Call of Juarez: The Cartel: Lazy errors let down a promising idea

Formats: Xbox 360, PS3, PC

Developer: Techland

Publisher: Ubisoft

Release date: July 22

Age Rating: 15

Price: £29.99 - £49.99 RRP

A spiritual successor to the previous releases, the latest Call of Juarez takes place in 2011, unlike the others, which were set in the old west.

The game sees you take on one of three roles, either as an LAPD cop, or an FBI or DEA agent, who team up to take down a cartel which has bombed a US Government building and bring those culpable to justice, with many twists along the way.

There are three main characters, Ben McCall, the cop; Kim Evans, the FBI agent and Eddie Guerra, the DEA agent, who all have their own speciality as to why they have been drafted in to the team.

They all have different combat styles, with one more effective at using close ranged guns than the others, one who’s best for midrange and one for sniping. Not that this makes much difference as the shooting in the game is pretty poor.

I found myself aiming at someone’s head, somehow missing, and then shooting them in the arm only to kill them instantly.

Another gameplay issue was getting stuck on parts of the map. I got stuck on rocks twice in as many levels, once which led me to restarting the mission and another was when I was creeping along a cliff to get a better vantage point, when all of a sudden I could no longer move, becoming a sitting duck for the enemies below.

One feature that deserves praise, at least in terms of the idea is that as the three are from different agencies, whilst they have the same ultimate objective, each member will receive a phone call occasionally to be given a secret assignment.

One major, almost lazy looking fault I saw in this was that on one of the early levels when I received a phone call for a secret mission, so did the other two, which kind of destroyed any realism there was to be found.

The story of the game as a whole is solid, without any noticeable flaws; and graphically, whilst nothing special it is as good as many other games in the market.

The main issue I have a game is the gameplay.

Other than the faults already mentioned, there is problems with the driving aspect which does play a big part, in that you can’t go over 30 miles an hour, which is a massive pain in a car chase.

Also, winning in a fist fight, which occur far more often than I expected seems to be more luck than judgement or skill.

What could have been a good game has been let down by gameplay issues, and lazy looking mistakes.