Call of Juarez: The Cartel announced

By Robert Purchese Published 7 February, 2011

Ditches Wild West for modern day.

Call of Juarez: The Cartel has been announced for PC and "next-gen consoles" - presumably PS3 and Xbox 360.

It's coming out this summer.

Published by Ubisoft, this third instalment transports the series from the Wild West to present day America with "a new and modern setting".

The press release bills the story as "immersive and mature", and tells us we'll be venturing to Los Angeles, California and Juarez in Mexico.

Developer Technland returns to do the honours.

Call of Juarez, a 2006 PC game, was a brutal Wild West shooter told from dual perspectives: one, the batty trigger-happy Reverend Ray; the other Billy, a sneak.

"Of all the cowboy games in the last few years, Call of Juarez is the one which most feels like it has a soul. Impassioned and imaginative, its velocity of invention can make you smile through any flaws. It's a game which you feel someone actually cared about making. We don't see nearly enough of those," wrote Kieron Gillen for Eurogamer, sitting in the judge's seat - 8/10.

Sequel Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, released 2009, spread the series onto PS3 and Xbox 360, ditched Billy to focus on the more interesting Reverend Ray - more accurately, his past.

"Above all," wrote Eurogamer reviewer Oli Welsh, "[Bound in Blood is a] proper western, set in a tangibly real Wild West, with proper, honest-to-goodness cowboys, Indians and bandits in it. Experience tells us that's harder to pull off in videogames than you might think, and it counts for a lot, no matter where it comes from." 7/10.

But back then there existed few decent western shooters. Now, of course, there's Red Dead Redemption - Rockstar's latest that took 2010 by storm.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (25) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • el_pollo_diablo #1 1 year ago

    Fingers crossed for secret laddergoat unlockables.

  • haveasafeday #2 1 year ago

    I actually enjoyed the Call of Juarez games despite them not being amazing, this however looks shockingly bad.

    For me I think the setting helped me forgive the wonky gameplay.. don't see that happening this time!

  • Triggerhappytel #3 1 year ago

    So it's gone from being a Western to a modern shooter with gangs and cartels in LA? Hmm. I can't see this garnering the series more sales; too much dam competition.

    Where's Dead Island?!

  • Machetazo #4 1 year ago

    Call of El Zorro!

  • bad09 #5 1 year ago

    Read this and stopped.

    "Published by Ubisoft"

    PC will come 6 months after the consoles crippled to fuck with DRM, so no thank you.

  • Ducklord #6 1 year ago

    At what point do the PS3 and 360 stop being considered 'next-gen'????

  • AllenSpawn #7 1 year ago

    Modern day setting = no sale.

    Jesus, you can almost hear the development team.
    " now what did Call of Duty do to win such a big audience..... Let's go modern day!!!!"
    Edited by AllenSpawn at 07/02/11 @ 17:25

  • Agent_Llama #8 1 year ago

    Oh dear... The beauty of CoJ is the Wild West setting. Really enjoyed the first two games but hauling it into modern times smacks of money talking. /sigh

  • Hunam #9 1 year ago

    Seems an odd choice to change to modern to be honest as the biggest (quick) draw for CoJ is that it's got cowboys in it, a setting that is woefully underused in game and so they made a good living off that niche even if the games don't have the budget to compete with the big irons.

  • Dynamize #10 1 year ago

    Why even bother keeping the name if you're going to remove almost everything associated with it i.e. the wild west setting?

    But back then there existed few decent western shooters. Now, of course, there's Red Dead Redemption
    So, a whopping two now then. Crowded market.

  • Phantom_Dynamite #11 1 year ago

    I loved the wild west setting, I was hoping for more of Revrend Ray blowing away godless heathens while qouting religious scripture.

  • CaptainQuint #12 1 year ago

    Bound in Blood is sadly underrated - I thought it was a very good game with solid storyline and engaging characters. Flawed, but well worth playing.

    I just hope they don't go GTA open world with this new one.

  • Monkey_Puncher #13 1 year ago

    I've very much enjoyed both the Juarez games on my 360, so I'll be interested to see what this is all about. The modern setting though is a bit of downer though. I can understand them feeling they've done all they can in the American west, but surely they could have gone for another time period?

  • jebus #14 1 year ago

    If ever a game has been designed by focus group feedback it's this

  • CosmicFuzz #15 1 year ago

    The first one was on 360 too EG!

  • makeamazing #16 1 year ago

    So just as Westerns have become very popular with RDR, they decide to ditch westerns for a modern day shoot em up... oh dear... not the best of timing.

  • andy10 #17 1 year ago

    Call of Juarez: Boyz n the Hood. No thanks. This looks absolutely ridiculous.

    Bound in Blood IS underrated. I loved the storyline, the environments, and found the characters strangely engaging. For some reason it's easier to forgive cheesy dialogue and gruff one-liners when it's set in Western times.
    Edited by andy10 at 07/02/11 @ 21:05

  • trip919 #18 1 year ago

    Worst idea today...

  • up_the_ante #19 1 year ago

    I loved the Call of Juarez games mostly for their environments. Lush woodlands, mountains and parched deserts all under a searing sun. This new one sounds terrible.

  • 3william56 #20 1 year ago

    I suspect (and hope) what we're talking about here is a modern western in the vein of No Country for Old Men, which *could* be seven shades of awesome. Beats the sh*t out of another zombie mode anyhoo.

  • AdamAsunder #21 1 year ago

    I've only played Bound in Blood but I really enjoyed my playthrough. I liked its peek mechanic. Shame it's gone all modern day but I'll still keep an open mind.
    Edited by AdamAsunder at 08/02/11 @ 01:21

  • Fab4 #22 1 year ago

    Probably travelling to Juarez nowadays you need to be tooled up with modern guns, just to get out alive.

  • Sodding_Gamer #23 1 year ago

    This is just going to be a shooter with a few wannabe cowboys in it. How ridiculous. They should have just polished it and kept it in the same era. As really, they are not that many western shooters AT ALL. There are fuck loads of Shooters though. :/

  • kongzi #24 1 year ago

    hmm this could be interesting, but Im afraid this is ubisoft getting on some cod-piecrumbs. Now, if this would go for a 70's/80's setting and give it a little acid western flavour.. that would be really cool. But I reserve my judgement, the previous CoJ's were very enjoyable despite it's fault, and I like Techland, own engine and not afraid to use new ideas.

  • Sodding_Gamer #25 1 year ago

    @redbarony

    Please calm the fuck down about your issue with pc games whatever. If you want a game so bad go buy a bleeding console. You can get a 360 for about 100 quid nowadays. Which is pretty cheap if you ain't a greasy fool with no job. STOP WHINING!
    Edited by Sodding_Gamer at 10/02/11 @ 10:07