Call of Juarez is a violent action game seemingly inspired by a hodgepodge of Old West-themed movies. Being a fan of said movies, I looked forward to getting my hands on the Xbox 360 version of the game (it made its debut on the PC a few years ago) and trying my hand at some old-fashioned, rootin'-tootin' shootin'.

While I found that playing Call of Juarez can be a lot of fun — especially that shootin' part — I can't say that the gameplay is always even and can be downright frustrating at times.

Without giving too much away, the basic plot involves some ancient Aztec gold and trying to find it. Of course, nothing is simple, and finding it is no easy feat. And, of course, the treasure is said to be cursed and will only bring death to those who seek it. This doesn't stop one of our intrepid playable characters, Billy Candle, from trying to get his hands on it. Young Billy has had a tough upbringing, and he's not worried about no stinkin' curse, it seems. But finding the gold while having a vengeful, ex-con preacher-man on your tail just makes things even more complicated.

Enter Reverend Ray, the other playable character who is no stranger to guns. He thinks Billy killed his own ma' and Billy's step-dad, who also happens to be Ray's brother. And being's as how that doesn't sit right in the Lord's eyes, the good Reverend decides that he'll exact a little payback on Billy, frontier-style.

To play the game is to alternate between playing as these two characters. They each have unique attributes the player must master for successful gameplay: Billy is sneaky, can climb things and use a whip to overcome pesky Old West obstacles like sheer cliff faces. He's also good with a bow and arrow to stealthily take out enemies. The Reverend, on the other hand, is a veteran gunslinger who makes no nevermind about all that swinging around and being stealthy. He's adept at doing the Lord's work with anything metal requiring gunpowder and has a great ability to concentrate on his opponents to the point that the action slows down, allowing you to line up the those bad hombres in the crosshairs nice-and-cool like.

The graphics in the game, developed by Techland, look great in HD, and the musical score and voice-acting are faithful to the game's theme. Playable scenes are often separated by long, text-heavy cutscenes that advance the story, but they can be a bit trying after bit and led me to do some speed reading to get things moving.

Being a fan of first-person shooters, I enjoyed playing as Reverend Ray the most. He's a simple man that lets his guns do the talking, well, if you don't choose to have him spout scripture while he's at it.

Playing as Billy is almost like playing a different game. I played at the standard difficulty setting, and getting proficient at learning how to catch things like tree branches with his whip to cross rough terrain isn't easy and is downright frustrating early in the game. One can only "die" by falling down a deep ravine and having to respawn so many times before beginning to wonder what's on TV. And sneaking around can be fun if you're reasonably successful at it, but it also can wear thin at certain points when you are repeatedly discovered and subjected to a hail of gunfire.

This tends to happen frequently and seemed to be a function of my lack of being good at it and sometimes mushy controls. Moving around and trying to climb ladders and cross open spaces on scaffolding and planks seems unnecessarily difficult sometimes. For those who would rather just go online and try their skills against or with other people, there are several game modes on Xbox Live to do just that.

So for fans of Western movies who fancy themselves as the next coming of Billy the Kid, I would have to give Call of Juarez a thumbs-up. But if deftly crossing crevices by providing the counterweight to a bull whip and puzzle-solving isn't your thing, I'd say look elsewhere for your next first-person shooter fix.