Call of Juarez is one of the most "good with a catch" games you'll find. When it's firing on all cylinders, you'll have a lovely time playing a solid western FPS with some fun themes and an authentic western movie feel. However, when the game goes into clunky mode, by God it goes into clunky mode. Which is why that 3/5 star review is misleading. 4/5 narrative, well executed but usually unambitious 2/5 level design, it's a roller coaster of quality from the 3/5s of open plains combat to the 5/5s of the classic fort shootout to the 1/5s of just utterly arcane script triggers 3/5 for Ray's gameplay, which is good-not-great 2/5 for Billy's gameplay, which is also a roller coaster of quality but errs on the bad side 5/5 on the aesthetics of the game. It's not exactly a technical powerhouse for its era(make sure to run it in DX10 mode if you're running it through Galaxy), but the sound and visuals and framing of most scenes are nailing what they're going for and that's all you can ask The game has many high points (the fort shootout), many low points (the bizarro Indiana Jones moment), many bland points, and one moment that is simultaneously bold but also a desk-smashing frustration fest that I suspect will sound better now that it's safely behind me. So, what do you rate this barrel of variable quality? I called it a 3, but I could've just as much called it a 1 because you will consistently hate it at times, or a 5 because the heights are so worth the asking price. On the whole, I'd say, it's worth dabbling in. Just make sure you quicksave frequently, don't be afraid to cheat if a section is bogging down the experience with bad pacing, and keep your brain thinking about character motivations, rather than the fact that this is the third farm you've rode by that looks *just* like the one ten minutes ago.
