Loosely
based on the classic John Woo movie Hard Boiled, John Woo's Stranglehold
gives the infamous Hong Kong Detective Tequila a new lease on life as he
battles against a sea of bad guys on the dangerous streets of Hong Kong
facing off against a dangerous gang that isn't above killing police
officers to keep their turf safe. They have infiltrated the streets so
deeply that they can call on dozens of members to attack Tequila from
every angle. Luckily, he's got some very good friends on his side, his
twin pistols. Players can make Tequila perform some pretty incredible
stunts, most of which are embodied by his trademark dive maneuver, which
allows him to slide out of danger's way while attacking any one nearby.
Performing these dives only requires players to press a single shift
button, which makes the game easy to play. These dives help to get you out
of the way of gunfire while also allowing you some cover to attack foes.
It also gives the game a unique sense of style that makes Stranglehold
feel like an action movie. It's a very cool effect that's used quite
effectively and helps to bring the action to life. In addition to sliding
across tables and surfaces or diving off them, your techniques also
include the ability to slow down the action using a cool variation on
bullet time.
One
of the really cool features in Stranglehold is that the game allows you to
slow the action down using the Tequila time life bar, which allows them to
target opponents in an amazingly quick and elegant fashion. In the early
stages, this means you can hit opponents before they have a chance to
react. However, your Tequila is limited so you need to be careful not to
waste this on average foes. In later stages, you'll also earn the ability
to perform slow-motion sniper attacks, where you can shoot a single bullet
in slow motion and aim its trajectory in slow motion for a devastatingly
accurate single shot that can take out an opponent with a single shot.
This makes for some fairly elegant gun battles that offer a quite
sophisticated approach to the genre, not unlike the slow mo scenes in
other games. As you increase your accuracy and string together attacks,
your star ranking rises which increases Tequila's star ranking. Earning
high score in this ranking, makes his targeting abilities more accurate.
This is very important when facing off against multiple enemies at the
same time and allows him to shoot them without taking too much damage.
Throughout each level, players will find medical cases, which increase his
life, which gives him an almost superhuman strength in certain sections of
the game. This makes the normal enemies surprisingly easy to defeat, even
when they gang up on you from different directions at the same time.
In addition to attacking these enemies
with your guns and ammo, the game's environments are fully destructible
and interactive, which means you can use them against your opponents. For
example, if you see a large neon sign, you can shoot it and it will take
out any enemies standing beneath it, giving the player another strategy
when taking out enemies. Stranglehold's enemies are fairly smart, but
you'll also have to face off against a series of boss characters, who
usually have very strong weapons and a posse surrounding them who'll
attack you as well. In order to survive these stages and defeat them,
you'll have to use your special attack abilities and dodge their fire
while picking off the smaller adversaries. The game's pacing and flow is
fairly predictable, but the relentless action means that most players
won't really notice the somewhat pedantic gameplay. What you will notice
is that the game becomes slightly repetitive after awhile, since you're
basically wiping out waves of forgettable enemies that don't change
noticeably. However, the game's special moves, bullet time and diving
features help to keep things interesting throughout.
Stranglehold's
levels are quite impressive in terms of detail and environments, and show
a remarkable level of realism throughout. The levels set in Hong Kong and
its harbor area good examples of this approach, with an appropriately
cluttered, gritty appearance that makes you feel like you're in the middle
of the action. An excellent set of special effects, such as lighting and
sparks gives the gameplay a lot of punch, lending the action an effect
sense of hyper-realism that fits the style of play. Since the game is
based on one of the great cult-classic movies of the past decade or so,
we'd be remiss if we didn't mention that many of the actors from the
original Hard Boiled movie, including lead actor Chun Yung Fat are present
here in impressive digital form. Each character has been motion-captured
and rendered in a remarkable level of detail, which makes you feel like
you're not just playing a game, but watching a movie. Stranglehold's plot
moves at an excellent pace throughout and the engaging storyline will have
you at the edge of your seat, with many unpredictable moments and twists
to keep things interesting throughout. As you might expect, the game's
production values are slick overall and this makes for quite an immersive
experience. The cinematic approach and its implementation is superb, and
the two types of approaches form a seamless experience that makes
Stranglehold one of the more impressive technical examples to date of the
long-promised synergy between Hollywood and Silicon Valley.
Despite the glossy production values,
there are a few problems that keep Stranglehold from achieving the heights
it aspires to. While there are some really good special effects, these
tend to be over-used and there comes a point when they seem to get in the
way of the game itself, serving as a gimmick to some degree that attempts
to gloss over the repetitive gameplay. Unfortunately, facing endless waves
of mindless enemies becomes monotonous after awhile, and the game slowly
loses its impact the longer you play. However, its not an overly difficult
game to get through and it offers some enjoyable aspects aside from the
game itself. On the Playstation 3 edition, you can watch the original Hard
Boiled movie in a full-length presentation, which makes an excellent
primer if you aren't familiar with the storyline and characters. You can
also switch the action and play online against other players that makes
things more interesting. Overall, while Stranglehold does a somewhat solid
job in recreating the look and feel of an action movie, it's somewhat
constrained play mechanics undermine the Hollywood gloss in the end and
make the shooter feel less revolutionary than it should have.
- Michael
Palisano
Grade: C-
