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Here we are. The Call of Juarez Wild West trilogy is complete, and I must say that this was a great deal buying all three games for one low price. Apart from Rockstar's RDR 1 & 2 masterpieces, these are some of the best Wild West action games you'll find, that offer something unique and different from RDR. Armed with some surprisingly interesting ideas they keep things engaging and fresh even if they aren't as technically impressive as the aforementioned titles. The sequel improved everything from the visuals to the sound to the presentation, and the third game further refines the combat loop/mechanics while also introducing some new narrative elements. With arguably the most combat-focused gameplay of the series, Call of Juarez: Gunslinger definitely earns its name.
Gone are the McCall brothers and Pastor Ray's Bible quote-infused vengeance and plate body armor as we are now in the shoes of Silas Greaves. His story chronicles the rise and fall of a tough-as-nails bounty hunter brushing up alongside many famous and memorable Wild West figures such as Billy the Kid, Butch Cassidy, The Sundance Kid, and more. While telling seemingly unbelievable "tall tales" of his life's story to some local bar patrons, Silas recounts the adventures of his life with funny jokes and anecdotes though his memory is a little fuzzy from all the years of booze so there are several details of his life that may not be quite accurate to history. This particular story, however, is one of Greaves's bloody mission to seek revenge as he tracks down some gang members who inflicted grievous harm on him and his family. Also taking a backseat is the Call of Juarez/madness-inducing gold the first two games centered their plots around. This element of the series isn't forgotten though as it does show up a few times within Gungslinger's story with the same air of mystery and death that's always surrounded it since the first game. There's always a crazy story when the Call of Juarez is involved.
The story sees a considerable shake-up with some cool and interesting additions to its structure. As Silas recounts his life's story, different elements of the plot can change as he often forgets a certain detail as to the type of enemy he fought or the direction taken to reach a destination compared to where he actually went. Sometimes whole engagements altogether are misremembered by him creating some funny moments when even you find yourself as a player asking, "What is it OLD MAN Apaches or the Cowboys?!" as you are dodging waves of bullets. It's also really neat having him drone on or go into great detail about aspects of the story only to have his shaky memory questioned by a listener and all that build-up you had been seeing while playing changes to match up with the events of what happened compared to the misremembered stories of grandeur. Seeing how Techland was able to weave this very real, human mistake of miss telling or recounting stories with wrong details or events and use it as a gameplay mechanic was probably the most fun I had with this game's short, but fun story.
This game has a significantly shorter overall runtime than previous titles in the series, so combat and duels have been emphasized even more than before. The robust nature of the design in the first two games has now been downsized a great deal from the previous titles. Most of the production is into the few in-game cutscenes and bombastic, chaotic combat set pieces you'll experience throughout the game's few but memorable missions. Not only the story, but the gameplay also has undergone some surprising changes as well. Gone are stealth sections, whips, and lassos being used to traverse levels vertically, and gone are the open-world horseback riding sections also as the game is largely centered around smaller, densely packed combat arenas for you to wreak havoc in. The automatic lean from the cover mechanic from the sequel is gone too as now you just hide behind the cover with no lean (from the first game) or automatic lean.
While these changes are missed, it's clear this title wasn't going to have the same size and scope as the first two titles with this being the series final entry and Techland seemingly ready to move on from it. So while these gameplay changes are gone they aren't taken without some new additions put in as well. The gunplay mechanics received some changes with the ability to use Concentration mode after a shorter time and with any gun compared to the sequel and first game only allowing dual revolvers to be used when entering and using it. There is also a neat "last stand" sort of mechanic where if you have a certain meter filled up you can survive an enemy's final shot at you that would otherwise be your demise. Upon dodging said bullet by doing a cool dodge left or right you then can fire back with a precise shot killing the enemy and keeping you in the game longer. While none of these new mechanics are pushing the wheel of creative ingenuity they are decent enough to keep this game's combat fresh and mostly engaging. I do personally think the second game is the strongest of all three titles when it comes to story, gameplay, and presentation.
Ultimately Techland knocked it out of the park with these three titles. While they are all very different from one another they still manage to be fun to play having intense, action-filled set pieces, creative mechanics for dueling and combat, and most of all a love for the period and style of silly, over-the-top spaghetti Western films that influence these games. Though they may be dated in comparison to modern action FPS titles they are still very fun and engaging to play. It's a memorable series and deserves to be fondly remembered as the series to my understanding isn't coming back anytime soon. It makes me sad, but I'm glad I finally got around to experiencing these awesome games.
Highly recommended!