John Woo Presents Stranglehold

 John Woo presents Stranglehold is a weird game. It is supposed to be the spiritual successor of the infamous Hard Boiled, and in some strange way it manages to do that. The story is pretty simple, just like it was with movie, but it was never about the story in the movie, was it? It’s all about the action in this one, and if it wasn’t for some technical flaws and lack of ideas this game could have been the hit it should be. The biggest problems here are poor enemy AI and bad hit detection. The game is pretty fun on casual, Tequila is doing dodge jumps all around the place, he slides from railings, swings on a chandeliers and rides on carts. It’s all fun to do and entertaining. The problems start on harder difficulty setting, where the enemies, since their poor AI, are equipped with weapons that deal crazy amounts of damage to make it harder. The game ends up in being a constant camp at corners, waiting for enemy to run around said corner. It all gets very dull and repetitive, which is a real shame. I remember playing Max Payne on Dead on arrival, and when it was challenging it still managed to be the game I remembered playing on easier difficulty settings with using dodges and spraying dual Ingrams at enemies. Stranglehold, which took the game play ideas from Max Payne, failed to be the masterpiece it was supposed to match, if not beat. As for hit detection, it gets really frustrating on harder difficulty settings, where 3-4 hits kill you, when you lean out of cover to kill approaching enemies with your shotgun only to miss at point blank and get sprayed into heaven. But despite all the flaws, it is still fun to play, and is worth at least a rent.