Video Game Vintage Title: Call Of Juarez: The Cartel

Call Of Juarez: The Cartel

Call of Juarez: The Cartel is a first-person shooter video game developed by Techland and published by Ubisoft. The game is part of the Call of Juarez western-themed video games, but is set in modern-day Los Angeles and Mexico as up to three players take the role of law enforcement agents. Call of Juarez: The Cartel was demonstrated at Penny Arcade Expo East 2011 and was released on July 19, 2011 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows on September 13, 2011.

Call Of Juarez: The Cartel Plot

On July 4, 2011, the offices of the Drug Enforcement Administration are bombed by unknown assailants. Assistant Deputy Director Shane Dickson enlists LAPD detective Ben McCall, along with FBI agent Kimberly Evans and DEA agent Eddie Guerra to track down the culprits. She informs them of the late Patrick Stone, who was investigating the Cartel up until his death in the bombing. They are also tasked with protecting Stone's only daughter, Jessica. Kim reveals that the Cartel has been purchasing military-grade hardware from an unknown source. During the story, each character illegally interferes with the investigation for various reasons.

The trio proceeds to strike at the Cartel through their distributors�domestic street gangs, such as Ara�a and the Rolling 50�s, and clash in skirmishes with Ara�a's rivals, the Vatos Locos. At Eddie's behest, the team decides to move Jessica to a different safe house across the city in a car driven by Sgt Dempsey. Almost immediately, they are intercepted by Ara�a gangsters and chased along the freeway until their car is hit by a road tractor. Dempsey is killed, but the rest manage to escape in stolen transportation. Realizing that someone let slip their plans, they resolve to trust no one until their mission is complete. Afterwards, they find a number for Stone's retired acquaintance, Kevin Donleavy, who received a package upon his death. They arrange a meeting at the Panorama nightclub, but upon arrival Ben notices Alvarez among the crowd. After approaching Jessica at the bar and handing her a key, Donleavy is killed by a sniper, uttering only the words "Eagle Pass" before dying. Jessica flees the scene in terror, with Alvarez in pursuit; despite their best efforts, the three are unable to find her afterwards.

Eddie and Kim learn that Jes�s Mendoza, son of Cartel boss Juan Mendoza, is headed to Los Angeles in response to the stolen money delivery. Realizing that abducting Jes�s would lead them to the Cartel's arms dealer and grant them a powerful bargaining chip, Eddie asks his street dealer, Hector, to tell Ara�a to mark anyone asking about the stolen cash, then convinces another dealer, Flaco, to contact Ara�a about the exact topic. Armed thugs promptly arrive and execute Flaco, and retreat to the El Dorado nightclub to inform their guest, unaware they are being followed; there, the agents fight through Ara�a gang members and chase down Jes�s, stowing him into the trunk of their van. Ben interrogates Jes�s about the Cartel, learning that Alvarez has indeed captured Jessica, and that Jes�s was to meet with Michael Duke, CEO of the bankrupt PMC Peacekeepers International, and the Cartel's contact for high-end weaponry; satisfied, they lock Jes�s inside a development building.

The next day, the trio rendezvous with Duke at a ghost town (the town in which Ray and Thomas fought the Pinkertons 145 years earlier) in Jes�s' stead, Eddie dressed as Jes�s, Kim as his escort and Ben as "Harris", a weapons expert. However, Duke reveals Alvarez has arrived, as well; Alvarez recognizes them immediately, but sardonically plays along with their disguises. After a weapons demonstration and unexpectedly dangerous live-fire exercise, Duke rejects the Cartel's payment, and states his new price�Moctezuma's legendary treasure, The Gold of Juarez, long since unearthed and relocated to the National Museum in Juarez, Mexico.

That night, gangsters attack the team at their motel, demolishing the walls with a wrecking ball. Despite his multiple attempts at escape, the agents retrieve Jes�s and bring him to the Mexican border in exchange for Jessica. However, as the two hostages pass, Alvarez shoots them both with a sniper rifle, killing Jes�s and wounding Jessica. After fighting off Alvarez's gang, the team manages to rescue her, but she soon dies. After an argument in which Ben reveals that Kim shot Donleavy, Eddie then reveals to the rest of the team that Donleavy gave him a key to "Eagle Pass" earlier. The team use the key to open a locker at a bus station, inside is the package that Donleavy mentioned, which turns out to be a CD that Patrick Stone recorded. On the CD, Patrick says that Shane Dickson is corrupt and was the one who introduced Michael Duke to the Mendoza Cartel, he expresses regret at not testifying against Alvarez back in Vietnam (where Alvarez was tried for raping and murdering a Vietnamese civilian in Saigon back in 1972, but was deemed innocent) and reveals that Ben is the only person he trusted to look after Jess.

Soon after, the team head to a farmhouse and after fighting through some thugs, find a secret underground smuggling passage, the tunnel leads them under the border to an old fort (Juarez' Alcazar) where Mendoza and Duke's men are loading up the Gold of Juarez into trucks, the team manage to kill all the men and then decide to plot Duke and Mendoza against one another by taking the Gold and pinning it on Duke via text message and sending Duke a letter about Mendoza deciding to take the weapons and the Gold all for himself.

The next day, the team plans to capture Mendoza at Jes�s' funeral, but Duke's men arrive and the team chase after Mendoza, fighting both men's armies until they corner him in a church. Duke then tries to kill Mendoza himself in an attack chopper, which the team manages to destroy, killing Duke in the process. They then chase after Mendoza, only for Alvarez to show up and rescue him.

The team then storms Mendoza's Hacienda, killing more of his men and finally manage to corner Mendoza, who promptly surrenders. Ben tries to strong-arm him into testifying, only for Mendoza to be killed by an unmanned aircraft drone, which fires upon the rest of the team, who realize that Dickson must've sent the drone after them in order to cover up her tracks, and they take cover to avoid drone fire trying to kill them. Ben says that Alvarez is the only one left who can testify to Dickson's involvement. The team chase him into a cellar, where they split into three paths. Kim and Eddie are contacted by their superiors who encourage them to kill off their teammates, while Dickson orders Ben to walk away, or "things will go badly" for him. The team manages to corner Alvarez, who reveals that Eddie's debts have been paid off in exchange for his agency to hold him responsible for his illegal actions, Kim reveals that Alvarez is a federal informant and was their link to the Cartel. Ben wants to kill Alvarez in retaliation for his crimes, Kim wants Alvarez alive so Dickson and Waters can go to prison and Eddie wants to split the drug money three ways where they can start with a clean slate.

The team engage in a Mexican stand-off and the player is presented with a choice to either kill his/her teammates or decide not to fight, choosing to kill your teammates results in Alvarez detonating a grenade and escaping, after which you kill your teammates and get different fates for each character, Ben goes to prison while the United States prepares to go to war with Mexico, Kim slaps Dickson after being awarded a medal, and is apprehended, and Eddie is killed (presumably by the person who was blackmailing him). If you choose not to fight, the team lets Alvarez live. If Alvarez is taken alive, he testifies against Dickson's involvement, resulting in her arrest. Eddie is jailed for his involvement in the murder of Jessica and Kim for killing Donleavy, and Ben is shown placing flowers on Patrick and Jessica's grave, and pulling out a Bible, finally seeking redemption.

Reception
Call of Juarez: The Cartel received generally mixed to negative reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the PC version 50.33% and 51/100, the Xbox 360 version 47.52% and 47/100 and the PlayStation 3 version 45.94% and 45/100.

The game has also been accused of racism and insensitivity toward real life events, addressing issues such as human trafficking and the current drug wars in Mexico with flippant inaccuracy, particularly their having swapped the victims of such trafficking from being Mexican women shipped to the US to US citizens being abducted to Mexico. Extra Credits stated "This might be the most racist game ever played by a major publisher."

Edge scored the game 4/10 and criticised many aspects of the game, saying "FPS games, like action movies, can be sublime or ridiculous. This is aiming for the former, and often proves to be the latter."