After an ill-fated trip into the present for the Call of Juarez franchise, Techland has taken the series back to the Old West in Gunslinger, a $15 digital release that manages to satisfy in most of the ways that really matter.
The showcase in Gunslinger is the story mode, which isn’t quite a campaign, per se. What I mean by that is the story is actually multiple stories, and they aren’t necessarily narratively connected. Gunslinger is the story of a man named Silas Greaves, who as the game opens finds himself in a saloon in Abilene in 1910 telling stories of his past adventures, which often brought him into contact with some famous Wild West names.
The first of these tales, for example, has Silas meet up with Billy the Kid at a farmhouse under siege by some douchebag deputies. After a pretty wild shootout, Silas and Billy are captured, and their lesser known compatriots wind up shot to death. The followup mission has Silas escaping from jail in Lincoln and fighting his way through town. Narrator Silas is quick to point out that Billy, who had escaped first and tossed the jail keys into Silas’ cell, was using Silas’ rather loud and boisterous escape as a distraction while he skulked his way out of town. Ultimately, the stories in Gunslinger are squarely about Silas, and the famous folks he runs into are incidental, though they certainly add some personality to these affairs.
Though Gunslinger is at its core as standard as shooter games get, there are some nice enhancements that shake up the experience a bit. There are occasional moments where a foe has Silas in his sights, and Silas is forces to dodge a bullet from that foe coming at him in slow motion. When Silas faces a Big Bad, they typically have a duel, which is a lot more involved than the duels in Red Dead Redemption, and a lot more difficult to correctly pull off. Of course, you can always “dishonorably” draw first, but where’s the fun in that? I should note here that the game keeps score while you’re playing, and cheating is frowned upon tangibly.
On top of all this is skill progression. As you score points, you earn skills, which you can allocate as you see fit in trees that relate to pistols, shotguns and rifles, and some of these skills can drastically change the way you play. You might think dual wielding pistols isn’t worth the hassle at first because it takes so long to reload two six-shooters, but then you gain the skill that cuts reload time in half and you really start to dominate.
But what makes Gunslinger’s tales worth experiencing is for the presentation. See, Silas telling these stories to folks in the bar is more than just the framework. He continues to narrate events even as you’re playing, and some of the folks he’s entertaining will also occasionally chime in. Techland smartly realized that the acting of shooting dudes is in itself less entertaining than it used to be, and they compensated smartly. Sure, doing something a bit more unique with gameplay maybe would have been better, but having Silas talk over the action made me quite happy.
In addition to the story mode, Gunslinger has something called Arcade mode that is actually a more legit addition to the game, I feel, than a horde mode or the like that only serves to add context-free gameplay experiences. Sure, Arcade mode is definitely context-free, but playing it is very different than playing the story. The hook is that you’re trying to get a high score via combos, which increases as long as you can continue to kill at least one dude every four seconds. The result is an absurdly fast-paced experience that can be pretty fun as long as you’re trying. The catch, of course, is that Arcade mode is actually a level, and you have to make it all the way to the end if you want your score to count. The levels aren’t super long, but given the run-and-gun nature of this mode it’s pretty likely that you’re not going to make it every single time.
Finally, Gunslinger comes with a duel mode, which allows you to face off with the folks you stared down in the story without actually going through the story levels again. It’s nice to have this as a separate mode, because dueling is pretty hard, and the practice is definitely helpful
I like what Ubisoft is doing with these budget AAA digital releases. Blood Dragon was a blast, and Call of Juarez: Gunslinger is an even more full featured experience than that one. You’d be forgiven, really, for not realizing this wasn’t a full-priced retail game. Gunslinger is a high quality experience with a ton of personality, and Techland has proven that The Cartel was just a bump in the road.
Final Verdict
Call of Juarez: Gunslinger: 9 out of 10
