Stranglehold

"Bringing John Woo films to life... mostly"

The reason I purchased Stranglehold (SH) the day of release was my deep-seated fascination with John Woo's films. Although he has become infected with Hollywood-itis after moving into the American market, Woo's films are still some of the most intense and awe-inspiring action films ever produced. Mr. Woo's involvement was heavily touted prior to the release of SH and is certainly evident in the game's final design, yet the experience of playing the game fails to elicit quite the same emotions as watching his masterpiece Hardboiled, for instance. While SH is indeed fun and exciting there is very little here to commend a purchase of the full game for anyone but a hardcore John Woo fan.

Graphics: 7/8 In the graphics department SH is competent yet in no way excellent (like the vast majority of 360 games available). While the environments are highly destructible and the explosions are satisfying, there's just no usual Woo-esque spark. While his films are often defined by their noticeable gritty and claustrophobic cinematography most of SH takes place in somewhat sterile locations. A level taking place in a waterfront shanty-town alleviates this somewhat but the game still looks a little to much like... well, a collection of videogame levels. The characters avoid the all too common "plastic skin" problem and thankfully come in a wide enough variety to avoid the feeling of shooting an army of clones. The grapics do manage to serve up interesting locations such as a jazz bar and a dinosaur exhibit in a history museum, but they all feel just a little too lifeless for the gritty nature of their subject matter.

Story: 6/8 SH is intended to be the sequel to Woo's greatest film (in my opinion), Hardboiled. Chow Yun-Fat reprises his role as the staple of the action genre Inspector Tequila. Whereas Hardboiled was almost charming in the way that the cliché characters and plot elements formed their web of violence and romance SH feels a little hollow and lacks a necessary degree of menace that made Hardboiled a powerful film despite it's cheesy plotline. SH still has an interesting story, it's just that the tale of double-crossing drug gangs, triads, and Russian crime syndicates comes off as nothing but an excuse to have Tequila shoot a bunch of thugs in big empty locations. Our tale begins with an innocent cop being murdered by a vicious local Hong Kong gang and Tequila sets out to find the responsible party. He is drawn into a plot involving the feud between a Chicago based mob family and HK's biggest Triad and had to cross the Pacific a couple of times to save his estranged wife and daughter from a series of vile gangsters. Characters pop up, say a few lines, and wander off until much later in the story. It lacks the visceral punch of Hardboiled, where an evil Triad boss was willing to kill an entire hospital full of people. Now we merely get gang bosses at various levels of stupid who constantly miss their chance to kill Tequila when he's defenseless. It's a fun story, but there's no depth and it's too disjointed to really come together and grab our attention.

Controls: 8/10 Nothing spectacular to report in this segment. If you've played Max Payne the controls to SH will feel second nature. If you haven't played Max Payne go out and buy a copy right now, then imagine the same game with a hardboiled Chinese cop instead of an American one. The use of weapons, "tequila Time" or slow-motion, and the powerups known as "tequila bombs" are all easily accessible and intuitive. This is fairly standard fare for a cinematic third-person action game. Stunts, for lack of a better word, comprise a huge amount of the actual gameplay in SH. Tequila will automatically slide across tables when you walk into them, which keeps the sometimes cluttered environments from becoming navigational nightmares. All of the other signature stunts from Woo films like leaping from chandeliers and riding wheeled carts across the ground are activated manually and trigger slow-motion when Tequila is performing them. These moves are often easy to do and darn cool-looking, but some of the time they refuse to co-operate. Trying to jump into a pillar so that Tequila will perform his little backflip only to see him chest-bump the object and then stand there is frustrating, especially when this causes you to die right there from all the gunfire heading your way. When they work, the controls in SH really help you to feel like your playing an action movie, but when they stubbornly refuse to co-operate (a thankfully rare instance) it's hair-pullingly maddening.

Sound: 6/8 Yes, Chow Yun-Fat does voice his trademark character for this sequel. Does he do an admirable job? Yes and no. Most lines are faithful to the character, but sometimes he reads the dialogue in a near-monotone. I can't understand why the game isn't in Cantoneese like Woo's HK films. I know that this is an American game and that spoiled gamers out there don't like subtitles, and to a certain degree I understand this. I don't want to read English subtitles to the Japanese dialogue in, say, a Final Fantasy game. But SH is based off the iconic Hong Kong action films that every good fan knows are better in their original language with subtitles, just like authentic Japanese anime is best left in it's native tongue. This may sound nitpicky, and it is, but I really believe that the game would be grittier and cooler if the dialogue in the HK portions was in Chinese. Aside from this quibble the sound is fairly good; explosions, gunfire, and environmental sounds are well-used and sound realistic. The SMG sounds a little dinky, but the guns generally have a nice bombastic explosiveness to them. Competent, but not great.

Gameplay: 8/10 SH is short and, truth be told, really repetitive. If you've seen Hardboiled, you surely remember the final extended gunfight in the hospital. For half an hour, cops and mobsters blaze away at each other while innocent civilians run for cover. Take the innocent hospital patients out of the equation and stretch the hospital fight out to about seven hours. There, you now have Stranglehold. This isn't a bad thing; I rather enjoy a good mindless shooter now and then. SH is not the kind of game that Halo is in the sense that you will play the meat-and-potatoes element of the game for a while and then engage in a side activity like driving a vehicle. SH is one long gunfight interspersed with fairly nifty cinema scenes. It's fun, but only if played in short bursts. I bought the game mostly because I like John Woo films, but I'm also a fan of games that I can pop into my Xbox on a rainy day and play for about an hour before I do something else, like read a book. SH is exactly this kind of game. After you beat a level you're generally ready to do something else, and if you keep playing you'll just get more of Tequila running around and blasting goons. There is a little variety, such as a railed-shooter scene with a helicopter and the infrequent yet enjoyable adrenaline-fests that are the quick-draw contests. The quick-draw minigame is fun and furious even if it is a little too difficult at times, but the sheer fun from getting to live out such an iconic element of HK action films is exciting. The powerups that Tequila has work well, such as a sniper-like ability and a power called Barrage which makes you invincible and gives you unlimited ammo for a short time. These little powers are useful and necessary to beat the game, and they thankfully work very well. Basically, the gameplay in SH is darn fun, just not varied enough to constitute a marathon play session. The Xbox Live game, which is essentially a spazz-fest with a broken version of the slow-motion mechanic, isn't worth your time.

Buy/Rent: Unless you are like me and enjoy the occasional mindless shoot-em-up or have a love of HK films, this is a definite rent. If you play through the campaign once you will be satisfied, but you will most likely feel cheated if you drop $60 for a seven hour repetitive gun ballet.

Closing comments: Stranglehold is, unfortunately, a mediocre shooter on a console that has a large number of such titles. You will probably have more fun playing Halo 3 or Gears of war for a weekend, but SH is a good break between Xbox live matches and is a treat for those who love Hong Kong gun-fu films. Stranglehold, while not being the game it perhaps should, is still a fun diversion that's good for short bursts of fun.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 10/01/07

Game Release: Stranglehold (US, 09/05/07)