Call of Juarez

Great game. Some jank and silliness, but nothing super horrid.

Really liked Reverend Ray & Billy :) great design and voice acting across the board. Gun-play ranged from alright to kinda nice. A random detail I liked was that the horses put their ears back when they sprint/canter. Cute :D

you can easily see how games like red dead would become so popular, a simple shooting gallery, i'm very curious to play the other games and see if they chose to continue the story of this game, the story itself is rather interesting not really giving you time to wrap your head on whats happening while also presenting itself as a basic cat and mouse chase in the early game, i enjoyed the parkour of billy's chapters and found the reverend to be based as fuck, with a bible to send all bandits to hell that he can even read verses, the age is the only real negative about this game

Would I recommend this game? Yesn't. Yes, if you are used to janky Eastern European games, slippery slopes and you don't bother the grind with often little to no reward. No, if you want a quick pew pew yee-haw experience.

Now with that out of the way, let's focus on the two protagonists and the two entirely different gameplay they bring. I hardly like Billy's missions at all. While I do enjoy his bow and arrow (which requires careful aim and patience when your enemies are moving), the climbing sequences are a disaster. And the whip. THE FN WHIP. It's sooo bad. I have died so many times just because the whip did not make me jump high enough or I just simply slipped after moving 0.000001 mm on the surface of a rock.

But this is overshadowed by the fact that more than half of the game is spent playing an insane bounty hunter-turned-minister who can dual wield pistols, a pistol with a sawed-off shotgun or a pistol with The Bible (the latter can't be used as weapon). The bullet time feels very repetitive but also really satisfying if you pull off 5 headshots in one sequence. I also liked how you have to make your bullets count and choose between different types of pistols based on their strenghts and usage. I recommend a Ranger-Quickshooter combo or the Vulcan Gun with the Quickshooter (although this is only available at the end). In any case, have a Quickshooter with you.

Additional Positives: The scenery is beautiful. this remedies Billy's missions somewhat as he needs to climb and wander A LOT so you will be forced to admire the levels. Credit where it's due, the developers really did create breathtaking levels, even if you will fall down 10x in a row from a stupid rock. I also really enjoyed the soundtrack. There aren't many songs but the OST is dynamic and I did not mind hearing the same battle music for the 12th time.

Additional Negatives: The fist fights and the duels suck. The first is just button smashing until your enemy dies, the latter just feels really forced. You mean to tell me that this crazy dude just shoots up the whole train and the sorrounding area, blows up a bunch of TNT, reads condemning verses from The Bible on top of the corpses of the enemies and... courteously goes out to duel with a dude cause he asked nicely? Nah. And sorry, when you execute the guy in one shot during the duel, it's really awesome but at the end of the episode I just don't have the patience to deal with this nonsense.
Also wtf is this getting punished for shooting corpses and animals? What is this, the Polish PETA inquisition? the game even dropped me out for allegedly shooting a dead horse when I aimed at the NPC hiding behind it.
*sigh* 5.5/10. Good for one playthrough and then deleting from your pc. Buy it when it's on sale, isn't worth 9.99 €.

Good game

Although game plot is good,there are tons of bugs running this game.Easily crash when you play on DX10.Many game instructions are unclear.I bugged almost 5 times playing the last duel scene against Juarez:Suddenly died before the duel begin.If you met bugs on DX10,play DX9.And if you met bugs on DX9,turn to DX10.That will fix.
Story is really dark.Not over five good guys in this game.Cruel and brutal wild west.

Poor performance on new hardware (mostly screen tearing regardless of settings). The game is wonky but likeable. It has an interesting story that alternates between two protagonists. The story is somewhat insane at times, it does take inspiration from a few western classics.
The game is overall good, but not the most pleasant experience due both gameplay and performance issues.

It is not good but it is beautiful and you must play this entire series

Good game

Had fun

I played for the first time close to the launch date, it was great, but is still great?

It is an interesting game following a little bit of the gameplay style of Half-Life, where it is not just run and shoot, but also some physics puzzles, exploration, and jumping around. The bad part is that it takes a while before the action starts.

I like this kind of game with more exploration, but, at the time, it was much harder for me because my English was bad. I understand most of it. Nevertheless, I got stuck a lot on simple parts. Now, I can enjoy better.

I still think that the first game is better than the second (Bound in Blood). The gameplay is almost the same, but the animations are more primitive in the first. You don't feel like you are shooting a gun, there is little impact to the player in the animations. However, the duel is much better, you actually play and control your character. It is not just some close timing to press a button then wait and press another button.

The story of the two main characters is told in a more interesting way. it hooks me from the start what is happening, even though I already know what will happen.

I played the DirectX 10 version and encountered some crashes and physics problems like falling from the ground and dying after a cutscene. At least one or two reloads and it is fine. Another problem is at the second to last mission, you can't downgrade the graphics without having to quit, and because the highest graphics have too much bloom the brightness obscures the dynamites you have to shoot to avoid a trap.

The music is more monotonous than the following games. There is more action-packed music, but it is not that good or memorable.

The pacing is not perfect for me, especially with Billy. He has a couple of boring and long missions. I like stealth, but only if you have options to deal with enemies and not just wait. And there are a couple of really long missions.

Overall the game is very good and fun. Even though the gameplay is not the best comparing with current titles it still stand as a good game.

+ Great narrative
+ Duels
+ Ray "bullet time"
- Gun recoil lacking feel
- Boring long parts with Billy
- Crashes

Call of Juarez tries many things to avoid being an ordinary western FPS and often fails in the process. The gameplay flow constantly changes from episode to episode. One moment, you're the badass Reverend Ray who believes he's the hand of God, and the next, you're just an ordinary kid named Bill.

As Reverend Ray, you are always in a gunfight. You can dual-wield two revolvers alongside a shotgun or rifle if you want. The gunplay feels good and dynamic thanks to the physics engine. 80% of the objects can interact with bullets, so you can't hide behind cover forever. The body ragdolls feel satisfying when you kill enemies. Ray’s voice actor makes him feel so alive. It’s a very dramatic and theatrical performance, but it fits the character because Ray’s mental health is messed up.

And as Bill, that’s where the game gets boring. You can use guns as Bill too, but most of the time, the game won’t let you. It forces you into stealth sections or different things like hunting rabbits, climbing a mountain, running from someone, or searching for something in lifeless places. And because of the clunkiness of the game, these sections feel boring.

Stealth mechanics are just crouching and walking. You can’t knock out anyone to make the mission a little easier, and since enemies can spot you from a distance, you'll have to do everything again from the last save point or quicksave.

I think Call of Juarez is a divisive and experimental game from Techland, even though it becomes boring and unbearable because of Bill’s episodes. If you are interested in the western theme, you should give it a chance.

I didn’t expect this game to feel this authentically Western. The developers did a marvelous job making every inch of it feel like your classic Sunday night Western movie on TV. For its time, Call of Juarez masterfully crafted its missions—whether it’s open-world shooting, horseback chases, hunting, Assassin’s Creed-style platforming, or classic dueling, every Western trope is here.

You’ve got Billy, the rebellious drifter, and the preacher, a Punisher-like character on a redemption journey. You can play with both of these characters and the gameplay for each of these characters' missions are somewhat different and needs a bit different tactics.

The atmosphere is spot-on, and aside from a few rough gameplay elements, this game is a hidden gem for its age.

That said, some mechanics feel unintuitive. For example, in the final scene, I spent 15 minutes trying to draw my gun the usual way—only to realize the game classified it as a duel, requiring the special duel maneuver. The game gives no hint about this, which was frustrating.

But aside from these occasional missteps, Call of Juarez is a solid experience that successfully delivers on everything it sets out to do. A must-play for anyone interested in older FPS titles.

I was stuck on the first tree where u had to swing across with your whip for 30 minutes. I love old games that just fuck u right in the ass if u're shit.

i really liked it, imo better than rdr 1

good game, but bad performance on new hardware

good

good story, unique gameplay.
watch my playthrough on youtube https://www.youtube.com/@tomiko17

Classic Western game, a very immersive and compelling story.

Got to the final boss fistfight and decided to not subject myself to this game any longer.
I'd say this game was extremely dated but this was janky even for 2007.
Just watch or read a story synopsis and skip this one.

i hate this game so much

best

Yee haw

Kinda janky but enjoyable yeehaw.
HOWEVER, my game has repeatedly crashed while trying to load a new section almost every single time on multiple version (Original, Directx 10, Safe). The need to open the game again, play through a new section and hope that I'm not caught off guard by a random crash seriously takes the fun out of the game.

Great game but techland issued a ton of invalid keys so there's a good chance you won't be able to play without doing some research.

The story looks interesting but it's too old even for me.
Usually, I don't care about the graphics for the game. but unfortunately, I faced some issues that broke the game.

I hope someday we'll get at least a remastered version of Call Of Juarez

Call of Juarez is an underrated gem. Having never played this game, I really had no idea what to expect, but I wasn't expecting to have as much fun as I did. You play as two different characters in this game, Billy Candle and Ray McCall, Billy is on the run for most of the game, and a lot of his missions are focused on stealth based bow and arrow combat, while Ray's missions are focused on full throttle run and gun combat. While you visit a few levels as both of these characters, visiting those levels again doesn't feel too repetitive since their playstyles are so different. The game really leans in to Ray being an absolutely psychotic priest, and it makes him an incredibly cool character. Billy, hilariously, has some really bad voice acting, but somehow it adds to the charm of this game. Call of Juarez is an incredible experience that I cannot recommend enough.

This was a good game even if its from 2007 and the controls and such are finniky. Besides the crashing which is fixed by opening it in what version its in diffrently. Banger game though, scratched my western itch. It doen't take 25.4 hours to beat.
9/10

Editing the review since I have finished it.

The game is old so you can expect some Janky gameplay, the story is kind of meh tbh.

You play as 2 characters, Padre and Billy, Billy side is really REAAAALLY boring, but I guess is what drives the narrative of the game forward.

Padre gameplay is more fun and interesting and action packed.

No spoilers, so the game is set around a legend of a large sum of gold buried in the border with Juarez, people who try to get that gold say will go mad, hence calling it "The call of Juarez".

As Billy, you return after searching for the gold to your old town, however you get framed for the killing of your parents (Not spoiler since it happens in the first minutes of the game), Padre is Billy's uncle and when he arrives at the farm he sees Billy escape hence thinking he did that so he goes in a hunt.

When you have to use the whip as Billy you might get frustrated, just know that you don't have to jump when you use it on a tree, also the Horse chases are really REAAAAALLY Janky, it was really annoying, specially with the checkpoints in this game, so I recommend that if you get stuck just make some save points when you make enough progress.

Also, play this with Safe mode DirectX 10, the game crashed on me a lot in other modes except this one (Which I only had one crash)

Other than that: 7/10, is not a bad game, but I don't think I would replay it, if you are interested, buy it with discount.

I started playing Call of Juarez with Gunslinger, the third game in the series and I was hesitant about going back to such an old game and comparing it with a much more modern version, but surprisingly the story, graphics and gameplay holds up surprisingly well in 2025, and I had no issues running it out of the box on Windows 11 without needing any tweaks.

Tip: To get the best experience I recommend launching the game through your Steam library instead of the desktop shortcut and select to run it in DirectX 10 to gain enhanced graphics and better textures in game.

The voice acting's good and the storytelling is pretty unique in that you play as 2 characters who spend half the game trying to outrun and kill each other, with a surprise later on but I don't want to give away any spoilers.

The gunplay and weapon handling is pretty good, not perfect by modern standards but I enjoyed the old school ragdolls that have that awesome late 2000's heaviness to them that seems to have been lost over the years.

The story has you running through a mix of stealth and action missions, but I found the stealth parts (when playing as Billy Candle) are optional, and it is possible to just shoot your way through all missions if you prefer, with exception to a couple of "absolutely do not harm anyone" type scenarios, but I only remember 2 or 3 of those.

It took me about 7 hours to complete, and to my surprise, the multiplayer server list still seemed somewhat active!

I've NEVER played a game with so much charm, and I've played a TON of games! And yes, it works right out of the box at 1440p (probably 4k too) with no tweaking/modding required. Although I have to mention I kept crashing in one particular checkpoint in the 5th mission and switching to DX9 fixed the problem for me. Once I reached the next checkpoint, I switched back to DX10 and it's been smooth since.

The animations in this game feels stiff, the shooting is OK, but the game is so damn memorable, and puts a smile on my face, especially since I LOVE the setting. You play as 2 characters - Billy Candle and Reverend Ray where Billy's missions are slower paced with a bit of shooting but has a focus on mission variety, while Reverend Ray is all about mowing down bad cowboys. The game is paced so well because of this.

You do some cowboy shootin', some horse chasin', fight on a train, sneak into your ex-girlfriend's house because her dad wants to kill you, meet a Native American named Calmwater who talks like he's Miyagi, you climb a tall mountain etc. etc., man I just love it!

The game gives off Project I.G.I vibes with some very open levels where you traverse long distances on foot, but it makes you feel more like a badass than feel bored because of the layout and the background music which again is sooo good. The game has a couple of badass cowboy tracks and a few missions in the middle where there is some tribal music with drums n flutes - they're all so well done!

The game is all old-school charm, and if you've played the game in the past and liked it back then, chances are you'll love it even more now. The only people I see not enjoying this game are new gamers who install the game, press jump, see the animations being stiff, and uninstalling right after. Because if you can look past the initial 'old-game' shortcomings, the game is just so much fun!

BUY IT!

Gameplay 7/10
For a 2007 game, it’s pretty solid. Cool concepts, two different protagonists with two completely different playstyles (one sneaky, the other one more Rambo), I think Call of Juarez offers a solid gameplay. No doubt, the chapters with Billy are the weakest of the two, but even the climbing and sneaking around offered some fun with a very different pace compared to its other character, Ray. The duels are nice, the slow motions too, the chases on horse, everything is either ok, fun or a blast. All and all, I had some fun, while it last (more on that later…)

Graphics 6/10
Again, for a 2007 game, I can’t complain, but against other big titles of the same year (like Half-Life 2 or BioShock), it dosen’t really stands out. It’s above average, but not by a mile.

Audio 7/10
The voice acting is well done here, especially the Ray part. Billy sounded more like someone reading a text, less emotions poured into it, but the material was basic so… The music was good too, I liked it. Even the more peaceful ones, like when you have to catch 3 rabbits and an eagle feather (you’ll see), the ambiance is nice. Evrything is well done, no complains here whatsoever.

Story x/10
I’ll leave it at ‘x’, simply because I couldn’t finish the game. Yeah, you read that right. Chapter XI was the end for me, impossible to load the next part, no matter which load I tried. The game just load the progression bar and that’s it, the game close as if nothing happened, EVERY TIME. So I just can’t judge the game on that part but from what I experienced, I liked it… Oh well, too bad.

Replayability 0/10
Yeah, 0 to the none. I can’t recommend or judge replayabilty if I can’t even finish the game in the first place. There was some bugs during my gaming sessions, but nothing this major and inexcusable, even by 2007 standards and even more in 2024.

Innovation 6/10
There was some cool innovations in the game (already described in the game store page) but nothing to much out of the ordinary. The whip was nice and so was the chases, but nothing over the top…

Overall 5/10
I would give it a zero because of the major bug which prevented me from even being able to finish the game, but that would be unjust for the other aspects as well as other people who might not experienced it. Suffice to say, without this huge set back, the score would have been a lot higher but it is what it is… Not recommended.

Game is good, has really creative mechanics such as using a whip to swing yourself from one place to another, concentration time which is an ability that slows time and spawns two crosshairs one for each weapon and allows you to take enemies out easier, guns with durability that break after using them too much and the duel mechanic where you have to simulate drawing a gun by dragging your mouse down and then aiming and shooting the enemy.

However, there is a LOT of jank in this game. I have had issues such as being able to walk during cinematics and then find myself dead because I have no clipped through the map somehow, getting hard locked out of a level because I blew up a barrel of TNT that is necessary to blow up a barricade.
Last complaint would be regarding episode XIV. Spoilers ahead. They give you a gatling gun which is honest to god unusable. The moment you start using it you start getting shot from 3-4 directions and you immediately die. After a while, you have to start moving and slowly make your way to a canon to blow up a DOOR, despite having TNT everywhere around the map. On the way to the canon surprise surprise, remember that gatling gun that was worthelss to you? The AI starts USING IT AND OBLITERATING YOU. The whole episode feels like you are at the mercy of the AI 1 tapping you and you don't have as much as control as I would have liked to have during it.

Pretty fun spaghetti western, with a pretty crude story with sensitive topics (misogyny, racism, etc), keep that in mind. And some mechanics can be frustrating due to the game being pretty old but its a fun game nevertheless

Very old Max payne in the wild west

this game is a buggy mess but i love it. I love the story, the gameplay and the characters still this is the second game you should play the first one should be COJBBB

I initially purchased Call of Juarez after watching a friend play one of the cool slow-mo quick draw fights and thought "that looks cool as fuck". Unbeknownst to me, Call of Juarez would soon become one of my favorite linear story shooters of the 2000's. From beginning to end, this game is a thrilling adventure that keeps you eager to continue through each subsequent episode. The alternating gameplay perspectives between pursuer Reverend Ray and his prey Billy Candle was unlike anything I've experienced in gaming before.
Each episode kept me on the edge of my seat as the gap between the two grew ever closer until the game reached its climax. The character development, especially for Reverend Ray, supplement the admittedly simple story perfectly. While the game shows its age in just about every capacity, it is still worth the dirt cheap price (on sale) and worth playing through once.

game good but crashes between missions very often and you have to do gymnastics with all the settings and files to play the game properly

A pretty authentic cowboy experience complete with the horses, duels, gunfights, lassos and quickdraws. Though short, each level was diverse and introduced something interesting to do. The plot was typical but it stood out due to the unique perspectives of both characters. I also enjoyed the physics puzzles, gunfights and small gameplay systems that made it stand out from a generic shooter

Definitely recommend playing this one

In which other game can you read outlaws morals from The Bible as you gun them down, huh?

awful game design

yeah this game is terrible. the ui is ugly. its slow and boring and has a very basic story that is very boring and uninspired. gunplay is just passable. in all the game is a 4 out of ten. I could not recommend it less. the other call of juarez games are amazing though.

The same masterpiece I remember from the glory days of the 360. 10 out of 10. Honestly wish they would make more games along the half life vein of linear stories with fun stupid physics and gritty compelling stories.

Still one of the best western games

It's cool to play with both perspectives of the main characters, but buggy mess. Couldn't load chapter 11, crashed during the loading screen. Didn't even finish the game.
Some boring missions, climb a mountain or chasing for 5 minutes straight.

always crashes never lets me play the actual game its a good nostalgic game but horrible crashes.

This game is old and it shows, but oh boy was it fun.

There are so many innovative things for the time it was released (recoverable arrows, instakill headshots, interactive environment, hats flying away when shot...), but it is often achieved poorly.
The sneaking or parkour parts of the game with Billy were mostly annoying, but running around with Ray while dual-wielding 2 revolvers was straight fun. If only we could shoot corpses just to be sure we got them...

Game is short so definitely play it !

Truly the most Call of Juarez of all time

It looks good, but it's unplayable for me. The aiming is wobbly and unresponsive. Saw the world from below. Because I clipped through the ground, piking up a gun. Guns can break, Mr Info box cannot tell me that, but must show up for everything you know from any other game in existence. It goes to show that the games of the time needed guidebooks. You know, I expected some jank.
But not an unplayable stand-off mini-game. You can't win a battle without being able to shoot. I hope Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is a step-up in quality.

This game is old, yes, but it really shines through as an amazing experience.
Like all old games at some point or another shit isnt explained well enough and you're gonna need a walkthrough, but for the most part its a straightforward fun game that is massively ahead of its time. I would take excellent gameplay over "gRaPhiCS" any day and these arent even that bad, infact for coming out in 2006 it looks better than some games from 2015. Overall i would wholeheartadely reccomend this game, however its sequels are so much better.

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