John Woo Presents Stranglehold

I usually don't care about other people's opinions and Stranglehold is no exception. I managed to read a couple of previews and even had a shot myself before the launch. I have to say I couldn't disagree more with most people on the internet that consider Midway's titles to be a little too superficial, considering all the money they claim to have been poured into it.

They stated a long time ago (or was it a rumor? I can't really remember) that the total investment was around 30 million dollars. I'm no mathematician and I have no marketing experience but that's a lot. This fact reminded me about a small company called 3DO and one of their titles called "The four horsemen of apocalypse". At that time, around the year 2000, they released a statement saying they want to invest almost 8 million dollars into the project. Enough said the company doesn't exist anymore. This will probably not be the case for Midway as they are a much larger company with unlimited resources. This review could be considered a personal crusade to save Midway from bankruptcy, at least until they release the new Unreal Tournament.

Concept You usually can't go wrong with 3rd person shooter and Stranglehold holds its grounds when it comes to gameplay. I need to make clear right from the start that saying Stranglehold is copying this and that from Max Payne will not make you any more popular than you actually are and all those dimwits gaming journalists that scream (like "Leave Britney alone" dude or chick or whatever) from the top of their lungs that Stranglehold is nothing more than a rip off, they can go and play some minesweeper and solitaire because they don't know s**t. Saying that Stranglehold is "inspired" from Max Payne is a gigantic absurdity as Max Payne is inspired from Hard Boiled and that would actually mean Stranglehold, which has the central character and gun ballet feature from Hard Boiled, is inspired from a game that's inspired from the original movie. After this mind twister with what went first, the chicken or the egg, we can go on to other more important stuff. If you have no other point of reference than Max Payne, then yes, the inspector kind of jumps sideways in the same manner. That would be the end of this comparison as the games have really nothing in common other than the genre itself. The closest relative, if I'm being permitted a small comparison with the animal kingdom, could be Serious Sam. The story is catchy enough and there are tons of stupid people to kill. That could really summon the title: "John Woo Presents a game where you can whack people in style by the hundreds". Now that's a kick ass name.

Story Well, this is a Chinese story with all the makings of a John Woo film. The game is actually called "John Woo Presents Stranglehold" but unlike my fellow colleagues in this business I don't tremble at the very sound of this name, like some kind of slow motion king from ancient times and in fact I couldn't care less if it were called "Martin Scorsese Presents Stranglehold". I see no real relevance in who is presenting the game, mainly because we all know who's playing this mature game, besides me of course: blood thirsty kids with no other occupation than school, girls and gory headshots executed in slow motion they will later repeat alone in front of the mirror while still trying to remain somewhat cool.

These kids have no idea who the hell John Woo is and why this inspector is called like the tea his father drinks in the morning (Tequila for those who missed the point, the game and the nineties). In this game the player gets to play as Inspector Tequila (and what a good lemon tea it is) sometime after the events in the movie Hard Boiled. I can't say I'm a huge fan of that movie especially because I haven't seen it. This won't stop me from saying it's not much of a flick if you ask me. Either way, this inspector gets personally involved after someone is trying to send the police a message by killing a cop in cold blood and calling it a kidnapping. It makes no difference the action takes place in Hong Kong, I'll let you know either way. The assailants send a ransom note (although the cop is already dead) and request a single brave and stupid guy to go and talk to them. The whole thing is a trap that even a four year old would recognize but the great inspector, now much older and wiser, jumps head on with an intelligent remark: "I hope it's a trap, I wouldn't want to waste my time for nothing". These may not be the exact words but you're getting the picture. He starts killing triads like there's no tomorrow and he slowly learns that his former lover (and daughter of a major crime boss) is involved and that there are other interests at stake like the Russian mafia that wants a cut of the Asian market. The story doesn't need to provide some really deep insight of Tequila's soul and it probably won't compete in the best script category for the Oscars. Its purpose is clear right from the beginning: to provide the necessary body count so they can justify that M rating on the cover.

Gameplay I liked the gameplay mainly because I'm at an age where I'm not all that inclined to wait for turns or to build a wonderful character from the ground up. I need action from the first minute and as bloody as possible. I no longer posses the ability to wait for some introductory sequence that's supposed to capture my interest and heart. I need a blood bath and I need it quickly. After all the work that you put in a strategy for example you might need something like Stranglehold to unwind.

If you're in this sport for blood then blood you shall have. Besides the bullet time feature which everyone already knows about even before playing the game, Midway has decided to make worth every penny for that Mature rating. Therefore our dear inspector cannot only jump sideways but he can also interact with different parts of the environment like railings and strolling carts which seem to be abundant (although I can't remember if I have actually seen one in real life) and occasionally some chandeliers and hanged dragons so he can kill not only with the purpose of staying alive but also with style. They actually light up when there is something usable and because gamers are such known idiots they shimmer really nice just like the weapons on the floor.

Besides his awesome time bending powers he also has four additional ones which work quite simple. Tequila has a small gauge that fills up with, well you've guessed it, tequila power and it's fueled by the coolness of killings. The more interesting you take a guy out or even better, the more you take one at a time, the more tequila you'll have. The four powers are: heal, precision aim, some kind of fire barrage and spin attack. While the heal is quite forward, the precision aim is by far the most interesting as it lets you not only track the bullet to its target, but to hit the enemy in several different places, each being accompanied by different gory animations and pints of blood. The fire barrage is somewhat useless or it's like that because I haven't used it too much and the spin attack sends off flying pigeons and practically kills every guy in the level.

As said before, many people believe that Stranglehold provides a shallow and superficial experience that will not last in the history of gaming. I happen to disagree with that assessment and I'm certain I could provide some examples of gameplay from stupid games that became reference points like the one I mentioned earlier, Serious Sam, a simple shooter with millions of bullets, moronic storyline and idiotic characters. I don't want to assume that Stranglehold will become at least as famous as Sam, but the idea stands: a simple gameplay is needed from time to time to take our minds from that dumb 20 side dices.

Graphics We might sit and "praise" the game all day but I have to mention the race for video supremacy. Developers are dying or retiring and I don't mean it in a bad way. The people known for making good games 10 years ago are no longer working where they should and younger and uninteresting ones are taking their place. People with a childhood experience that involved no computers whatsoever are not involved in the creative process so when some guy is asking in a brainstorm meeting what game we should do next, there is probably a lot of silence and then some dude goes on ranting about top notch graphics and destructible environments.

The Epic guys that are developing the Unreal 3 Engine are perfectly aware of this aspect and know that the key to success these days is a beautiful engine. I don't think anyone can hold that against Stranglehold because any way you look at it, the game is a marvel. Sure it's not a masterpiece of level design and there are a lot of destructible melons, but it looks great and furthermore it moves like no other title based on this engine. On the other hand, the Unreal engine is known for its scalability and multitude of options but Stranglehold only provides access to shadows and a couple more. And we can add to this incomprehensible decision the one not to support 1280/1024 and 1280/960 resolution but only 1280/840 (I'm not sure about this one). There are some tricks to get past this little inconvenience but that's just lame.

Sound There isn't much to be said here and I don't think anyone could find something wrong with it either. The guns sound ok with no relation whatsoever to real life and the voices are remarkably well done with the exception of the inspector himself. He is speaking with a Hong Kong accent that drove me nuts. I could understand him most of the time, but there were some moments when I would have enjoyed a rewind button. The story telling is not the first feature in this game so I can't be sure it will affect anybody else but me.

Multiplayer Bullet time driven gameplay doesn't usually come with multiplayer mainly because of a pesky guy from the fifties called Einstein. It would be practically impossible for the time to run at different speeds on two computers simultaneously; or is it? Midway has found a way to implement the slo-mo into the multiplayer by triggering it when everyone has the tequila bomb meter full. So, you're wandering through the level shooting melons and strolling on carts when the entire world starts moving slow and everybody is speaking in a weird voice. The deathmatch and team deathmatch will not make an impact on the replay value of Stranglehold and will not even be regarded as a valid opportunity to expand the John Woo experience.

Conclusion Playing this game has brought happiness into my home and my workplace. Now I can shoot 400 people a day and no one will make me fill the paperwork (I hope the guys at the post office don't play this game). I don't think Stranglehold will survive more than a year in our memories but I'm pretty sure I'll be installing it at least a couple more times in the next six months. I agree it's not the most profound title to be had and it certainly will not successfully replace a bed time story for kids but Midway has achieved its goal (if this was the goal): to provide a simple game that needs no attention and delivers tons of fun without the guilt of killing.