Game Stooge

REVIEW: Stranglehold (PC, 360, PS3)

• Scribbled on September 27th, 2007 by Jonah Falcon
• Filed in Microsoft Xbox 360, PC, Reviews, Shooter, Sony PlayStation 3

[Note: Xbox 360 version used for review.] 

John Woo was for a long time a cult figure for action movie fans, with such Hong Kong films as Hard-Boiled (1992), The Killer (1989), Bullet in the Head (1990), and A Better Tomorrow (1986). Then he came over to America and made Hard Target (1993) and Face/Off (1997) for mainstream glory.

It was only a matter of time before the video game industry came a-callin’, especially since Max Payne openly ripped off his movies. It was only fitting he and Midway showed them how a real action film with Bullet Time was done.

John Woo Presents Stranglehold (hereafter called Stranglehold in the interest of sanity) is actually a sequel to Hard-Boiled, with Chow Yun-Fat reprising his role as both as the voice and craggy face of Inspector Yuen aka Tequila.

To say the game is beautifully violent is to state a cliché about all of Woo’s movies. Stranglehold goes the extra mile in destructible levels, however. Everything can be smashed, shot and splattered into tiny bits, from the dishes to the fountains to giant dinosaur skeletons. Even more impressive is that every projectile has its own shape and physics, so when you fire your shotgun, you’re actually firing dozens of tiny little projectiles, each of which can be seen in slow motion aka Tequila Time.

Tequila Time is basically Bullet Time. Inspector Tequila earns it by making “stylish kills”, like falling backwards while shooting foes, using the environment to kill them (smash comes the neon fixture on their head! ouch), running on tables or up bannisters like a beserk gun-toting Tony Hawk, and so forth. Not only do you earn Tequila Time that way, you also charge up for Tequila Bombs.

There are four Tequila Bombs. The first is a heal, big yawn. The other three are quite cinematic. You have the Precision Shot, which slows time so Tequila can take a close up shot of any enemy and snipe them anywhere - including the throat - which causes a gurgling death - and the groin, which is cringe inducing, but satisfying as well. There’s also the most powerful attack, the Tequila spin, in which Tequila whirls around as doves fly and smart bombs the enemy. The most satisfying, however, is the Tequila Barrage, in which Tequila gets pissed off and becomes invincible with unlimited ammo. If you want the feeling of true power, try the Barrage with the rocket launcher. Boom boom rocket, indeed.

The other specialized slo-mo mode is the tense and exciting Stand-Off, when Tequila is surrounded by enemies holding guns on him. The game goes into an over-the-shoulder mode in which Tequila tries to take out his enemies while they fire bullets at him - all in Tequila Time so Tequila can preternaturally avoid the bullets to his head. Not only is it a neat game mechanic, but it’s extremely Woo-ish. 

The thing that truly sets Stranglehold from Max Payne is the story, acting, writing and music score. Even with the B-movie production value that a Hard-Boiled sequel might bring, it’s miles ahead of the pained writing and cringe-inducing dialogue and story that Max Payne trotted out. There’s a magnificent twist in Stranglehold that isn’t exactly a plot twist, but more of a revelation of how amoral and unemotional one important character might be, and the depths of self-preservation they will sink to. The “twist” isn’t that the character is evil - it’s the shock of how evil that character really is. I also must admit I really liked the final, James Bond-ish wink to the audience, too. It felt so right.

The problem is that the story is so tightly written, the game can be finished on normal levels in about 5 hours, which is epic movie length, but brief single player campaign length. For Xbox 360 owners, there is the Achievement hunting, but otherwise, there isn’t much more to the game. There’s an almost tacked-on multiplayer mode however, that incorporates Tequila Time by making the entire game slow down for all players when someone activates it.

Stranglehold is the very definition of a “rental game” for most people - for others who enjoy story and action, it might be worth replaying every so often like a good adventure game just to enjoy the universe Tequila lives in. If the game was longer and/or had a more robust multiplayer, it would get the highest rating. Otherwise…