If any genre has struggled to crossover from movies to videogames, it's the Western. Having watched and become an instant fan of the likes of The Wild Bunch, A Fistful of Dollars, Butch and Sundance and, more recently, The Unforgiven, Tombstone or 3.10 to Yuma, this fact is one that has troubled me greatly over the years.

Obviously, some developers have taken steps to try to remedy the hiatus. Neversoft's Gun was a fine attempt, hamstringed more by the timing of its development than anything else, created as it was at a time sandwiched between console generations when we'd realised exactly what the Xbox was capable of, but had no idea what the 360 could do. As a result, Gun played like a very decent last-gen game, or a very sub-par next-gen game, depending on your stance. Red Dead Revolver is a similar example - although by far the superior game - that never quite reached its potential and left those gamers who yearned for a real slice of the Old West a-hankerin' for something more.

Several years later, a little-known Polish developer called Techland stepped up to the plate with Call Of Juarez, a western-themed shooter sporting everything one would expect, nay demand, of such a game: a troubled, middle-of-the-road protagonist, a cocky understudy, hot whores, buried gold and, of course, the gunfights, battles of skill and nerve that would raise the tension to the heights first flown when the titular trio squared up for the famous Mexican stand-off in Sergio Leone's classic The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. On the whole, it worked. It wasn't an instant favourite by any stretch: the agility sections afforded by the Call's secondary character Billy Candle were very frustrating and pretty lame as a result, the shooting was just a little bit off kilter and the gunfights, while a lot of fun, were kind of samey after a while and therefore their fun factor was hampered by seriously diminished returns. Any of the possible elements that kept the game playable for its entire runtime can be narrowed down to one single feature: Reverend Ray McCall.

Perhaps one of the most compelling, likably-unlikeable and eminently playable videogame protagonists ever created, the emotionally-scarred Reverend Ray single-handedly elevated Call of Juarez from forgettable Western flop to enjoyable Western romp. His tunnel-visioned, self-destructive, ultimately doomed quest for redemption made the game a cult classic, and is the reason it's still being plucked out of bargain bins on a regular basis two years after its console release.

Ironically, the original game's biggest selling point becomes the prequel's saddest misnomer. In Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, Ray McCall just isn't the man you remember. It being a precursor storyline, Ray is younger and wilder, and as a result his famous hot temper just comes across as pig-headed, reactionary and, well, stupid. His brother Thomas, filling the shoes of the possibly-not-born-yet Billy Candle, is far more charismatic, his calm-headed, quick-thinking ways far more likeable and relatable than Ray's. He also does a much better job on the agility sections than the erstwhile Mr. Candle ever did - although he's still not perfect. But, like his counterpart in the first game, his role is to play the cheese to his older brother's chalk, this time with their mismatched, love-ya-cuz-I-gotta dynamic driving the fairly formulaic spaghetti western narrative on at an enjoyably swift pace.

The story follows the McCalls on their journey from deserters of the American Civil War to feared outlaws as they and their whiny, wet-behind-the-ears preacher brother William cross the deserts of Arizona looking for the infamous treasure of Juarez with which they hope to rebuild their family plantation in Georgia. Along the way they meet Mexican outlaws, cattle-thieves, cowboys, Injuns and a sneaky, vendetta-harbouring damsel who's such a blatant digitisation of Penelope Cruz that you'd think Techland would have been sued for it. The story isn't at all original or genre breaking, but it is everything you could really need in a Western, offering the occasional twist, tested loyalties, tension, heat-hazes, bullets and blood, and a hell of a lot of people shouting "Sumbitch!"

The gameplay has been tightened, and with the new cover system (activated by simply moving towards an area of cover) and meatier period weaponry feels an awful lot like a certain other Call of… series. The run/shoot/rinse/repeat mechanics are broken up quite nicely by surprisingly accomplished enemy AI and the differing skills of the brothers themselves. Selecting either Ray or Thomas at the start of each chapter allows you to play the following level whichever way you choose. Ray is full-on combat, able to dual-wield pistols, use dynamite and kick down doors, whilst selecting Thomas opens up a much more subtle, patient state of play. Able to snipe with long rifles much more effectively and accurately than his brother, Thomas encourages you to take your time, seek out vantage points in fire-fights and set-up some wonderfully-satisfying headshots. Using his lasso he can also reach places that Ray can't, and help his brother climb up and over obstacles. With either McCall, every kill adds to your focus meter, which, when full, activates a brief bullet-time mode if you press B. For Ray, simply hovering the crosshair over an enemy will mark them and when the bullet-time ends he'll open up the barrels of both pistols with lethal precision; with Thomas it's slightly different, requiring you to hold down RT and use the right stick to cock and fire over and over until the timer expires. Either way, focus mode is incredibly empowering and very useful for getting out of trouble. Weaponry is more or less what you'd expect, from various six-shooters, rifles, sawed-off shotguns and - for Thomas - throwing knives and bows. All are equipped by holding RB and making your selection from the wheel, making it easy to change weapons on the fly to suit any given situation.

Although the Western setting begs to be stretched out into an open-world sandbox adventure (which it almost is twice - but more on that later), the game is mostly very linear. Every chapter is a set piece, again drawing comparisons to Treyarch's Call of Duty outings, and will usually involve a chase through enemy-infested clapboard towns to a confrontation with one of the game's many quick-drawing antagonists. Although the dusty, arid landscapes of the Old West are faithfully recreated, Bound in Blood gets very samey very quickly, mainly because of the gunfights themselves, which is ironic considering how much the developers obviously love them. The problem is that there's one after almost every chapter and, although they get progressively harder, they never really change. You face towards the opponent who moves in slow circles around you, forcing you to step left or right to keep them lined up. The right stick controls your gun hand, and the idea is to keep your itchy fingers hovering just above the butt of your six-gun until the fateful toll of the unseen bell. Move too close and the chosen McCall will waggle his finger at you, costing you precious seconds and moving his hand back to the original starting position. Hold your hand - and your nerve - steady, however, and at the sound of the bell flick the right stick down to whip your pistol free of its holster, aim and fire, blasting your adversary clean off his feet in a spray of blood and dust. When you get the timing right, it feels awesome, when you get it wrong - and you will, often - it becomes downright frustrating in a matter of minutes.

While the music is serviceable, the voice acting is only just tolerable. Thomas and Marissa are perhaps the most believable - which is a stretch - but William, Ray and the villainous Confederate Colonel pursuing the brothers are just awful. William in particular brings the narrative to its nadir, as his voice is just so whiny and pathetic that you can't help but pray for his horrible death, if only to see Ray lose the plot and become the bug-shit mentalist that we know and love from the first game. Half of the story is told in ugly, stalling cutscenes, whilst the other half is told in sepia-tinted tableaus - but neither will hold your attention beyond the "Press A to Continue" prompt unless you're a real diehard western fan.

Surprisingly for some, one of the bigger draws for shooter fans is the online mode. The 12-player deathmatches are made original by dint of the "bounty" system, whereby you don't earn kills, but rather money garnered by killing players and claiming the payday on their head. This money can then be used to alter elements of the game or unlock new classes such as the Officer or Trapper. We've also been promised a fair amount of DLC over the coming months, which may include not only extra levels for the single-player game but also new multiplayer maps, modes and character classes. Either way, the Live Mode adds another dimension and becomes a game that feels very much like its own entity when you get into it.

Offering essentially two games depending upon the character you choose for each level - and there's an achievement unlocked for completing the game with either brother exclusively - Techland still weren't able to get over the linearity hurdle with Bound in Blood. They make two attempts, in chapters 5 and 8, to allow players an open world to explore but both instances come off as misplaced, misjudged and completely superfluous. When the brothers reach two particular towns, you're given free reign to "do some odd jobs to earn cash" or "explore" the surrounding lands. The former means side-quests - of which the game offers a poultry half-dozen - none of which are at all exciting, destracting or worthwhile, rewarding you as they do with a couple of hundred dollars each when a decent rifle will set you back between 600 and a thousand bucks. The latter is simply as boring as can be, since the landscape is basically sand-coloured sand interspersed with rock-coloured rocks and the occasional blade of sand- or rock-coloured grass. It also stretches for absolutely miles in all directions and although you'll occasionally come across random baddies, bags of money or collectible secrets, you could go mad with boredom very quickly out on them there flatlands. Time can be idled away shooting innocent buzzards and chickens - usually to a derogatory comment from the non-player-controlled brother - but even this loses its appeal within moments.

What Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood lacks in polish and technical competence, it more than makes up for in style and enthusiasm, and it's clear form start to finish that the development team over at Techland had a great deal of fun with the Wild West period, the cheesiness afforded by the spaghetti western theme and the gung-ho camaraderie of the McCalls - all of which shines through the many cracks in the actual gameplay itself. So much so, in fact, that even as a long-standing fan of both westerns and first-person shooters, it's very hard to pinpoint exactly what's wrong with the game. It really is just an example of things not quite gelling the way you'd expect them, too - though I suspect it'll keep Ubisoft in hot meals at least until the next Tom Clancy game hits the shelves.

Will you enjoy it? Yes - when you get the hang of the gunfights and the cover mechanic. Will you play it twice? Not on your life - unless you're a gamerscore-whore. Will you come back if Techland make a threequel? Almost certainly, if only to see if they can finally iron out the little niggles that still manage to hold this game back even after ironing out the little niggles that held back the first one. But with such a dearth of decent gunslingers on this generation of consoles, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood probably earns more points than it should simply because there's so little of worth to compare it to - at least until Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption swaggers into town later this year. Now that'll be a standoff worth watching.

Reviewed by Mick Fraser for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).