I loved playing this game when I was younger. I had a blast with it. The story was good. Two brothers, who are U.S. civil war veterans, abandon their army to protect their home; but find it was raided by the opposing army. So they venture out through parts of the American frontier and Mexico to find treasure to rebuild their home, slowly turning bitter and against each other. The most conflicted brother, out of the three siblings, was the eldest, Ray McCall. He was harsh, but was very funny. His brother Thomas had bitterness in him too, but to a lesser degree. The youngest of the trio, William, constantly tries and fails to persuade them to abandon their mission to search for treasure, and change their ways. There are more characters I won't mention, so I'll focus on these three. Ray is probably the most developed, being the most conflicted. William probably comes second, being the holiest and most righteous of the bunch; and Thomas, the middle brother, seems calm and cool. But he probably doesn't have much "meat to his bones." Meaning, he's the least developed. Don't get me wrong, he's a great character, but there's just not much internal conflict in him. That's not bad, but he isn't as developed as Ray. Thomas is still funny, and has good things to say though. Now, to the gameplay. It's fun, and the two brothers, Ray and Thomas, operate differently. Ray is more brute strength and frontal assault. Thomas is more range based, fast and athletic. Both of their styles are great, even though I played as Ray most of the time, and regret not playing as Thomas enough. For the duels, they were okay; even though you could easily miss your opponent if you weren't careful with where you stood. One time I shot I guy, and he didn't die. There was just blood spatter. Actually, this happened a few times, and I think my character died once because of this error in the game. It's an issue that can pop up once in a while; and depending on your temper, it can be frustrating. The only other thing I didn't like about CoJ BiB is seeing familiar faces on the enemies a lot. The faces were re used quite a bit. But it was something I could live with. In all, Bound in Blood is a very fun and under rated western game with a pretty good story, great characters and enjoyable gameplay with concentration modes good for taking down multiple enemies, stunning western like environments, sound tracks I like listening to and gun fights that make me love being a cow boy type character. My only grips with the game are minor glitches that pop up once in a while and re used facial designs. But no game is perfect, glitches are bound to happen and not everything can be new or original. CoJ BiB gets a nine from me being a fun adventure that moves you through the old west, and has you massacre all who stand in your way.
