Stranglehold

Stranglehold was released today and I’ve been looking forward to this game. The game is the “spiritual sequel to director John Woo’s 1992 film, Hard-Boiled, and stars Chow Yun Fat in a reprisal of his role as Inspector “Tequila” Yuen.” It’s packed full of what you’d expect; gun battles with people flying through the air in slow motion.

Actually that’s pretty much all there is!?I have to say I’m disappointed. At first it’s pretty cool, diving around with bullets flying everywhere as you kill endless gangs of bad guys, but it soon all seems very repeditive. The controls are very basic and the movement overall seems very blocky.

It’s got cool parts; as you dive around in “Tequila Time” (matrix style bullet time) shooting people you earn stars for stylish kills. The more stars you gain the more your special meter fills allowing you to perform special moves. You can use “precision shots” to shoot a specific area on your enemy, each with their own cool video sequence following the bullet from the gun right to the target, or you can use a “barrage” when severely outnumbered, to shoot the shit out of everything around you. There’s also moments where you’re stuck in a standoff with several badguys and you have to dodge bullets and take them out in slow motion.

But overall, none of this is anything new. It just seems like a new “Max Payne”. Apart from the video sequences and special shots it doesn’t particularly look that great either. And I keep thinking how blocky the controls are!?

I’m disppointed so instead of staying in and playing this tonight I’ll probably go shoot some gigs. A nice choice too; Bad Mothers Union are playing in the Zoo Club and Us/Ponomica/SuperNovaScotia and Jazz Panda are playing in Ryans.