Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood Multiplayer Review Page 2

08 Jul 2009 at 16:52:43 by Andy Alderson
Systems used to review this title: (360)

In WWL, players are divided into teams of Outlaws and Lawmen and must take part in some classic scenarios from Western legend. For example, the Tombstone map in WWL mode sees the Lawmen playing as the  Earp brothers as they face off against a gang of criminals known as the Cowboys. In another map, the infamous Dalton brothers are tasked with robbing two banks in quick succession before destroying a barricade to escape the town. The standout map in WWL mode is definitely Nogales, however. Again it involves a bank robbery, this time by the High Fives gang, but afterwards the Outlaws must gain access to the stables and escape the town on horseback. A round on Nogales often ends with the Lawmen taking up strategic positions near the level’s exit as the mounted Outlaws charge towards them, guns blazing.

It’s the Wild West Legends mode which elevates the multiplayer game above its predecessor’s and the objective-based win conditions certainly funnel the action into some thrilling choke points. During one particularly hard-fought battle we found ourselves alongside three team-mates, desperately trying to protect the safe in one bank as the Outlaws swarmed into the building from multiple sides. Anything which promotes teamwork is a step-up from the last game, which was generally an every-man-for-himself type of affair.

However, there are still some problems with Bound in Blood’s multiplayer. Firstly, despite some pretty solid in-game net-code, the matchmaking system can be a pain at times. We encountered some issues connecting to certain games and were consistently dumped back to the main menu after every match ended, meaning there was no chance of continuing our battle with the same players over a different map.

There are also still some balancing issues at play. Like in the first game, it feels as if the Sniper class is a little overpowered and arguably unnecessary when the Rifleman class carries a weapon that’s effective from range. Some maps can be utterly dominated by Snipers (Burnside’s Bridge and Stinking Springs to name but two) and the fact that there isn’t an effective killcam in operation, means you’ve often got little idea where you’ve been sniped from. As someone who particularly enjoys taking revenge on camping snipers, this was a source of disappointment.

In addition, you will also encounter a lot of spawn camping on certain maps. In Wild West Legends mode, although the spawn points will change according to how many objectives have been completed, all of your team members will spawn at the same place. Effectively, this means it’s easy to predict (if you’ve played the map before) exactly where the enemy will be spawning at any point in the match. And so the spawn killing ensues, but admittedly it’s more of a problem on some maps than others (Stinking Springs, again). Although Techland has added a couple of seconds of invincibility at spawn, it’s not enough to counter the spawn –camping morons accruing some cheap upgrades.

Nevertheless, these are likely all problems that can be ironed out by the developer via patching. At its core, the multiplayer experience is much-improved. It feels quicker, more responsive, the net-code is solid and the guns feel powerful. The maps are probably the star of the show, however, and while they don’t all make for a compelling MP match, there are some absolute gems. Tombstone, Coffeyville and Nogales all manage to create an authentic Western atmosphere and with any luck Techland and Ubi will send some more our way via DLC (and some WWL objectives other than blow x up with dynamite would be welcomed). As it stands, Bound in Blood’s multiplayer is unlikely to challenge Halo 3 or COD 4 for the LIVE top spot, but it is undoubtedly a solid, well-designed online experience.

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