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| | Title:
John Woo Presents Stranglehold
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System:
Xbox 360
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Genre:
Action
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Publisher:
Midway
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Developer:
Midway Entertainment
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Release:
Q4 2006
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Online:
No
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ESRB:
Rating Pending (RP)
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John Woo’s cult-classic films coined a trend many games hoped to follow, and some aimlessly tried to imitate. Max Payne has been successful in bringing gamers the quality gun-play content, a biting story with razor sharp twists and unrelenting violence. Sadly, apart from the Max Payne series there haven’t been many imitators with the same kind of quality control. That is until John Woo himself has stepped onto the gaming scene with a movie-quality game starring the international movie star Chow Yun-Fat.
The game, Stranglehold, picks up the story after Hard-Boiled. Inspector Tequila (Chow Yun-Fat) is dragged back into the world of gun-violence and beautifully choreographed shootouts when his family is kidnaped by the Russian mafia. Instead of the choreography coming from the director players will be the ones controlling Tequila’s actions; sliding down bannisters, hanging from chandeliers, and body-surfing across the surface of a table are just a few of the neat tricks players can execute. Unlike other shooters, this game has a very heavy focus on environmental interactivity. Rather this game is more about environmental destruction. Anything and absolutely everything can be affected by the result of gunfire, explosions, and resonating debris.
One of the things that make the environments so titillating is the fact that they are not only destructible, but extremely well-designed. It would almost make a gamer feel a bit guilty for completely destroying some of the gorgeous backdrops. Windows will shatter, glass will break, walls will chip, pillars will crumble, wood will splinter, tables will crack, and bodies will drop. The physics for the environmental destruction resembles the likes of Max Payne on steroids. The destructive factors alone makes this game look very impressive.
The most important aspect of the game, though, is the gunplay. John Woo is known for the way he brings the action to the big-screen with amazing aptitude and exceptional directing abilities. Teaming back with Chow Yun-Fat in a reprised role as the infamous inspector Tequila, it didn’t take much for Woo to make Stranglehold look very appealing to action gamers. Taking the gameplay elements from the likes of Dead 2 Rights, Max Payne, and Jet Li’s Rise to Honor, Stranglehold allows gamers to do a lot of cool gunplay stunts. The one thing that developers--Midway Chicago--wanted to convey to gamers is the non-stop ability to shoot from any position. If players have Tequila sliding across tables or bannisters, rolling over obstructions, jumping off platforms, or swinging from a chandelier, he can still shoot no matter what acrobatic action he’s performing.
The game also supports enemies who can take damage to specific body parts which in turn affects the way a shootout will continue to play. Since everything can be used for cover, players can shoot away at a pillar until the enemy has a leg exposed just enough to clip him in the kneecap. This more than likely, will cause the wounded enemy to fall to the ground, squirming in pain while players can move in for the kill. The only thing the developers haven’t mentioned is whether players can get other bad guys to shoot each other. Still, the game’s shooting mechanics look really cool.
There’s even special abilities Tequila can execute to help him out of a tough bind. One special skill allows the inspector to execute a 360-degree shooting spin that wipes out nearby enemies in the area, doves and all (yes doves). Such moves are complimented by the slow-motion special effects that are iconic to John Woo’s take on action-cinema. However, the slow-motion effects aren’t limited to the on-foot action. Stranglehold will also allow players to do battle in a variety of vehicles. Players can go to a first-person mode while in the vehicle to target specific areas of an enemy's vehicle or the occupants inside. Gamers shouldn’t fret though, vehicle manipulation isn’t segmented into lack-lusting rail-shooting. According to the developers, players can venture around in most areas as if in a sandbox (think Hitman). While the story will be linear, the missions will be non-linear...allowing players to venture around and complete segments of the game anyway they like.
More importantly, of all the features this game’s most appealing is in the multiplayer support. Via Xbox Live or the PS3 On-line, gamers can partake in many undisclosed multiplayer modes. Whether John Woo’s Stranglehold will support more than just the standard Deathmatch or CTF modes is still kept under-wraps. However, the developers did reveal that Stranglehold’s multiplayer maps will be sectioned-off variations of the single-player maps. So all the environmental destructibility found in the single-player game will carry over gracefully into the multiplayer modes. Be sure to check out John Woo’s Stranglehold, which will be available for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC this winter.
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