Stranglehold
Publisher: Midway Games
Developer: Midway Amusement Games
Genre: Third Person Action
Release: October 29, 2007
Platforms: Playstation 3, Xbox 360, PC
Reviewer: Eric
There is no denying it; video games are the biggest thing
right now. Hollywood is snagging the rights of almost every big
video game franchise. Some games are being made into a movie
even before the game hits shelf. With the release of Halo 3 in
September this may make the first game to make more money than
Titanic, the biggest grossing movie ever. Midway Games saw all
of this and breathed it all in for what it's worth and signed
action director John Woo to a three game deal. Is Stranglehold
worthy of John Woo's name or will Stranglehold show in the
bargain bin before the end of 2007?
Stranglehold
is what you'd expect from John Woo. You play as Inspector
"Tequila" Yuen, a badass that can duel wield enough weapons to
make you foam at the mouth. This game is a sequel, in ways, to
John Woo's amazing Hard Boiled movie.
The plot of Stranglehold takes place in latter-day Hong Hong
where a policeman goes missing. The police department isn't sure
how this happened and want answers before any harm is done. A
call is made from the kidnappers, where the state how they want
somebody, a single cop, to appear at the Kowloon market. Tequila
takes the case and is soon involved in battles from Hong Kong to
Chicago.
One of the coolest aspects of this game is Tequila Time.
Inspector Tequila receives reduced speed, where the screen
becomes a white/orange color. At this time Tequila can destroy
numerous amounts of bad guys, objects, and anything else you
want to shoot at. Tequila Time adds a movie feel to Stranglehold
but at the same time it does copy off Max Payne a little with
this technique. This may not be a new feature in video games but
it is one of the best things about Stranglehold, you really feel
like you're playing a John Woo movie whenever you are gunning
down ten guys with only a few rounds left in your pistol.
The graphics in Stranglehold are impressive. Details from
Tequila to the propane tank you shoot are top notch. The
animations on all the characters are life like but some might
find it a little hard to believe that one man can grind all the
way down a ten foot rail, jump onto a wheel cart, dodge hundreds
of bullets and destroy an entire drug house. If you have ever
watched Hard Boiled and The Killer then you won't think this is
entirely unbelievable
With all these good things about Stranglehold there is one
thing that is unbelievably bad and that is the online play. On
paper Stranglehold sounds like an awesome game online, team play
or a free for all, who wouldn't want to jump and dive throughout
every stage from the game, while killing somebody in Canada?
When I first went online with this game I was excited, I figured
I could play this game on Xbox Live for hours. Guess what I was
only one for an hour max and I was ready to call it an early
night, Stranglehold fails with its online play.
For starters if you want to get all the achievement points
there are a good amount online. Create games, get so many kills
and get Tequila Time kills, all of these are nearly impossible
to get. Trying to find a game is a chore, nobody wants to join
your game because everybody wants the stage creation achievement
points. I had to wait ten minutes to get one person in my game,
that is ten minutes I could have been playing the single players
mode. Whenever I was ready to start the match there was a two to
three minute load screen. Don't make your matches last a minute,
I did this one time to be cute and I was hitting myself at the
end, the loading took so much longer than the actual match. You
are treated to this loading screen for any number of players in
your match.
Another huge flaw with Stranglehold online is entering games.
Like I said before so many people make games and sometimes it
can be hard finding a game, you'll see ten or so games that have
one person in it (achievement whores). I lost track on how many
times I joined in a game with two players and then I was treated
with a screen that said the game no longer existed. Did the
person quit his own game or is Stranglehold real slow on when
games are no longer available? To make things worse whenever you
finish a game online you have to quit, no hitting a button
to reset and start a rematch, you go back to the main screen
with all the options for Stranglehold online. Huge
disappointment, Stranglehold is a sub-par game online.
Final Verdict
Stranglehold will make you believe that Hollywood directors can
create good video games. John Woo's first video game will have
you interested in its story, but you will mostly enjoy the game
play. With only seven hours of game play on the easiest setting
this game will have you playing it over and over again on the
harder difficulty settings, especially if you want all those
achievement points. Stranglehold does fail on delivering a true
John Woo online gaming experience, you will only find yourself
getting frustrated when you go online with this game. Only buy
Stranglehold for its single player experience and not for its
online game play. On a final note though I really do enjoy this
game. Because of Stranglehold I got into John Woo's older Hong
Kong movies and I should have a review on Hard Boiled for you
guys soon.
Rating
7.25 out of 10
Stranglehold Trailer
