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    John Woo Presents Stranglehold

    Game » consists of 13 releases. Released Sep 05, 2007

    Return to the roots of filmmaker John Woo's "heroic bloodshed" films of the early 90s with the video game sequel to one of Woo's most notable films.

    dimsey's John Woo presents Stranglehold (Collector's Edition) (Xbox 360) review

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    It's fun while it lasts.

    Theres not much to say about this game, really.
    It's nothing especially new or special, but thats not to say it isn't fun - while it lasts anyway. It won't take you too long to plow through.

    Levels basically consist of running and gunning your way through rooms full of armed foes, looking to kill you right back - they also through in the occasional, simple enviromental puzzle that usually involves shooting an object to remove an obstacle or create a path to proceed.

    Theres not much substance in the gunplay, but it surely oozes style.
    Of course you can dive around, which triggers a bullet time effect.
    You can also run up and slide down rails, swing from chandeliers, shoot enemys as you roll around on carts and probably a few more such things I'm missing. Won't make it game of the year, but it's undeniably cool.

    Killing foes and picking up Origami Canes fills up a bar that lets you trigger different abilitys. The first one you can use is a slight health refill, but theres usually enough first aid kits in any given area that this shouldnt be necessary. The next is precision aim, which also triggers a bulletime effect as well as a zoom, allowing you to get the perfect shot in. The effects on this are pretty cool.

    Then theres barrage, which grants you unlimited ammo and immortality for a brief period allowing you to just go nuts.

    And then theres the spin attack, which lets you kill pretty much everyone around you.

    Aside from the health one, all of these abilitys are useful and fun to use.

    There are points in the game called stand offs, where you'll be surrounded by a few foes. It'll go into bullet time and you'll stand there, dodging bullets with the left stick, aiming with the right and as usual firing with the right trigger. It probably doesn't sound so great due to my crud description but I aussure you it's a fun little activity, it's almost a mini-game. The games graphically decent enough. Character models don't all look that great in my oppinion but the enviroments are top notch and almost completely destructable, which makes them even better.
    Bullets will fly and the envrioment around you will reflect this as tables explode, columns give way, tables flip and all sorts. Sounds also decent. Some of the voice acting is iffy but it's not horribly bad.

    The multiplayer is rally barebones, allowing you death match and team death match. Could be just me, but it can get pretty laggy. Shame, the multiplayer could've been the best part of the game.

    All in all though the game is at least worth a rental if the length of the game is off putting, but I'm glad I bought it all the same.

    Other reviews for John Woo presents Stranglehold (Collector's Edition) (Xbox 360)

      A fun but unremarkable Max Payne clone 0

      Stranglehold (or John Woo Presents Stranglehold, to give it its unwieldy full title) is a quite unremarkable third-person shooter which is mostly fun, sometimes frustrating and always tongue-in-cheek. Stranglehold is the sequel to Hard Boiled, John Woo’s 1992 action film extravaganza, and it again follows the insubordinate, roguish Detective Tequila (voiced by Yun-Fat Chow) as he must find and save his old love interest, Billie, and their daughter, Teko. In theme, the game is highly derivativ...

      3 out of 3 found this review helpful.

      this what you play to vent, after watching face off 0

      Stranglehold isn't innovative by many standards at all. Let's get that out of the way. It's a 3rd person shooter 'bout a cop in Hong Kong takin out oodles and oodles of baddies. Original? Not so much. It's certainly been done to death in the movies, and it's all been done before in video games. However, much in the way that Watson and Crick did when they unlocked the final mysteries behind DNA, John Woo and Midway have managed to stand on the shoulders of giants in innovation and have built some...

      1 out of 1 found this review helpful.

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