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Aside from Red Dead Revolver and Gun, Call of Juarez just took the top spot.

I'll start this review off by saying that I haven't played the original Call of Juarez, but after finishing up Bound in Blood last week, I'm definitely planning to pick it up. I absolutely love what I've seen in this prequel title, and while it's not the most technically impressive game out there (I actually noticed the tearing issues, which I rarely do), it's one of the best western themed shooters I've ever played, managing to really nail the movie feel of an old west setting, cribbing from various entertainment influences to bring together a pretty fantastic story, with some fun gameplay as well.

The game begins with the McCall brothers during the Civil War, fighting for the Confederacy, which in itself is pretty unique since most titles would go for a Yankee point of view. However, they don't stay enlisted for long, when they realize their homestead is in the path of fire, and they jump ship to head back to their sick mom and younger brother, the preacher named William. Ray and Thomas, the two that you'll be playing as throughout the game, have some pretty distinct personalities that help to really sell themselves to the player as characters worth caring about. Thomas is more level-headed, not as willing to rush in headfirst and with a more laid back personality than the brash and crass attitude of Ray. Likewise, Ray is more gung-ho in his approach to both fighting and loving, and he comes off as more of an actual outlaw than Thomas. Their play style mimics their attitude, with Thomas being a long range fighter, equipped with a Rifle for a primary weapon that will allow you to snipe at people from far away, while Ray's specialty is two pistols, and a handful of dynamite.

The difficulty is solid at the medium setting, but never unfair or cheap. Enemies aren't really smart, they rarely try to rush you, but they will move around from cover to cover a lot, and every so often they'll try to flank you provided there's space to do so. The game does have a cover system in place, but I didn't find it particularly useful, mostly because it wouldn't always trigger when I wanted it to. The cover works by running up behind an object and pressing against it, and you'll notice that your view will dip or bend a bit behind the object, which is the only real visual cue you get that your cover is in place. From there you can press up or to the side to peek out for shots, but it's easy to accidentally disengage from cover, and oftentimes difficult to even tell whether you're in cover or not. The game does allow for a more run and gun approach than constantly popping out behind a box or tree, so it's not entirely necessary to get a handle on it, unless you're playing on the higher difficulties.

The story and voiceover work is exceptional, and the game even features a memorable villain with the Barnsby character that's hunting them down after the Civil War is finished. You run into a few different characters along the way that just amplify the brother's storyline quite well, and a few that wouldn't feel out of place in something like a Leone western. The voice over stuff is handled extremely well, and I can't think of any particular character that felt weak or out of place, except for maybe William, but his grating, whiny voice does manage to fit his character pretty well.

Bound in Blood also features a pretty extensive multiplayer mode, with some interesting stuff tossed in outside of your typical deathmatch and team deathmatch settings. One in particular, Wild West Legends, takes classic western scenarios and pits two teams against each other in maps meant to mimic locations from history, like the Tombstone map. You either take on the side of outlaws or lawmen, and you're tasked with destroying or defending multiple points in order around the map, all within a certain time limit. It's not that we haven't seen the mode before under different names in other titles, but tossing in that historic setting does add a certain appeal to checking it out. Also, I had zero lag or connection issues with the game, and there's a pretty solid amount of people playing online, so there's no problem jumping into a game or two.

All together, I absolutely enjoyed Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, enough so that I'm going to go out and pick up the first title to see where the storyline heads after this. It's a great shooter, with a fantastic rendition of the old west that really adds a lot of character to the game overall. The characters themselves are unique and interesting, and I found the story to be really entertaining, and not unlike something I'd see out of any other Hollywood western in recent years. It's certainly worth checking out and something I hope quite a few people pick up on, so we can hopefully see another title in the series from developer Techland in the near future.