The Call of Juarez series is one I'd definitely recommend giving a go. Every game in the series is distinct and has its own identity, which is something I really appreciate. I'll avoid going into too much detail about the rest here, but they're all a good time with individual strengths and weaknesses that form a satisfying whole.

Unfortunately, the defining characteristic of game number three, The Cartel, is that it's an utter shambles. The classic Wild West setting of the previous games was ditched for a staggeringly uninspired modern-day Los Angeles/Mexico counterpart, which is exactly as appealing as it sounds (i.e. not at all). Likewise, the hole left by the entertaining and likeable cast of the first game and Bound in Blood (like legendary gunslinger Ray McCall) is filled with some of the flattest caricatures to ever spout tired one-liners. Once all the character and charm of Call of Juarez has been stripped away, what you're left with is a medicore first-person shooter that is an absolute chore in single-player and probably not much better in the new co-op mode. Solo players be warned: your AI partners are incompetent, and they will make no effort to hide it, though they will continually belittle your performance as you carry them for the game's entire duration.

Lackluster AI, boring gunplay, dull visuals and an uninteresting plot combine for eight hours of unmitigated tedium. The only saving grace is the way the game ends, which could have been a pretty cool conclusion to a much better game, but is of course held back here by being part of The Cartel. In retrospect it's good that the series had one final outing after this, though The Cartel remains a testament to how quickly good games can go bad. It's almost worth playing just for that lesson, though I'd suggest you try any of the others over this rubbish.

Weak link in Call of Juarez series. Why modern world? Ubisoft attempted to make this game like Call Of Duty but messed it allright. Finally understood its mistake and a miracle born; Gunslinger. Play Call of Juarez, Bound in Blood, Gunslinger and ignore this one!

An extremely mediocre offering and I write this as a RABID Call of Juarez and all things western fan. I went into this looking for even a schlocky B-movie sort of good time after purchasing it on sale and I had to muster a LOT of courage to make it through to the end. Disappointing gunplay, terrible driving segments, paper thin characters and plotting, only play it if you're desperate for a gritty crime shooter and you've literally played everything else on your backlog. A huge disappointment. The series was thankfully put back on track with Gunslinger and I expect great things from Techland regarding the future of the franchise. But this one?

Keep clear.

I have finished about 1/3 of the game. So far so good. I would love to give it thumbs up. But unfortunatelly i will have to do the opposite.

I cannot continue.
On first day everything was fine. Uplay and steam worked fine together. Accounts were conected and i have seen no problems.
Day after - Uplay doesn't allow me to log in. "Too many log-in attempts". Rubbish. If 0 is too many then f*** you ubisoft. Click on play offline - to play offline log in to your account... Argh...

UPlay is steaming piece of s***.

AVOID BUYING ANYTHING THAT REQURES DOUBLE DRM (especially if second drm is uplay).
Sadly CoJ:TC is one of those games.

:(

UPDATE!

Uplay kindly allowed me to log in after some time, and I was able to finish the game. Still cannot recommend it. On highest possible difficulty game was easy and I was still dying all the time because of technical issues (for example killed by enemy that fell below the ground xD).
Driving in this game is terrible (and they made too many parts that needs driving). Shooting is nice and story is decent (especially endings). AI is probably worst AI created ever and your companions deal almost no damage. Game was designed for co-op, but you won't find anybody to play with.


SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT for Achievement hunters.
Achievements are broken. Probably because of double DRM.
Haven't received Achievo for beating game on hardest difficulty.
In the middle of the story - game stopped counting towards some achievements (fe. kill 30 people in slow motion), while other were working.
Turning off steam cloud, setting uplay to offline mode, deleting all saves (in steam and uplay) and reinstalling game helped with some achievements. But not with the one for beating game in hardest difficoulty - looks like this one is impossible to get.


SUMMARY:
DON'T BUY THIS
Bloom effect will burn your eyes, technical issues will frustrate you and double DRM will do everything to not let you even launch the game.

CoJ Cartel is a bad game. I actually forced myself to play through it. Story is not interesting at all and very confusing, characters are bland, dialogues are stupid, the game is scripted as hell, and AI is so dumb, i cant even describe it, enemies just stay in the cover and shoot with stormtroopers accuracy.. Graphic suck, some effects are terrible, also default FOV is around ~50, and You cannot change it without messing with the config files. Techland should remove CoJ sign from it, because cartel is a shame to the series, going to "New Wild West" was a bad idea.

The Call of Juarez franchise should've stopped with the first one, which was plain bad! But then Bound in Blood changed my mind! But then The Cartel appeared and strenghtened my first feeling! But then Gunslinger appeared and gave me that nice nostalgic feel of the 2nd one! Boy, those are a lot of "But then"s :P
Anyways, The Cartel Is an average FPS that lets you play as 1 of the 3 agents at your choice, each one with it's unique abilities (but those abilities/skills are pretty boring, like faster reload for pistols with one guy, the other reloads faster with SMGs and can Dual-Wield them and the female agent reloads rifles faster, aaaand that is it...)
Going to the graphics, they are below average, bad texture pop-ins here and there and offline lag! YES! The campaign lags when you play (framerate drops and lag, actually), when you run to be specific, same issue that I had previously with Dead Island (same engine BTW).
Character models are just awful and the dialogue is f*cking laughable.
Gameplay wise, the guns all feel pretty much the same, and they all feel bad! Except the pistols, so I just used the pistols the whole game, except during Concentration mode (slows down time and increases accuracy for a short period of time) that you get by killing people, and also used rifles and smg's during the car shootout and car chases, because pistol kind of suck in those situations. There are also pretty ugly bugs here and there and some glitches, but Techland just doesn't give a sh*it and instead of patching it up, they just decided to move on to another sh*tty project called Dead Island: Riptide, and that worked out pretty well, didn't it? Huh...
Multiplayer is your standard rack up kills, get XP, new level, YAY! Here's a new ♥♥♥♥♥♥ weapon, have a blast!
Noone plays it anymore btw, so if you want to get it, buy for the SP Campaign (with a bad story as well, pretty bad and nonsensical and uninteresting and many more bad adjectives) which is decently long (around 7 to 8 hours) and the collectibles are an interesting mechanic as well as they work like side missions and you kind of have to do it discretely so that the other 2 agents don't catch you. It makes things a bit more tense and spices up things, making the campaign interesting enough until the end.
Co-Op is also pretty fun with friends. It's a standard 3 player maximum co-op mode where each plays one of the in-game characters.
There isn't much more to approach to this game but an extra fly in the soup: an extra DRM known as Games for Windows Li...AH! Just joking! It does NOT use GFWL, thankfully, but it does use UPlay, which is Ubisoft's DRM for their games, I haven't had any huge issues with this DRM, it's just annoying but I can live with it...
it doesn't deserve more than a 4.5/10, save you 10 € for something better like Kane & Lynch 2 or Counter Strike: Global Offensive.
I paid 4,99€ at a retail shop for this and honestly, I feel like it was worth it, but don't pay much more than that...

Thanks to Uplay I can't play this game, therefore I cannot recommend it if it comes to my point of view. Shame, because I like Call of Juarez serie a lot. I don't know how the game really is, so bear in mind I wrote thie negative review due to having problems with running it.

Call of Juarez is a western-themed FPS game series released by Ubisoft. The Cartel is the "odd one out" in this series as it is the only one taking place in a modern day setting instead of the good old Wild West. Interestingly, the concept works and it makes for a good - albeit somewhat mediocre - game that fans can feel free to pick up as it becomes, after all, an important part of the franchise.

The game is best played cooperatively. For some reason the developer decided to pick not two (remember Bound In Blood?) but 3 protagonists. When playing alone they are controlled by the A.I but they are not exactly sharpshooters; however, the upside here is that you do not need to revive any of them.

They all work for a different organisation serving their country - Ben is an LAPD cop (he wears a cowboy hat and his surname indicates he is the descendant of Ray McCall from the 1st game), Kim is from the FBI and Eddie represents the DEA. They are all after The Cartel and during gameplay each of them receives a phone call asking them to complete a secondary objective. This is pretty funny as with each player you are to pick up various things and the rest cannot know about it. If noticed, you lose the opportunity. These are all illegal activities (such as stealing money) as to a certain degree all of them are dirty.

There are some driving sequences, too. One player drives while the rest do the shooting. The mechanics are similar to the one experienced in Dead Island (another Techland game series): it is pretty easy to navigate but the camera is positioned behind the dashboard so you do not exactly have the chance to change the view. There's also levelling up that unlocks newer and more powerful weapons throughout the game but it is pretty generic. Multiplayer is also available and while it does not offer anything new it is pretty entertaining.

Like I said this is the odd one out in the series but it does not mean it is a bad game. At the time (2011) the Chrome engine already looked outdated and while there is a handful of cinematics the game's story is not exactly very original. Still, The Cartel is an entertaining game and if you liked Call of Juarez you might get fond of this, too.

Just remember: beside McCall's character and the slow-mo shootouts and the available revolvers nothing really makes you remember its predecessors. Perhaps it's best to wait for a discount so as not to be disappointed very much.

This was a tough yes or no review. Def get the game when its on sale!! I beat the game once and i plan on beating it twice due to you get to play as 1 of the 3 characters. The story wise doesnt change as much just some little things such as the people calling you. Gameplay was okayish. The combat felt terrible at times and the driving is just like playing the enter the matrix game. Three annoying aspect about this game was that jumping off a small stair case can kill you, second one is when your trying to find items to lvl up sometimes you may go off the mission area causing you to fail the mission. and the last one is you have to follow the path the game gives you.

Pros
lvl up system- giving you new weapons
Can choose your weapon loadout
Small little side missions to do
3 playable characters each have a different story (different story but you pretty much play the game all over again)
2 different endings

cons
Bugs- Ai sometimes are in boxes and walls shooting at you
Cant go your on path
Driving is bloody awful.
Combat while fighting against heli's is just clunky

bad boys, bad boys... whatcha ya gonna do? what you gonna do when they come for you?... The game was very entertaining to play, since I love "Bad Boys", old westerns, car chases with gunfire, room entry in slo-mo while you take down a bandit with a precise headshot. It's really fun to play, and it could've been better if it had no bugs.