Stranglehold is a cool idea with big ambitions and I was on the fence as to how this game would turn out. It has all the ingredients to be a third-person shooter rivaling the brilliant Max Payne, but if not executed perfectly Stranglehold may just be the game that COULD have been better than Max Payne. After playing the demo, which consists of the games first level minus the boss, I am still undecided.
This demo is fun. It is a tad easy for my taste but from what I have heard Stranglehold eases you into the game and then punks your skills by ramping up the difficulty significantly. The harder difficulties are unlocked after beating the demo and I enjoyed the frantic pace and more challenging areas. The player has access to two of the four “Tequila Bombs” which are his special moves. Heal does what you think it does and Trueshot allows the player to zero in on an enemy and pull off a one hit kill. Beat the demo a few times and you will eventually have access to all of the Tequila Bombs. These include Barrage, which turn Tequila invincible and ramp up the strength and firing speed of your weapons, and a smart-bomb type attack that kills everyone in the vicinity in a cinematic full of flying doves and shot up thugs.
A brainchild of John Woo and Chow-Yun Fat, it is no surprise that Stranglehold is very cinematic. Long cut-scenes have the player feeling like he is watching a movie and the gameplay lends to the notion that this game could be a feature film. The player also gets a taste of another gameplay element called Standoffs. Twice in the demo Tequila enters the Standoff mode which is when he finds himself in a situation surrounded by bad guys. The camera becomes fixed and cycles through each enemy who is actively trying to gun down Tequila. By using the right stick to aim and the left stick to avoid incoming bullets, Tequila can take out each threat and ideally come out unscathed.
Stranglehold is touting itself as having Massive D that is supposed to stand for Massive Destruction, but every time I read it I just think Massive Dick and start giggling childishly. Stranglehold is processing tons of destructible Havok objects in this game and rooms will be transformed for the worse after Tequila does his dirty work. Many objects are highlighted to bring the player’s attention to more effective targets that can cause chain reactions or change the environment in order to aid the outnumbered Tequila.
I played through the demo three times and enjoyed it more during each playthough. The harder difficulty is a better challenge and after becoming familiar with the areas the player is really able to create some fabulous shoot-outs. Hopefully the full game can keep bringing fresh ideas and fun levels throughout the final build. If you like guns and Massive D(ick), check out Stranglehold either now with the Xbox Live demo or when it releases on August 27th.
No comments:
Post a Comment