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Published by: Midway |
Stranglehold - Game Review (PC)
By Emanuel Avram
Published: September 26, 2007
Print One Tequila Slammer! Straight up!
Ahh, that was refreshing! Ok now, I guess we'll let John Woo Present Stranglehold... (John Who? No, John Woo!).
You all know Mr. Wú Yǔsēn right? Oh, I mean... John Woo! Let me refresh your memory. You must have seen classic action films like Broken Arrow, Face/Off, Mission Impossible II... and of course Hard Boiled, right? If not, go see them now!
Ok, now that you've seen them, let's talk a bit more about Hard Boiled. Chow Yun-Fat is staring as the infamous Inspector Tequilla (okay, Inspector Yuen, but known as Tequilla after the drink he prefers). 15 years have passed since this landmark in action films was released, and now Mr. Woo decided to create Stranglehold, a "spiritual successor" of Hard Boiled. But this time he plans to revolutionize the action genre on the PC (and next-gen consoles).
Stranglehold is presented like a real action movie, with a good plot and actors, including the comeback of... you guessed it, our famous Inspector Tequilla.
So what happens after Hard Boiled? Well, a cop is killed by mobs, and our good Inspector Tequila decides to investigate this case alone, defying every rule in the police book, so he can have justice. This plot will involve his old-time girlfriend and his daughter, but I won't spoil the way they are involved in the roughly 7 hours of gameplay and story.
Yes I know, it's a bit short, but there's a lot of action involved and Chow Yun-Fat is just plain cool and packing heat - more than Rambo, Terminator... name your favorite hero...
If I were to compare this game with anything else on the market, it would be Max Payne for sure. Really action driven, it features a lot of bullet-time moments, has a decent plot (personally I like the "film noir" thing from Payne a bit more but...), and... it ends real quick. Of course, Max Payne was heavily inspired by the actual movie Hard Boiled. So I guess we're even.
As I've said, Stranglehold is an extreme action game, where graphics were a bit sacrificed (not by much, it looks really good and uses the Unreal 3 Engine) for the Massive D modifications. "Stop throwing these terms at us without explaining!" I hear someone already yelling in the back... "Go back to sleep sir, I'm not done yet" is my answer.
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| Stranglehold downloadable Map Pack coming soon December 7, 2007 Downloadable Map Pack via the Playstation Network and Xbox Live.
[...] |
| (PS3) Midway Announces Stranglehold Has Gone Gold for the PlayStation3 in Europe December 3, 2007 Midway Games Ltd today announced that Stranglehold has shipped to
retail for the PlayStation3 computer entertainment system in Europe.
Developed by the team behind the critically acclaimed Psi-Ops: The
Mindgate Conspiracy, Stranglehold is now available for a suggested
retail price of €69.95.
[...] |
| (PC) Midway brings action back with the release of Stranglehold September 17, 2007 Highly anticipated, Award-Winning title delivers groundbreaking graphics and environmental destruction
[...] |
| (PC) Stranglehold from Midway January 29, 2007 This is the new creation from the Midway studios. [...] |
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