Call Of Juarez: The Cartel

As for those characters, it's a cut-and-paste ensemble of troubled individuals who operate above the law (again). Say hello to Eddie Guerra: an audacious agent, a smooth talker, a gambler, a flashy dresser with a pencil moustache. He's a prick. Or there's the wizened Ben McCall – a descendant of Reverend Ray, Juarez fans – son of a pastor, and a Vietnam veteran driven by revenge. Like his old Uncle Ray, Ben is prone to preaching from the Bible while meting out justice, although we're not entirely sure what edition he's quoting. He certainly gets the best lines however, racking up the body count accompanied by such gems as "His name is death and he has a bullet with your fucking name on it." Or how about, "My sword shall devour flesh and I will bathe in the blood of my motherfucking enemy." Keep it light. And finally, there's the obligatory sassy female in the shape of the FBI's Kim Evans, a Tomboy haunted by a painful childhood and a link with the gangster community. And a fashionable haircut.

This (un)likely triumvirate must put aside their antagonistic personal interests to save the US of A following a bombing that may involve a Mexican cartel and a mole. They do this by shooting people, tearing around in cars, covering each other and shouting and swearing. A lot. With its wilfully mature content, the game appears to be aimed squarely at 14-year-olds, and in a visit to a nightclub we are shown a great big pair of wobbling tits as well as a somewhat unseemly gusset shot. It's all peppered with blue language; as Kim asserts, "I like to know what the fuck I'm walking into."

The violence is largely relentless, and as well as some varied gunplay we're witness to a street kicking and a good old-fashioned punch-up. Life is cheap in the war on drugs, and following the violent death of a human being, one of our charming police officers helpfully points out, "We're just making lemons into lemonade."

Away from the slums, clubs and freeways of LA, the drug trail does take our triumvirate to more traditional Western territory, albeit with a modern slant that sees snipers perching atop the sun-parched mountains. The franchise's entertaining shootout routine is no more, as the whole pistols at noon thing wouldn't really make sense when you're packing an Uzi. As for the concentration mode, it exists in some fashion, a co-operative affair where both players reap the benefits.

The modern approach is likely to irk the Juarez purists (if there are any), but Ubisoft insist it's for their benefit. According to producer Samuel Jacques, "We wanted to offer something fresh for the player and give more variety. We were quite limited by the classical Wild West setting. The new setting will bring some variety to the shooting experience."

As for the inevitable Red Dead comparison, he maintains, "It's not really the same kind of game. Red Dead Redemption is a fantastic game but it is free roaming and we are more an action shooter, a rollercoaster experience with highs and lows. The main goal was to have a interesting player experience rather than reacting to competitors."

It's certainly interesting; we'll give him that. And it'll be interesting to see how it's received in Mexico...