Call of Juarez demo
===================

Saturday 22 August 2009 03:31

Running around with loaded guns frequently pointed
at my brother's back makes me nervous. Or the first
person view makes me nervous. Or the barriers that
make the Juarez world illogical make me nervous.

It all looks great and the characters are fit for a
real story but with this game - and a lot of others
- I get the impression there are to many art
directors involved creating a cinematic look and
feel and because that part of the game is important
for marketing purposes, that's the part the
investors focus on. I can imagine someone printing
out the artwork for some decision maker that
decides based on that how the game is progressing.
The gameplay is something they seem to have added
just before the deadline and nobody had time to
complain about it. And if it sucks, there's always
the online multiplayer as an excuse. For example, I
don't want to have a dozen doors in a game where I
can only open the one that the developers have
selected for continuing their story, and there is
nothing logical out what door that is. And while it
might look heroic just two guys keep on killing all
the bad-asses in some town, without them wearing
capes that isn't very believable. It's not possible
to make a smart plan, you just have to follow the
route and pretend to be a good shooter by using
concentration mode. They have given up on
triggering a real out-of-game concentration mode
with captivating gameplay, and that is a failure.

by Roland van Ipenburg
http://www.xs4all.nl/~ipenburg/blog/posts/play/2009/08/22/call-of-juarez-demo/