues when it comes to a western and the funny part is that this is a Polish game. There is no weight to the story since all the wrongdoings of the main characters have no consequences. Nothing to learn from, nothing to comment on. And it is not even a espresso-depresso/everything is dark type of story. There are good elements but they are never utilized in the right way.
The shooting has issues with the automatic leaning mechanic that I battled against most of the time, the AI is really dumb and your brother companion is invincible so give them enough time and the problem sorts itself out at times. Reload is godawfully slow, especially at the beginning of the game. Dont get me started on the duels... they are glorified QTEs and once you learn what to do, you will still hate them.

The game, with all of its romatization of the Western genre, is made with the idea that people will not play the 1st game. This game ends in a somewhat "happy go lucky way" - hence why I said that there are no consequences to their actions. But this is a prequel to the 1st game, you know what happens after.

Go play Gunslinger, the only one that is different and the only one that is worthwhile.

Just a great western shooter that is a prequel to the first game in terms of story. Awesome western adventure with a decent enough story and fun shooting. It has a nice twist that you can play most levels as one or the other brother which changes gameplay a little bit. If you like single player shooters this is a good one worth your money and time.

Good

Good game but don't feel bad for the confederate main characters. They deserve everything that's coming for them.

3/10

A Tale of Two Guns and a Frustrating Finale

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood delivers a high-octane Wild West experience that mostly hits its mark—right up until it stumbles into the saloon doors during its final act.

Set as a prequel to the original Call of Juarez, Bound in Blood throws you into the boots of the McCall brothers—Ray and Thomas—as they blaze a trail through Civil War-era carnage, gold, lust and brotherly betrayal. For the most part, it’s a solid ride. Gunplay is responsive, the Old West atmosphere is gritty and authentic, and the choice between brothers gives a satisfying layer of replayability. Ray’s brute-force shotgun tactics and Thomas’s precision with a rifle offer a nice contrast that makes each mission feel tailored to your playstyle.

Unfortunately, the experience buckles near the finish line.

The dueling system, a cool concept on paper, becomes an exercise in frustration in execution. What starts as a stylish, tense standoff mechanic devolves into a chore when the game expects unrealistic mouse movement speeds to pull off. In the final couple of showdowns, it felt like I had to crank my DPI to near ludicrous levels just to draw my weapon fast enough—not exactly the authentic gunslinger fantasy I was promised.

But the real outlaw of the game is the Juarez camp mission involving horse wrangling. It’s easily the low point of the entire game. Between infinite enemy spawns and absurd spawn placements—including foes literally appearing on top of you—the mission goes from action-packed to downright aggravating. It disrupts the pacing and makes survival feel more about luck than skill.

Visually, Bound in Blood holds up with strong art direction for its time, and the voice acting does a commendable job selling the strained dynamic between the McCall brothers. However, the polish starts to chip when the game puts pressure on its more gimmicky mechanics instead of sticking to its strong core gunfights and atmospheric storytelling.

Verdict
Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood earns its spurs for most of its runtime, but the poorly executed duels and one disastrously designed mission saddle it with some major baggage. It’s a fun ride through the frontier—just be prepared for a bumpy trail toward the end.

7/10 – Good
"A solid Western shooter dragged down by a handful of frustrating design choices."

BEST GAME FROM THE WHOLE FRANCHISE.

No jank and clunkiness of first game from 2006.

No wackiness of Gunslinger.

Everything about this game was perfect, the story, gameplay, gunplay,..

Idk what else to say.

Maybe shame that servers were closed down and you can't play CO-OP anymore. That would be great to experience with someone.

Instead of this bullcrap should have took the first game and just continued the story with all the same staff on the same old engine. This is slop. Unbelievable.

Dated graphics. Good sound and dialogue; voice actors. Gameplay loop is a bit boring. Dueling is still janky, but better. Story is basically noble savages, Whiteman bad, and massivew cuckoldry. Alright game if you want a bit of the story filled in. Oh, if you like trial and error deaths, this is your game.

Great story telling okay mechanics and fun to play

Very good game.

when games were great

Better than first game 6.2/10

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood takes the flaws of the first game and doubles down on them—while dialing back the things that made the original interesting.

Too much of the gameplay feels like quick-time events or on-rails shooting galleries. You're frequently funneled through linear sequences with no real agency, and just when you think you might get a moment of control, you're back on rails with another scripted event thrown at you.

The cover system tries to interpret your mouse movements to determine where you want to take cover, but it's clumsy and unreliable. More often than not, it guesses wrong, turning what should be a helpful mechanic into a frustrating obstacle.

This feels like a streamlined version of the first game, but not in a good way—more like someone removed the experimentation and left only the overly guided, overly scripted parts behind.

If the original was a flawed but interesting maze, this is a theme park ride where you're not allowed to steer.

This game is slightly overrated but still very fun and easy movements

6/10

U R.... wow, this is a great game :3

Game was boppin and the closest I could get to a civil war game that wasn't trash. Maybe not the most invigorating story ever, but fun is fun!

its a needle in a haystack
a good ass game

game expects perfection while being comically broken. i hope youre a good shot, because the enemies NEVER miss.


or dont. you wont get past the duels anyways. its way too specific and the game barely tries to explain them

At first i didn't like it but when i got to the desert it got so much better
No achievements
Pretty bad graphics and you cant higher them because its a bad PC port
8.5/10

generic af

extremely fun one of the only games iv'e completed and that's a lot iv'e never finished fnv even though i have 1200 hours as of writing. Feels like cod 1 but in the old west

Apart from very bland fps gameplay, this is actually pretty solid for 2009. Worth a buy on a deep discount

Geeked Up Reviews: 3.75/5

*DISCLAIMER*

After paying for one of my favorite childhood games and installing it, the game did not want to work with the mouse I had connected with I could not move or use the mouse to shoot or aim and I even tried a different mouse for the hope for it to work and it did not. I do not recommend this game from Steam because of this massive issue that has no fixes even after checking the community "fixes" that does not work as well.
(Feel free to contact me if you have a fix but please be aware of this issue for your sake)

insane improvement over the first game very basic but very fun

Man another great one tho it hit hard knowing Techland wont do call of juarez no more but it was great i dont regret my time i gave to this game. I knew he was gonna kill William since I played Call of Juarez 1, and he talked about killing his brother while he was just reaching for his Bible. Even though I saw it coming, it still hit hard.But anyway, the gameplay is great. Every gunfight feels smooth, and the duels are intense (fucking died a lot it takes some time to get hang of it). It really nails that Wild West vibe. Definitely a must-play for anyone who loves cowboy shooters like Red Dead Redemption.
I’m gonna recommend it to my friends and see if they like it too. The Call of Juarez series deserves way more love.

Takes to long to reload weapon and the very little direction given on how to accomplish tasks.

This game has amazing western original atmosphere. Three brothers known form civil war are dealing with swarms of bandits as two rebels of justice. That towns, revolvers, guns, horses, sheriffs, saloons and so on. One day, they meet Mendoza, who has beautiful girl standing by him in every situation. The brothers fall in love with her, both of them. After war, bandits, Apaches, they have to face a real threat of the brother relationship...it is love. That´s enough for story, I guess.

I have played over 9 hours of real action on hard difficulty and it was really hard and exciting, sometimes frustrating. Excitement and feel of the western shooting is really great done in this game, but sometimes postt process shooting could let you die really easily. That is one of the disadvantages. What is real disaster of this game are duels, which could bring you to madness. Sometimes you have to try it for over 20 times to pass that mini-games. I understand that duels were classic element for that Wild West times, but it is really destroying the whole game. Story is great, you have really feeling, that you are fighting for your own brothers. So, I give that 7/10 POINTS: Main advantages are: story, shooting moments, graphics and maps, atmosphere. As you want to be cowboy, you should try this one, but prepare for a real rodeo!

Fun shooting mechanics and the game has an interesting story line

Simultaneously an absolute GEMERALD of a game, as well as the most obnoxious 1-tap from full health dying simulator ever made. William is a well written and good character contray to the opinion of some tardfish God-hating reddit users. 9.99/10 will never play the final sequence on hard again.

if you want a good old western game that doesnt require graphics better then intel graphics 620 (intergrated)

✅ Everything is Brown
✅ Insane bloom
✅ Terrible FOV

Certified late 2000s game.

+ Yeehaw

- Holy shit, just shut up already, let me play the damn game
- Old game jank that makes the game feel worse
- Lost Causers be like
- Confederates with lever actions
- Insufferable characters ong
- Buggy to no end for me

3/10, would shoot my brother again.