John Woo Presents - Stranglehold

5 out of 5 people found the following review helpful:

Slow motion sickness

ChrisBarraclough from from London, 7th April, 2008

Oh great, I thought, upon hearing of the gimmick behind this title. Slow-motion gun battles with dual-wielded pistols, taking on scores of baddies in gritty environments. Haven't I already done this in two Max Payne games, not to mention the fact that slow-motion in games is becoming more tired than Jade Goody running a marathon uphill while munching on a bacon sandwich. It's even been done in first-person with FEAR, although this game doesn't include any small girls that are scarier than ten Michael Myers' in a darkened alleyway. In Essex. Still, I stuck it in and after twenty minutes I have to admit I was having a fine and dandy time. The highlight was shooting out an electric sign which then plummeted onto a hapless goon who exploded in a shower of sparks and screams and death. Then around the next corner, I belly-flopped onto a dinner cart and blasted about five hundred bullets into some more hapless goons, while riding down a filthy alley. Soon after I was sliding down a bannister and gunning down yet more bullet-fodder. And then I got the slow-mo precision aim, which follows your bullet through the air and into the body of your target, through their flesh and bone before it explodes out the other side in a bloody shower of viscera. I was having fun. But then I came across a level where I had to destroy drug tables, and it went on, and on, and on. After about fifty such tables, I was beginning to feel like I was really there, inhaling all the toxic fumes, and it didn't feel good. Monotony crept in and even slow-mo blowing a guys aorta out from three hundred yards didn't help. Even taking control of a machine gun turret in a copter as it circles over hundreds more baddies didn't really help lift the feeling that it was just more of the same. And so, Stranglehold is undoubtedly worth a short rental, but no more. If only to witness a bullet burst someone's eyeball in slow motion. And isn't that something we can all enjoy? 1-Sentence Review: Stranglehold is like discovering a new smutty site on the interweb - thrilling at first, until you realise it's just more of the same. See more reviews at my site, chrisbarraclough dot com.

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4 out of 4 people found the following review helpful:

EXCELLENT TRUE JOHN WOO EXPERIENCE

Noms from , 24th January, 2008

A Must have game for all shoot'em up action fans. The shooting, slow motion graphics, and all the little things like hitting objects and their reactions, pretty close to reality which is what has compelled me to give it 5 Stars. The graphics could have been better for PS3 but they aint too bad. The action sequence and, precision slow motion aims makes up for that. A must have for a shoot'em up fan. But if you like more mystery then i would suggest Drake's Fortune which is another TOP NOTCH GAME.

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4 out of 4 people found the following review helpful:

*** May contain spoilers ***

good but.....

kingjames112 from , 22nd December, 2007

this is a good game but...it gets very repetetive ..its very hard even when you have it on casual =) diving around in slow motion is cool but i wouldn't buy this as you will find it at the bottom of your ps3 game pile big disappointment ....

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3 out of 3 people found the following review helpful:

OK Game

A Customer from West London, 19th December, 2007

Nothing new here in this game that has not been done better, If you have nothing better to do for a few hours then this will kill that time otherwise do not bother.

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average to good. strangled by cut scenes in places

A Customer from newbury, berkshire, 19th October, 2008

A FUN GAME IN PLACES BUT LIKE MANY MODERN GAMES IT REQUIRES TOO MUCH WATCHING (CUT SCENES +++) AND NOT ENOUGH PLAYING. IT IS A GAME AFTER ALL AND NOT A FILM...I DID LIKE THE TEQUILA BOMBS HOWEVER AND THE EXPLOSIONS WERE GOOD. ALSO THE GRAPHICS WERE VERY NICE ALTHOUGH SOME LEVELS WERE REPETATIVE. HAS PROMISE.

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stranglehold(ps3)

onyxspawn from from Bradford, 6th September, 2008

well worth a rental. Good clean blasting fun to keep you going until your next title arrives.

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True to the John Woo spirit but tiring game

Chantal from , 31st August, 2008

There are so many baddies, surely you killed the entire male population of China when you are done with this game. It really tires you to repetitively kill over and over millions of gangsters that keet coming at you non stop. On the positive side this is very reminiscent of hard boiled for the action and story line. But you really do get bored of it very quickly. Also note there are no subtitles available and even though the character lines are in English it's very difficult to understand their accents sometimes. Watch John Woo's movies instead.

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2 out of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Great for a while

Trahildar from from High Peak, 13th July, 2008

Stranglehold is an ACTION game. And by that I quite literally mean that the action never ceases. Other games will have you ducking behind cover and tactically thinking things through. But Stranglehold seems to regard hiding behind scenery as a pointless luxury and half of the gameplay sees you off the ground as you dive towards the enemy, guns blazing. So this game is unrealistic? YES. Nobody even blinks with surprise as the protagonist Tequila Yuen slaughters hundreds of armed men with only his twin pistols for back up and don’t even get me started on the absolutely ridiculous stand off sections which pits you against several people at once, these sections let you dodge bullets even at point blank ranges – madness. But to criticise a game for not being realistic is like criticising reality for not being virtual enough, unfair. This games biggest gimmick is called “Tequila Time” which is shown as an orange bar on the screen and can be accessed by tapping R2. This slows down time allowing you to more easily avoid bullets and blow people’s brains out. This is highly satisfying especially when you dive backwards in slo-mo and fire a shell of shotgun into a befuddled mans face. Another gimmick comes in the form of the “Tequila Bombs” which are 4 abilities you can use once you’ve stylishly killed enough people. The best of which allows you to shoot one bullet, which the camera will trail to its destination – I think you can all guess which enemy body part I tried this out with first. Stranglehold’s single player campaign is too short taking about 6-7 hours on normal and the initial hilarity of everyone diving about on the online soon wears out. But take away these factors and the awful on rails helicopter gunship section and your left with an experience that’s adrenaline fuelled and the perfect companion for an eventless weekend. Stranglehold is more or less the perfect rental – try it

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