My belated Stranglehold review

by Mike on January 9th, 2008

If you must get one, Stranglehold’s PS3 version is preferable.

I spent majority of my time early this week plowing through the PS3 version of Stranglehold and finished it. Of course, I also took the time to play the game’s multiplayer component, so I’m ready for a review.

Is Stranglehold really Max Payne 3 with Chow Yun-Fat? Not really.

You see, Max Payne, particularly its only sequel to date, has varied gameplay and interesting levels. Aside from the usual shoot-dozens-of-people-in-the-face gameplay, players would also defend other characters. In Stranglehold, it’s the same free-for-all throughout the game. The action experienced in the early levels would be pretty much similar to what goes on in the end. Of course, more thugs are introduced to make things more “difficult,” but the differences aren’t significant enough.

Admittedly, there are variants to Stranglehold’s usual gunplay, such as the helicopter-on-rails level or the Standoffs minigame that pit Inspector Tequila against several thugs, but they do nothing to break the monotony of the main activity, which is shooting people in the face.

Inspector Tequila is also armed with special “Tequila Bombs” that lets him heal, shoot an enemy from far away, and fire a barrage of bullets. The most useful of these is heal, which can be used whenever a healing pack isn’t around. The others can be used in certain situations, but the tendency is to save the abilities for healing.

Stranglehold’s Tequila looks quite different from the main character in Hard Boiled. Tequila is stockier in the game, his hairstyle different. Even the clothes are different. This may be a design decision since the two media are a decade apart, but the only recognizable reference to Hard Boiled is how Tequila mixes his drink.

The PS3 version has a lot of shiny effects going on, and it can be quite distracting. Surfaces that normally don’t require such an effect had generous amounts of gloss. Skin textures were quite impressive, though the lip-synching and facial expressions could use some improvement. The game’s performance during firefights is impressive as well, running at a stable framerate even when a lot of things were happening onscreen.

There were a couple of instances when the visuals stuttered, but they strangely had nothing to do with onscreen activity. When one mentions “onscreen activity,” this refers to exploding watermelons, debris flying through the air, bullets zipping through the air and embedding on walls, barrels getting pushed around, and big-ass explosions, among other things.

Sound is what one would expect a shooter to be: loud. Explosions are loud, certain weapons are noisy, and each action has a corresponding audible reaction that immerses a player in Tequila’s world. Voice acting is generally competent, though Chow Yun-Fat’s performance isn’t particularly memorable. It’s interesting to note that the other Chinese characters’ dialogue were more understandable than that of Tequila’s.

Multiplayer, like the other reviews have mentioned, feels very much tacked on. Sure, it’s decent enough with the usual modes, but there’s nothing here to stop one from moving on to Warhawk. In addition, Stranglehold’s implementation of bullet time isn’t very good. It looks like the only possibility of using Tequila Time is when everyone has a full meter.

Is the PS3 version of Stranglehold worth the pricey purchase? If you must get one, purchase the PS3 version because it comes with the 1992 classic movie. If you don’t have a PS3, Stranglehold won’t be your reason to get one. I recommend renting Stranglehold, but don’t expect to pine for it once the game is returned.

Tags: john_woo, max_payne, ps3_games, shooters, stranglehold, tequila, xbox_360

b5media.com

FPS Rantings