Wow, that was a quick turnaround. Hot off the heels of Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood comes The Cartel. The third game in the series, The Cartel is pretty much a sequel in name only, taking place in modern times with extremely loose ties to the originals. One of the main characters is a McCall, and looks a bit like Ray, even though it’s never addressed.

Story-wise, it’s a weird one. It’s presenting like something akin to The Wire or 24, with news broadcasts, or press conferences telling of events during loading screens and double-agent style side objectives. I’ll be honest, I can’t really recount the story here because even though I paid attention and played the game from start to finish, it didn’t make a lick of sense and did not interest me in the slightest. My ears did perk up momentarily as one guy asked my characters if they were familiar with the Gold of Juarez, but this was apparently a red herring as they never elaborated on it, and after that particular moment, never referenced it again. I kept waiting for something to tie it all in together but it never happened, which was a bummer. There were a lot of characters and names and halfway through the game they all began to blur together. I had to remind myself a few times just who was who.

Graphically, man this game is rough. There’s a complete lack of anti-aliasing and the framerate is probably 30fps at best. It’s choppy and in some places a bit difficult to differentiate different objects in the distance, especially if you’re playing on a smaller screen. It’s a problem that seems consistent with the Call of Juarez games so far. After Bound in Blood, which wasn’t technically a good-looking game but had a decent framerate, it was pretty jarring going straight into The Cartel. It took a little while for my eyeballs to adjust to the somewhat shitty optimization. It’s a shame because The Cartel does offer a few interesting locales, even if a good chunk of the game takes place in a very generic Los Angeles. This is one of those cases where an Xbox One or Xbox Series enhancement would’ve greatly improved the experience.

I enjoyed the gameplay quite a bit, mainly because the game is relatively easy. I played on Normal, and while I died a few times, it was usually because of something stupid and I rarely got stuck in any one area. It’s basically a shooting gallery. None of the enemies are particularly smart, nor are they lethal as long as you don’t get careless. The hand-holding is pulled back quite a bit compared to Bound in Blood, which was appreciated. I was able to run n gun (for the most part) without too many roadblocks. The game also does do less than Bound in Blood, though. It felt shorter, but maybe that was because I wasn’t as frustrated or annoyed as often.

The game is pretty cut ‘n dry, so it’s hard to find things to talk about. As a game, it’s pretty forgettable, though there were one or two cool moments, like a night club scene that sees you fighting through crowded, strobe-lit dancefloors. But as a package, it’s pretty average. You won’t hate it, but it’s not gonna blow anyone’s skirt up either.

One thing that did annoy me was the (once again) complete misrepresentation of Texas. I’ve always found it interesting that when a game is set anywhere in the world, it always seems to be somewhat accurate, but whenever someone goes to Texas it’s some generic copy and paste template. There is one chapter that takes place in Eagle Pass, which is a town on the Texas/Mexico border. There are mountains and saguaro cactuses everywhere. Now, there are mountains in West Texas, but Eagle Pass isn’t in that region. And nowhere in Texas has saguaro cactuses. This is prickly pear territory. So it was a bit irritating to see Eagle Pass on their map and then see mountains and big ass cacti everywhere. And THEN, you cross under the border via a tunnel and (unless I missed something) emerge near Cuidad Juarez. Eagle Pass and Cuidad Juarez are not only not near each other, they are almost 500 miles apart. I don’t think some people realize just how fucking big Texas is.

That said, I blew through The Cartel pretty quick, which was nice because it barely warranted its own existence, but less any significant amount of play time. That only leaves one game left in the Call of Juarez series; The Gunslinger.