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Stranglehold (Xbox 360)
by bookguy
Well, I've just been given a shiny new Xbox, and it's time for me to start playing all those titles that I wanted to when I saw them reviewed, but couldn't because I didn't, er, have an Xbox.
This one fascinated me the most, as I ama big "Heroic Bloodshed" fan (this is the name of the film genre to which the source ... movie, Hard Boiled, belongs), and John Woo is its undoubted auteur.
The game is a third person shooter, and you navigate Tequila, through gunfight after gunfight, a true shoot em up, in that you can not only shoot people, but do a lot of collaterla property damage as well. This gives the game settings bags of atmosphere, and really captures the splendid chaos of the movies.
I played it by first watching Hard Boiled (a review will follow) to remind myself of Tequila's backstory, and then getting stuck right in to the action.
The game has very little exposition, and you can forget about any need for stealth. Its kinetic mayhem really carries you along, and although the modelling suffers in comparison with more recent 3rd person games, such as Red Dead Redemption, it really is, literally a blast, and very cheap now. Recommended.
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Stranglehold (Xbox 360)
by KK-Slither
Stranglehold
Hard Boiled (the film) came out way back in 1992. It was directed by John Woo and stared Chow Yun-Fat as Inspector Tequila Yuen a hard as nails Hong Kong cop. Skip froward to September 2007
where John Woo and Chow Yun-Fat are back together this time in game form.
The story to Stranglehold shares ... many similarities to it's predecessor with you controlling Chow Yun-Fat who is playing Inspector Tequila. Tequila finds himself involved in a murder case, one where innocent Hong Kong police officers have been killed. Needless to say Tequila deals with this case like any other case, gathering witness statements, collecting evidence and building a solid case...not really instead he takes to the gang ridden streets of Hong Kong with his trusty pistols and a hell of a lot of bullets. Story is not Stranglehold's strong point but it is as enjoyable as most no frills Hollywood action flicks.
Stranglehold performs best when it comes to gameplay, it's a no nonsense shoot 'em up in the vain of Max Payne, this means lots of jumping, wall running and bucket loads of slow mo. All of this adds up to adrenaline filled gun fight after gun fight each one harder then the last. Many other action games within this genre have found it difficult to maintain a steady flow of non repetitive action sequences but Stranglehold has done well to avoid this with it's interactive and very destructible environments.
Controls are another area where these kind of games can fall down but once again Stranglehold's are mostly smooth and intuitive.
Graphically Stranglehold also stands up well with solid models, good lighting and detailed environments. Clipping (when body parts or guns poke into or through people and environments) can be an annoyance but it's easily ignored. Sound is Stranglehold's main weakness with the soundtrack being forgettable at best and the voice acting bar Chow Yun-Fat himself being flat. This is a real shame considering the big names attached to the game and could have been easily solved by leaving it in Cantonese (like Hard Boiled was) and subbing it.
All in all I found Stranglehold to be an immensely playable and continually fun game. Some have criticized it's lack of innovation, it's length (played on hard it's about eight hours) and it's (by now dead) uninspired multiplayer but I say to them why not come down off that high horse for awhile and just enjoy this game for what it is, a video game.
At A Glance.
Gameplay ~ 7/10
Story ~ 5/10
Graphics ~ 7/10
Sound ~ 5/10
Replay Value ~ 6/10
Final Score: 30/50
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