If the original Call of Juarez proved developer Techland’s ability to mine the Western for its tropes, then its predecessor shows an equivalent ability in the direction of design. What was once a game of rugged stealth and broken platforming, redeemed somewhat by competent action, Bound in Blood has cleansed much of its forebear’s identity for an adherence to Infinity Ward’s formula.

Though the weaponry is ancient, Civil War era rifles seem to fire as quick and clean as something out of modern war. Aim far and deep down the barrel of your gun and the foreground slips out of focus in a translucent haze. If it isn’t familiar yet, blow up that bridge, soldier, stick those charges where it glows bright and get on that em’ gee.

Yet that isn’t to say Techland’s historical battlefield, dovetailed by tumbleweed Western, lacks finesse in its design or is even void of invention. Imitating Call of Duty from smooth controls to first person set pieces is no small feat – something that even games bearing the same name but not quite the talent have struggled with.

Bound in Blood is a more confident effort than, say, developer Treyarch’s first attempts at emulating Call of Duty’s structure. It’s even able to reconcile those broken cornerstones of stealth and platforming within a very different game, carrying Call of Juarez’s initial conceits to far more agreeable territory.

While the clock has been turned back on the series, the spirit of the setting remains; along with the duality of two playable characters. Ray McCall now carries more guns, less a bible, and his brother Thomas is a doppelganger for the agile Billy, less the mechanical incompetence.

A rope up to a rooftop once denoted a probable series of fail state hops and jumps – a complicated, finicky system that brought the original game crashing to a halt. Now, it’s simply a point at which Ray and Thomas go separate ways. Indeed, the brothers McCall both go in mean and loud, but it’s the difference between nimble high ground and brute power at dirt level.

Granted, it begs the question of why you’d want to play as the bullish Ray seeing as his only advantage is soaking up more bullets and dealing extra damage, often simplifying and easing difficulty, whereas his rope swinging brother instantly adds complexity and height to levels.

Naturally, there’s little room for greater difference in a series that’s strayed far from its initial design and into a comfort zone of set piece punctuated firefights. From shooting Comanches off hilltops to slaughter in burning saloons, Bound in Blood finds every opportunity to alter the atmosphere that accompanies its central mechanic. Because like nearly all before it, the breadth of choice is limited to what you shoot, from where, and with what.

But perhaps some of Call of Duty’s influence was never meant to reach back to days of Civil War desertion. Some modern oddities poke through, yet they’re surprisingly limited to Techland’s sense of the cinematic rather than anything of true function. During on-rail segments, stage coaches seem to have all the power of tanks; horses smash through walls in scenes of destruction that belong to the next century’s war machines, and yet they gallop on without a scratch; or a scene in which a steamboat is pitted against your cannon, if only because it will blow up rather nicely.

Like many shooters this year, Bound in Blood flirts with the concept of an open world. More the limited hub of Wolfenstein than Halo 3: ODST, these sections are littered with side-missions and distractions that complement the main game by bolstering the toolset through earnable cash for upgrades. It’s a jarring addition, perhaps, but it furthers Techland as a piggyback developer with a confidence of its own.

Most of Bound in Blood, though, has a definite familiarity. After all, it’s lifted straight from the developer that so many wish to be. The rusty rifles are M16’s, stage coaches are rolling tanks, and don’t be fooled by those bouncing sticks of dynamite (they’re frag grenades). Yet that exact imitation has guided Techland to craft a sturdy, competent game which is still somewhat its own – something few developers can boast in their pursuit of Infinity Ward.