Western-themed shooters aren’t very plentiful, and there’s a good reason for it — it’s a hard time period to balance faithfulness to the technological limitations of the time with exciting gameplay. Fortunately, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood successfully manages to walk that tight rope by keying in on the most iconic elements of the Wild West, while not trying to shoehorn gameplay elements that don’t fit.

No where is the balancing act clearer than in the different weapons that you’ll be able to equip. Don’t expect anything crazy from your weapons — you’re pretty much limited to shotguns, pistols and rifles (knives, dynamite and even chairs make an appearance as well). While the lack of weapon options might seem like it would detract from the game, it doesn’t. Dual-wielding pistols and shooting the single-shot rifle work well enough and it helps solidify a surprisingly decent story.

In Bound in Blood you’ll play as the McCall brothers — Ray and Thomas, who are in search of a treasure in Juarez, Mexico, and acts as an origins story for 2007’s Call of Juarez. During the game’s story, you’ll interact with some surprisingly complex characters in a story about both revenge and redemption.

Along the road of that story, however, lies a pretty decent first-person shooter. Perhaps one of the best things that Bound in Blood introduces is a workable cover system. Essentially, as you run or duck into objects, you’ll automatically stick to them. Unlike a Rainbow Six Vegas, which would then pull you into a third-person perspective, you stay in first-person mode with the right analog stick. Moving the right stick up with have you peering over your cover, while going left or right will have you peaking around your chosen side. The system works extremely well, and I hope that other FPSs take note of the system that Bound in Blood has in place.

A good cover system isn’t the only cool trick that Bound in Blood has to offer. There is also a “concentration mode”, which can be best described as a Western take on bullet-time. Concentration mode comes in two variants: The first is when you’re running through a level and the second is during specific moments within the game. As you kill foes in the game, you’ll fill this “regular” concentration meter — once you kill six people, you’ll have 60 seconds to initiate the concentration mode, which depending on whether you’re playing as Thomas or Ray, will play out slightly differently. With Thomas, you’ll have a set amount of time to get in clean shots on enemies that are in range, while with Ray, you’ll have to manually “paint” the targets that you want to take down. The other concentration moments come when you and your brother kick down a door and go into co-operative concentration mode, where you both completely lay waste to entire waves of bad guys.

One of the things that is included in Bound of Blood that should be cool — but sadly isn’t — is dueling, which suffers from some lackluster execution on the part of the developer. The concept is sound — you’ll see Thomas’s or Ray’s hand next to their holster from a third-person perspective. By moving the right stick, you’ll move their hand closer to the holster, grab your gun and then fire with the R1 button. However, you’ll also have to move around with your opponent with the left-stick, which then makes your hand naturally move away from your gun. It simply devolves into a game of constantly bringing your arm back closer to your holster, having the bell ring (signaling you to shoot) and you being caught with your pants down. To make matters worse, aiming is a pain in the neck as well. Auto-aim is present, so instead of trying to fire off a quick shot like your instincts would tell you to do — instead, you wait an extra half second for the aiming reticule to find your target’s body and then shoot.

In addition to the single-player, Bound in Blood also offers some solid online multiplayer, with a nice mix of deathmatch and objective variants. It’s unlikely to keep you entertained when there is more Call of Duty 4 or Halo 3 to be played, but it is definitely a decent change of pace. One of the more disappointing omissions from the online package is cooperative play, which Bound in Blood seems to be built for. In a game about having to use the brothers’ different skills in tandem to succeed, why online co-op play (or local co-op, for that matter) is omitted is a mystery.

Regardless, Bound in Blood is still an enjoyable romp throughout its six to seven hour single player campaign. It’s a little short to fully recommend you blow $60 on it, but it’s definitely a memorable rental.

Verdict: 7/10