Imran Malek

• By Imran
• on Nov, 30 2008
• in Gaming

This past Thanksgiving I took the time and completed John Woo’s Stranglehold, a Midway game from the makers of Psi-Ops, an extremely fun and addictive third person shooter. Like Psi-Ops, Stranglehold takes a few specific gameplay mechanics and exploits them into an experience that’s ultimately satisfying albeit a little bit repetitive. In Psi-Ops, it was throwing objects using psychic powers or using mind control to make someone’s head explode. In Stranglehold, it’s all about using bullet time while sliding up and down railings, firing “precision shots” from hundreds of yards away, and performing cinematic “bullet dodging” that gets old about the third or fourth time you’re forced into doing it.

Aside from the previously mentioned bullet duels, the game as a whole ended up being really fun for me. My favorite part of the game was using a “spin attack” that allowed for a cinematic John Woo moment (doves and all) to play on the screen, it’s really evocative of the John Woo style of action movies, and that - for me, is why I like the game so much.

Sure, it gets awfully repetitive, but for someone like me, who loved Max Payne, and especially loves The Specialists, this game was right up my alley.

I won’t go into the story, because there  really isn’t one that made sense to me - what I will say is that you play a Hong Kong detective (Inspector Tequila) who’s looking to solve a mystery surrounding the death of a fellow officer. The story takes you throughout Hong Kong tea shops and harbors, while later taking you to a Chicago museum to battle on top of dinosaur skeletons and go through a boss fight in a room with Terra Cotta statues (I guess they couldn’t resist keeping up with the Asian infliuence!).

What the game is really about is solid, Hard Boiled (hah!) action. The game mechanic is fueled by two major meters - your “Tequila Time” meter (which is basically a bullet time meter), and your “Tequila Bomb” meter, which gives you one of four boost abilities - Health, Precision Shot, Rampage (which gives you unlimited ammo and health for a limited time), and Spinning Attack, which I can’t describe all that well - so let’s let the video do the talking:

Yeah, it’s pretty enjoyable (fun fact Theme was composed by none other than the lead singer of System of a Down, Serj Tankian). It’s also a prime example of a game getting significant mileage for the exact same mechanics being used over, and over again - why? Well, rolling around in slow motion is always fun, and this game has some of the most fun headshots I’ve ever performed.

The game’s got some multiplayer attached to it - but no one was playing (the game’s over a year old, so I wouldn’t expect it to be a megahit online), but it overall is a fun experience that’s totally worth a rent - I’m really looking forward to what Midway has in store next…if they can stay in business long enough.