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O, death… O, death… Won’t you spare me over till another year?

Call of Juarez Gunslinger is an arcade first-person shooter spin-off of the eponymous franchise. Players join Silas Greaves, a retired bounty hunter, through his increasingly wild tales of past skirmishes and quests.
-I’m painting a picture here…
In sharp contrast to the previous entries, this title goes for a heavily stylized presentation. Props and characters are renditioned with cartoony outlines, giving an appearance close to cel-shading. Complementing this dime novel-like look are the vibrant and picturesque locales, which include untouched forests, sprawling canyons and dense border towns. Sure, the character models lack any facial animation – the few times you see them up close and facing you, they’re blankly staring into space; and a few environment textures can vary in quality from one region to another… but you’d generally have to go out of your way to look for these imperfections.
Not all stylistic choices land, however. A comic book-like border stretches along your screen edges, which might be distracting. The field of view is also on the slightly narrow side – thankfully both of these elements can be tweaked through the game’s files fairly easily. While remaining in-game options are on the limited side, I had no trouble running this title at a rock-solid 60fps, at 1440p, on my Ryzen 9 3900X, 64GB RAM, 1070 Ti, Windows 10 Pro system.
-Consider your picture painted. What happened next?
The star of the audio experience is the voice acting. It’s witty and comedic, but with great punch to every character’s delivery where necessary. It all serves this title’s framing device brilliantly, and kept me invested in the story all throughout. Not far behind are the sound effects – and par for the course for this franchise, the weapons are punchy and booming. Their Concentration Mode sounds are a little mixed, as some are too muffled and indistinct while others remain sharp. All other foley is remarkably well done, with personal standouts being simple footsteps and landing sounds being “crunchy.” Lastly, the soundtrack is good too, but it takes a backseat to the remaining audio elements. Half of the music tracks are reused from previous installments, though this doesn’t detract from their quality.
You read that in a dime novel?
Call of Juarez Gunslinger’s framing device is a unique spin on storytelling, displaying an exquisite level of gameplay-and-story integration. In 1910, in the setting days of the Wild West, the retired bounty hunter Silas Greaves tells his exploits over the years, as he claims to take down notorious outlaws. He is an unreliable narrator - the sequences told are experienced through gameplay, which means any inconsistencies, or even intervention by the in-universe audience, affect the course of levels and which enemies you fight.
-Funny, ha-ha?
-No, Steve… the other kind of funny.
It’s a wholly refreshing spin on video game narrative, and genuinely well-done at that. On its own, the story warrants a second playthrough, because some details only become apparent in hindsight.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2840786249
Did I say there were Apaches? I meant they attacked me Apache STYLE.
Unlike previous Call of Juarez games, you don’t alternate between gameplay styles or choose characters with different proficiencies. The entirety of normal gameplay has players control a single character, with the primary loop being to shoot everything shooting back – and maybe break a few random props scattered around to get a few points and keep combos going. Movement is the fastest and tightest it’s ever been, though jumping is stiff and falling damage, rather punishing.
The arcade shooter inspiration further extends to the enemies. Most of them run out into the open and start shooting you after a few steps. Some have even graduated school, able to take cover and try to flank you, or wield wooden doors as shields, but they all know this is a shooting gallery. A handful act as end-of-level bosses with their own large health pools. Again, nothing that either explosives, headshots, or both can’t fix.
That scattergun was like a double-barreled howitzer!
Weapon variety is pretty low this time around. Your picks are between three revolvers, two variants of a lever action rifle, two lengths of double-barrel shotgun, dynamite and the odd emplaced gatling gun. While you can’t mix-and-match individual revolvers for dual-wielding, you can definitely combine the flavours of long-arms and handguns to specialize or generalize for various ranges and encounters.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2855224078
Concentration Mode returns, now in a more refined and consistent flavour. Enemy fire turns from hitscan to projectiles when engaged and action all around you slows down significantly. Gunslinger’s other party trick is a skill tree system, featuring plenty of fun upgrades letting you, say, split thrown dynamite into several sticks, or get a full CM refill every six combo multipliers. My favourite synergy has the double-barrel shotguns of all types have bottomless ammo reserves when in slow motion, so you can really give enemies a taste of bullet hell…Even if a very small number of skills are less exciting – a slightly better chance to find dynamite on fallen baddies? – the majority of the system is excellently executed and makes for fun, frantic gameplay.
Difficulty is decent – you will need some focus and experience to beat the higher challenge levels, but it’s hardly unfair. Checkpoints are plentiful, and the Sense of Death mechanic lets you dodge a lethal bullet every minute or so, which is as awesome as it is useful.
…you killed him! In a fair fight!
And the quintessential Wild West duels return once more, in arguably their best form in this franchise. Players control the cursor with their mouse, keeping targeted on the opponent to built up accuracy and better reaction. At the same time, they must adjust Silas’ hand to be in the right place above the holster and ensure a faster draw of the revolver. It takes some adjustment, but it can be consistently performed to great effect. Then the choice becomes to draw first and forfeit a score (experience) bonus, or let the enemy draw first and race to shoot them dead before you fail to dodge their bullet. Great system, overall!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2840786529
-…he was shot twenty-three times!
-Who do you think put all those damn holes in him?
Beyond the roughly three-four hour long campaign, players have extra content waiting to be explored. In Arcade Mode, it’s all about the highest score, so grab your preset loadout and get shooting everything that moves. Your skill sets improve as you accrue total score, so you’re further encouraged to replay levels with enhanced abilities. On the other hand, if you wish to fight in fifteen duels, back to back, and put your reaction time to the test, then the Duel Challenge is for you. Lastly, Nuggets of Truth are scattered around the story levels and serve as collectibles. They reward with both a chunk of experience, and some neat trivia on history, society and the reality of the story events as compared to the game’s portrayal. All combine to greatly extend the playtime… maybe to the dizzying heights of two-digit hours.
But for the sub-$15 price tag, these are a really fun dozen hours.
I won’t have it said that I left you with nothing, boy.
Short but sweet, like a dime novel. Call of Juarez: Gunslinger draws its audience in with its great presentation, and further provides a unique, compelling story and excellent shooter gameplay.
They say you can get great reviews on great games over at Tomato’s Bag of Games.