Call of Juarez: The Cartel

Call of Juarez: The Cartel is a modern-western PC first-person shooter from Techland, originally published by Ubisoft. Instead of returning to the traditional frontier, it follows a violent law-enforcement road trip from Los Angeles to Ciudad Juarez, combining linear gunfights, covert objectives, vehicle sequences, and a campaign designed for three-player online cooperation. The game has not been rebranded: current search results identify it by the original title, while no active official Steam or GOG store edition was found. GOG currently presents it as a Dreamlist request rather than a purchasable release.

A modern western built around a three-person task force

The campaign brings together three playable officers with different backgrounds and weapon preferences. Ben McCall is a veteran Los Angeles detective who favors revolvers, pistols, and heavy machine guns. Kim Evans is an FBI agent built around rifles and sniper rifles. Eddie Guerra is a DEA agent whose loadout centers on submachine guns, rifles, and shotguns.

That character structure is more than a cosmetic choice. Each officer has a different perspective on the investigation, and selecting one changes the role you occupy during the campaign. The other two characters remain part of the squad, controlled by the game in solo play or by other players online.

The main loop is direct: move through urban streets, rural routes, cartel facilities, and borderland environments, complete an objective, survive an ambush, and advance the investigation. Missions include target elimination, infiltration, witness protection, weapon theft, and escape sequences rather than open-world exploration.

Gunfights, Concentration Mode, and team tactics

Concentration Mode is the signature combat ability. Eliminating enemies fills a gauge, allowing the player to slow time while lining up shots. It gives the otherwise conventional shooting a brief burst of precision and connects The Cartel to the slow-motion gunplay associated with earlier entries in the series.

Weapons are divided around the three protagonists rather than built around a large loot system. Ben handles close and medium-range pressure, Kim is more effective when picking targets from distance, and Eddie offers flexible automatic fire and heavier close-quarters options. This creates basic squad roles without turning the campaign into a class-based shooter.

Several missions use Team Cover sequences. One player advances through a dangerous area while partners provide cover or wait for the correct command. These moments are designed to make coordination matter, although the solo campaign substitutes AI-controlled companions.

Vehicle sections add another cooperative role split. One player drives while the others fire from the passenger seats at pursuing enemies. The game also uses a recovery system in which a seriously injured teammate can require a revive, making positioning and timing more important during difficult firefights.

Secret agendas give co-op a competitive edge

The Cartel's most distinctive system is its Secret Agenda mechanic. During selected missions, each player receives a private secondary objective that may conflict with the team's public goal. Completing the task without being detected grants experience and can unlock new abilities.

These hidden assignments give the cooperative campaign a layer of distrust. A teammate might appear to be helping the group while quietly collecting evidence, stealing contraband, or pursuing a personal objective. The idea works best when every player understands that cooperation is useful but not entirely selfless.

Collectibles also support character-specific progression. The campaign tracks different items and side objectives for the three protagonists, encouraging repeat play with another character. This is a mastery loop based on discovering alternate tasks and improving completion rather than building an extensive character skill tree.

Players looking for a traditional Western atmosphere should know that The Cartel is deliberately contemporary. Its weapons, locations, criminal networks, and law-enforcement cast belong to a present-day crime thriller, with the series connection carried mainly through its themes, the McCall family link, and the idea of a new Wild West.

Campaign, competitive multiplayer, and content structure

The main campaign can be played alone or with up to two additional players online. There is no split-screen mode documented for the PC version. Solo players experience the same broad mission structure with computer-controlled partners, while the cooperative design becomes more meaningful when people can communicate about cover, vehicles, revives, and secret objectives.

Competitive multiplayer supports up to twelve players and divides the action between police and criminals. Its documented modes are Objective-based play and Team Deathmatch. The objective mode links mission-style events to the conflict between law enforcement and criminal factions, while Team Deathmatch provides a more conventional team combat format.

The commercial model is straightforward. The Cartel was sold as a standalone premium game rather than a free-to-play service, and no season pass or table-like content catalog applies to it. The current issue is availability: the game is absent from the active GOG Call of Juarez bundle and is not presented as a current purchasable Steam product in the storefront searches reviewed.

That availability gap is important for PC players. The title remains searchable through archived Steam material and preservation-focused listings, but those references should not be confused with a current official storefront sale or a new definitive edition.

Who should play The Cartel?

The Cartel is most relevant to players who want a compact, linear crime shooter with a clear campaign structure and unusual three-player cooperation. Its strongest ideas are character-specific roles, secret objectives, slow-motion shooting, and coordinated vehicle firefights.

It is a weaker fit for players expecting the open landscapes, historical weapons, and classic frontier tone of the earlier Call of Juarez games. It also does not offer the freedom of a modern sandbox cartel game. Missions generally move through authored routes, combat arenas, and scripted sequences.

The game is also aimed at a mature audience. Its content includes intense violence, blood, drug references, strong language, sexual material, and scenes involving criminal activity. That tone is central to the setting rather than an optional side theme.

Players who enjoy modern cartel investigations with squad play may also want to compare its focused campaign structure with story-driven Western shooters such as Red Dead Redemption, although that game is far more open-ended and exploration-focused.

PC controls, controller support, and localization

The PC version supports the standard mouse-and-keyboard layout, including independent controls for movement, aiming, weapon selection, objectives, quick saving, and multiplayer results. The official manual also documents support for an optional controller, specifically identifying the Xbox 360 Controller for Windows as the recommended gamepad.

That makes the game suitable for either traditional PC aiming or couch-oriented controller play, but its original interface and online architecture reflect an older PC multiplayer ecosystem. Players should not assume that modern matchmaking, platform integration, or active server support is available simply because archived multiplayer features are documented.

Catalog information lists English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Dutch, Russian, Polish, and Czech among the supported language options, with Brazilian Portuguese identified separately as unofficial in one PC listing. Exact audio and subtitle coverage can vary by edition, so language availability should be checked against the copy being used.

No verified rebrand, remaster, definitive edition, or replacement name was found. Search intent should therefore retain the full original title, including the subtitle “The Cartel,” rather than treating it as a legacy version of another product.

Call of Juarez: The Cartel FAQ

Is Call of Juarez: The Cartel available on Steam?

Archived Steam news confirms that the game was distributed through Steam, but the current storefront searches reviewed did not show an active purchasable product page. It is safer to treat Steam availability as inactive unless the store directly displays a purchase option.

Is Call of Juarez: The Cartel available on GOG?

No. GOG currently lists The Cartel as a Dreamlist request rather than including it in the available Call of Juarez bundle. The bundle contains other series entries, but The Cartel is specifically absent.

Does The Cartel support cooperative campaign play?

Yes. The campaign supports up to three players online, with one player controlling each member of the task force. Solo play is available with computer-controlled partners, but the Secret Agenda system is designed to be more interesting when human players are involved.

Does the PC version have split-screen co-op?

No split-screen mode is documented for PC. The cooperative campaign is online rather than local couch co-op.

What makes The Cartel different from other Call of Juarez games?

Its present-day cartel investigation, three-character squad, online campaign, Secret Agenda objectives, and vehicle-based team encounters distinguish it from the earlier frontier-focused entries. It is a modern crime shooter using the series' Western identity as a thematic bridge rather than a historical setting.

Does The Cartel have competitive multiplayer?

Yes. Competitive play supports up to twelve participants and includes Objective-based and Team Deathmatch modes, with players assigned to police or criminal sides.