Welcome to Los Angeles, where drug-related violence is rampant. Your welcome is warmed up when narcotics enforcement offices have been bombed, and you take the roleof law enforcers Ben McCall, Kimberly Evans, or Eddie Guerra, in attempt to put an end to the following felons by all means necessary. “By all means necessary” is the key phrase, as they utilize brutal and even crooked tactics in doing so.
Contrariwise to 2009's Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood's old Western scenario, The Cartel takes place in modern day, as you may have guessed. Having some knowledge of its predecessors, I was a tad confused as to why the series would take such a different direction in setting, aside from Ben McCall being related to the protagonists in previous games. Heck, he even dresses like he's from an 1800s Western flick. Despite my confusion, it interestingly differs from other recent shooters.
Before commencing the single-player campaign, you are given the option to choose between the three protagonists. This is a great idea, and it's executed well, due to the implementation of cooperative play. Disappointingly, however, the plot differs little from what character you choose, except for different voice actors and endings. This is a shame, because a lot could have been done to multiply the replay value of its sub-10 hour story. However, the beginning of each level acts as a lobby, allowing players to drop in and out of your game for cooperative play between the three characters.
The Cartel has a plethora of intense moments to experience in the campaign. You'll be ambushed by attack helicopters with limited cover, pursue a target on foot through waves of gang members, as well as sabotage a marijuana plant while making another gang take the heat. These scripted events are complimented with a “concentration mode” where the game slows down, giving the player the obvious upper-hand in precision in a firefight, and can be charged and activated by killing enemies. At first it felt like a gimmick, but it's put into good use in slow-motion room breaching sequences (a la modern Call of Duty games) later on. One gripe I had with the gameplay, however, was that explosions knock you over on your back, and it takes a few seconds to get up. It may not seem like a very big issue, but it can be very irritating when you're getting hit by several consecutive grenade explosions in the midst of an intense-enough firefight. As for controls, I have no complaints. The controls are tight with either a mouse/keyboard or gamepad setup. I personally am thankful for the subtle yet useful aim assist for gamepad users for those that prefer to hunt cartels from the convenience of a couch.
With great gameplay comes a solid multiplayer component. In Cartel's multiplayer, you choose to be a law enforcer or a criminal, whose sides have varying weapons and even different game lobbies depending on what team you choose. The lobbies even have practice shooting ranges, too! When the match finally begins, the game is split up into basic team deathmatch, and capture-the-flag-esque modes. Concentration mode is replaced with the ability to call in air support, and there's a partner system, in which players can pick a partner that will give and receive combat bonuses for being close to each other. On the downside, there's no host migration, so once the host of the game disconnects, the entire match ends. This is a small complaint, because overall, it is a fine addition for when it gets lonely playing single-player.
The Cartel is a fun game, but I'll admit, it takes a blow in the presentation and graphics department. Texture quality is unappealing, everything in the world has an ugly yellow tint, and as much as the gunplay feels good, the visual feedback from firing a weapon is stiff and less than desirable. On top of that, the HUD is very pixelated like something out of a classic PlayStation game, as if deliberately unappealing. The game doesn't look horrible, just don't expect awesome visuals. When it comes to sound, the voice acting is top-notch, believable, and engrossing. However, the game is also loaded with nasty F-bombs in nearly every other sentence in the dialogue. Excessive swearing usually doesn't bother me, but the profanity is so frequent that it sounds forced at times.
On a final note, I played through this game on OnLive, a cloud gaming service that allows you to stream video games from high-powered servers to play on any PC, Mac, TV, tablet, or smartphone. I haven't found any issues with the OnLive version of Call of Juarez. I highly recommend playing it on OnLive over any console or PC if you plan to pick this up.
STORY: 9
GAMEPLAY: 8
PRESENTATION: 5
REPLAY VALUE: 9
OVERALL: 7.75/10
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