An OK attempt at bringing Blockbuster action to our fingertips
Games and movies in general seem to be getting closer and closer every year with intially starting at distant cousins to sex-crazy lovers.
Games being made too movies movies being made too games, it never really works as far as today with the James Bond Series of gaames the only real worth-while movie2game purchases but even they have been slipping a little.
The story and atmospheres in games has also been reaching the hollywood standards recently with the Metal Gear Solid series as a prime example. Stranglehold is another attempt to create a game that seems more suited as a movie with big name lead voice-actor to the overlly dramatic soundtrack though slightly lacking gameplay.
Stranglehold tells the tale of essentially of a Chinese Steven-Segal type character, hard boiled renegade cop who while always crossing the line with his methods always gets the job done blah blah blah.
The story has you in the shoes of Tequila, that said renegade super-cop trying to cease some new gang from causing havok, then of course it gets more complicated than that and well plot-twists and betrayal ensue.
The story isn't anything special, definitley from a movie point of view though for a game like this it gets its job done with setting up guys for you to shoot and enviroments to massacre, and massacre is definitely the right choice of word for what can happen in the world of Stranglehold.
The gameplay is just like your average 3rd person shooter with a whole lotta destruction and table surfing added into it. Practically 'everything' can be destroyed or used for your advantage such as kicking over a table for cover or blasting through a concrete wall to get to your enemies, destroying everything around you is reason enough for a rental though the badguy blasting gets a little repetitive since thats all you really do. Kill whole army of guys followed by big pissed looked boss with huge gun rinse blood-stains and repeat. Though Tequila fortantly has these tequila-bombs to help spice (and on the harder difficulties) save your asian ass from death. Theres only four but each is fun to use or watch with one giving you a first person view to aim where you want the bullet to hit to a simple infinite ammo killing spree. Without these you still have the incredibly useful tequila time to slow down all thats crashing around you to do some careful aiming.
The tequila time is pretty cool to experience and reminded me of the much more engaging Max Payne, though hanging off a chandeliar blowing down badguys with a shotgun in slow-mo is still incredibly fun.
Theres about 6-9 hours worth of bloody mayhem and no real reason to go back except to really grind your teeth through harder dificulties which will have you begging for some shorter checkpoints. As unlockables go theres only just skins for the almost useless multiplayer and a couple of ok vid's showing how a cutscene was made ect. Which is a shame because a fast paced shooter like this would of really shone with an infinite ammo mode maybe or even with a choice of costume or character to run around as. Another major let-down is the lack of weapons, theres only a handful to mess around with and a game like this i would of expected a whole selection of different assault rifles shotguns to go through. None the less duel-weilding golden handguns is always cool to blast through with though still another reason why an infinite ammo mode would of made this game so much more fun considering the lack of ammo for the pair.
The sound isn't anything special with ok voice-acting and a forgetable soundtrack. Multiplayer is worth checking out but will last you even shorter than the story.