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John Woo Presents Stranglehold for Xbox 360 |  |
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| Product Reviews from Amazon.com (Rating System 1 to 5) |
| Review | Rating | Last Updated | Fun but not everlasting
It's a fun game with great cutscenes and awsome game play, I loved it, the only drawback was that I beat it in a day and the replay value isn't the best, the only thing left to do was to unlock stuff for online, online play is okay, nothing great, all in all the I enjoyed the game. | 4 | Today | A good idea strangled by control and pacing issues
Game Story:
A cop with a past (Tequila) finds that a escalating gang war has connections to a family that he thought he lost forever. To save his wife and daughter he must cross the line from cop to viglante in a one man war that will take him from the back streets of china to a history musem in chicago to the walled mansion and manicured garden's of china's top gang lord.
------(The following is based on my experience and since I'm reflex challenged the ratings should be taken in that context.)
Graphics:B+
Mostly realistic looking, some characters do look like they game out of the uncanny valley. The Slow motion effects are great as tequila bounces around the screen with slow mo bullets flying by his head. Also stuff does blow up real good and most of the eviroments are destructible.
Controls:C / Camera:B
The character didn't always dodge that shotgun blast I wanted him to no matter how much I pulled the trigger or in other cases would dive in some random completley useless direction that gave me absolutley no aim and the enemies a nice targe practice dummy to fire on. The crouch and cover controls are a little dectection wonky in some spots as the character would seem to rather take about a hundred bullets than crouch behind the chest high wall that was in front of him. I didn't have much trouble in this game with the camera but in some places it did have issues usually when a enemy was shooting off screen and was difficult to find.
Game Story/Progression/Difficulty:
There wasn't much story to this game besides the back story that gives a reason for all the shooting and blowing up that goes on. About the same with the stages. Your there to put as many holes in the stage and anything that moves on the stage as you can and to do it as stylishly as possible. The one thing I will say about the difficulty is that it can be like shooting fish in a barrel one second and then the game will throw a few waves of "special" foes at you that require special skills or head shots to take out and these points are usually at the worst time (health low/ammo low) or in one case in a ball room where you have to keep a band alive so you can't shoot everthing that moves for fear of having to restart. Also I must mention the very annoying circle shoot that comes up ocassionaly. One it's annoying and breaks the flow of the game and two in the later ones I just stopped bothering to shoot and dodged until the game gave up and let me bounce off walls again. It was just to hard to dodge and try to shoot while being stuck in one place.
Overall:
This wasn't a bad game. If your looking for somthing that just lets you shoot anything that moves and makes pretty good use of slo-mo then this might be the game for you if you can look past its rough edges.
If there is a sequel:
Get rid of the annoying circles of death that introduce new stages/rooms. Instead use one of those usually annoying button sequences. In this case it could be used to control moves that would be to difficult for players to pull off normally and would really put the slo-mo acrobatics to good use. If the sequence was done right then it would put the player at an advantage (less enemies). If done wrong then the player would start off in a bad spot or be outgunned and have to fight his way out.
m.a.c | 3 | Today | interesting
i found this game in a bargain bin for 25 bucks an decided to pick it up i was actually really impressed the first hour or so playing it and really enjoyed it but after awhile there was just so much stuff goin on onscreen that i started to get a headache lol and i found the never having to reload kinda cheesy along with the endless amount of enemies flooding out of random doors a lil repetative but all in all i really enjoyed the action movie style stunts and destructable environments really fun theres just so much on screen commotion | 3 | Today | Fun but ...
Stranglehold was fun to play but I found it too simple after playing for a few hours. I just wanted to get it over with. After completing Halo 3, Bioshock and Mass Effect I was looking for something to tide me over until the next "best" FPS came along. Stranglehold filled that spot.
I passed it along to my grandson. I think he will get a kick out of the slow motion and trick moves. It is rated "Mature" but I did not see anything that offensive, not like Gears of War anyway. | 3 | Today | Empty box
Box was received empty!! After contacting customer service it as replaced in record time-thanks for great customer service. | 1 | Today | Lousy 3rd person shooter
I like 3rd person shooters but this game is terrible... Bad graphics, horrible playability... DO NOT BUY. Rent if you want to try it... you will get tired of it soon... | 2 | Today | EXPLOSIONS GALORE! 8 OUT OF 10
Stranglehold is all about explosions, fast gunplay, fast covering moves, pretty graphics, and cool combat moves. One of my favorite moments during this game is when my pistols would zoom in on a target I was aiming at, go slo-mo, and then literally watch my bullet guide itself to my target resulting in cool headshots in which my enemy would scream in agony before dying. The gunplay is excellent and easily makes you forget Midway's critically ashamed Hour of Victory's terrible gameplay. Other cool moves include diving over tables and other objects while going slo-mo blasting your enemies. You also get other upgrades to your abilities which makes the action all the more lucious. However there are certain things that prevent this game from being perfect. The missions at times feel generic(destroy a certain number of drug labs or boats) and the diving mechanic can be unwanted because the game does it for you when your moving to the side and you accidently touch a table. You don't really notice these problems to which is an otherwise amazing display of how far action can be done in a game. | 4 | Today | One of the Best Third Person Shooters on the 360
Wonderful game! Strangehold without a doubt packs more shooting into one game than any game I've played to date. If you thought Minority Report had a lot of enemies, this game is bound to shock you. It's hilarious to see the end of level stats read (300+ Enemies Down.) Beyond this, the action all has to take place while you're accomplishing other goals (like setting bombs, protecting innocents, infiltrating mansions, casinos, etc.) The graphics in this game are also gorgeous, pushing the Xbox 360 to perform beautifuly. On top of all this, Chow Yun Fat's likeness is a huge plus, along with a great story line and wonderful cinematics and sound.
In the end, if you have a next gen console and love shooting and action games, this is a must have. | 5 | Today | Way over rated
The graphics the game has are decent but extremely repetive. You can expect to see the same objects over and over. The games objectives are thrown together and bland. Go blow up ten meth labs. Rinse and repeat. The Tequila time gets very annoying. Do to the fact that it activates every time you walk by a table or any other "interactive environment." The weapons are generic and repetitive. The game is bland and forgettable. A rent only. | 2 | Today | Shoot, Tequila, Shoot
You can see Stranglehold from two different perspectives. You can see it as a repetitive shooter that pits you against waves after waves of (cheap) enemies that suddenly appear from nowhere. Or, you can see it as a great homage to one of the great action movies of all-time, Hard Boiled. I choose the latter, and it was no wonder I had so much fun with it.
The story isn't important, since intense action featuring Chow Yun-Fat as Inspector Tequila is the order here. But if you must know, it involves some dead cop and the kidnapping of Tequila's ex-girlfriend and daughter. Reason enough for a massive surge of killing? You bet.
Playing through seven levels, you get to control Tequila and his array of skills (most have to be unlocked). Apart from the usual third-person shooting, you'll get abilities like the precision aim, which allows a first-person view, zoomed in, for a free-aim at whichever part of an enemy's body you see fit. Shooting at balls is highly recommended if you're sadistic. Like me.
Other skills like the barrage allows a moment of mad, unstoppable shooting and invulnerability. But the most dramatic skills of them is, you guess, the spin attack. Much like the 1,001 movies that Chow has made, this attack involves the guy turning 360 degrees while shooting two guns at various enemies surrounding him. Doves are complimentary. I guess the doves must be there to moan the death of all those goons that dare stay within your vicinity when you does this thing.
Using these skills are not free though. You need to earn the juice (ok, "tequila bombs") to use them, and using them reduces the juice. You earn it by performing stylish kills, helped by the fully destructible environments in the game. See a signboard above an enemy, shoot it, and it falls straight down to send the idiot to his maker. See a roll cart? Jump on top of it and start shooting people while moving around. See a gas tank near an enemy? Shoot it and enjoy the explosion takes care of matters. You can also combine these actions to score combos for more juices, so that you can use the above-mentioned skills more liberally.
There's also the matter of "tequila time", which basically happens when you perform kills while interacting with the environment (like, when rolling on a roll cart or sliding up and down on a banister). What happens is that time slows when tequila time is on, giving more time to shun bullets as well as kill morons. You can also activate this by simply diving around and pressing one of the shoulder buttons. It looks great, and it works well. In fact, it's probably a life-saver for most players trying to beat the more challenging levels.
On challenging levels, the game features four different difficulties. But even on casual, it becomes extremely painful to play through towards the end of the campaign. The enemy's AI is ridiculously aggressive, and you don't get to hide behind a wall like Gears of War for health recovery. Expect to die (many times) as you search for the best way to neutralize the threat. Things can tougher on the hard-boiled challenge (the most difficult mode) - a hit on you takes out 3/4 of your life! That's how it goes, and it isn't apologetic at all about it.
It should be apologetic, however, about the last-gen graphics though. It wasn't so glaring on my old SDTV when I first played the game. But recently, I bought a HDTV, and the flaws are pretty obvious. I mean, when an environment looks dull even on HD, you know it's bad. The character models also look dated, even though they manage to capture the movement of the models quite smoothly. Audios wise, it's just a bunch of explosions and some action music. Nothing of major note here, but it does what it was required.
All in all, Stranglehold is a fun shooter that recycles some old gameplay ideas (from Max Payne, I believe) rather successfully. The various attacking methods are fun to use, but the insane difficulty may scare some shooter noobs away. Engage with caution. | 4 | Today |
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