Positive: Cinematic, over-the-top action, wonderful environment destructibility, solid voice acting, and great sound effects.
Negative: Single-player portion of the game is very short, multiplayer is very much tacked on, and fairly repetitive game play.
At first glance, John Woo Presents
Stranglehold may be ignored by the average game player as a Max Payne
rip-off. Stranglehold is definitely not a Max Payne rip-off, but it
does borrow some elements from the iconic game, all while adding its
own original ideas. Fans of Hard Boiled will appreciate John Woo
working with Chow Yun-Fat again, even if it is only virtually.
Nearly every part of the
environment is interactive. Tequila can slide over tables, counters,
run down (and up) rails, jump in a shopping cart and even crazier
interactions such as running up a T-Rex in a museum. However, the
scenery isn’t just there to slide your buttocks over. For example:
killing enemies while sliding down rails will earn Tequila style points
which allow him to use one of his four abilities that can be triggered
by the d-pad. Tequila’s first ability allows him to restore a portion
of his health. The second ability Tequila acquires is called “Precision
Aim” and allows you to zoom in on an enemy, and shoot him with one
bullet which will usually result in an instant kill. And yes, you can
shoot an enemy in the crotch; there are specific animations for it. The
third ability is called “Barrage” and makes Tequila invincible for a
brief period of time, while increasing the power of his bullets, and
giving him an infinite amount of them. Tequila’s last ability is called
“Spin Attack” and kills all enemies on screen while doves fly away.
After all, this is a John Woo production. Spin Attack isn’t fun to use,
but on a higher difficulty it becomes fairly useful.
Stranglehold is clearly a
spiritual successor to John Woo’s cult-classic action flick Hard
Boiled, and while it occurs more than a few years after the film,
inspector Tequila –with Chow Yun-Fat’s likeness and voice– hasn’t
changed a bit. He’s still a cop on Hong Kong’s police force, and often
“crosses the yellow tape” The basis of the story is the death of a Hong
Kong police officer caused by gang members, and the kidnapping of
Tequila’s ex-girlfriend, as well as his daughter. While the story and
its many plot twists may not be anything special, it’s still good
enough motivation for the player to play the game.
Tequila will face many, many enemies in Stranglehold, but he does have
some unique abilities to aid him in his quest for his family. The most
useful as well as the most used of these abilities is “Tequila Time”
which is essentially bullet-time from Max Payne, but with a new name.
Entering Tequila Time will slow the world down, but Tequila will still
aim in real time. When you pull of a dive or environmental interaction
with your cross-hair near an enemy, Tequila Time will be turned on
automatically which is where Stranglehold’s bullet-time differs from
other games. Also, a button exists which lets the player enter Tequila
Time manually, but this feature is rarely used throughout the game.
Occasionally, Tequila will enter into “Standoffs” with multiple enemy characters attacking him simultaneously, but they shoot at Tequila only in one-on-one situations. With the analogue sticks, the player must dodge bullets (in slow-mo of course) while killing the enemies. The standoffs are fairly enjoyable and get very hectic. Of course, in Stranglehold, shooting your enemies is not the only way to get rid of them. Nearly every part of the environment can be destroyed or shredded to pieces with any weapon you get. Occasionally, the game uses the destructibility to create some simple environmental puzzles that are just plain annoying.
Stranglehold doesn’t break any new ground visually; in fact the
graphical quality is slightly above average. The actual textures
themselves aren’t anything special. However, explosions and Tequila
himself look and feel polished. The fact that the environment is so
destructible completely makes up for the fact that the visuals could
have been better. Overall, the general animations could have been
executed in a better fashion.
The guns in Stranglehold (pistols,
shotguns, rifles, etc.) all sound fairly generic, but the sounds of
bullets penetrating and hitting different surfaces are great. The
developers did a good job on this end, for example when Tequila shoots
a brick pillar, the sound effect is just as the player would expect a
bullet hitting bricks to sound like. The voice acting in the game is
good for the most part, but Chow Yun-Fat does say a few lines rather
flatly, but to be fair he doesn’t speak perfect English.
The main flaw of Stranglehold is the game’s
length. The average game player will finish the single player game
within six to eight hours. However, the game does feel satisfying once
beat and the unlocked harder difficulty setting gives it a bit more
replay value. The unlock shop also adds some motivation to replay the
game. The multiplayer feels very tacked on with just two modes:
deathmatch, and team deathmatch. Only the Barrage and the Spin Attack
Tequila Bombs are useful, as Tequila time is not executed well at all
due to the fact that everyone has to have it in order for it to be
used. Precision aiming is also useless because while the other players
move in real time, the player in the mode has his cross-hair moving in
slow motion.
Ultimately, Stranglehold is a good game,
but a short one. It doesn’t change the way we play games, but the game
delivers on its over-the-top action promise. With poor replay value,
John Woo Presents Stranglehold may not be a worthy purchase for full
price, unless the consumer is a big John Woo or Chow Yun-Fat fan.
Note: This review is copied and pasted from another website that I used to work at.