Let's just get it out of the way Stranglehold is Max Payne in every sense. From the slow motion gameplay down to the crazy russion named Vlad. This is not a bad thing, though. The game captures the slowmotion flow of Max Payne perfectly, and is fun to play. The graphics of the game are nicely done. The charecter models are unbelievablel they look just like thier real life counterparts, and although the enviroments arne't too flashy you wont be able to keep your eyes off of them. The way things fall into dust is remarkable. This game does things that Black could only wish to do, and it does a great job to keep the game fast paced, and add alot in the way of killing people with the enviroment, which never ceases to be fun. Although this game is much like Max Payne it stil has a few tweaks that are uniquely stranglehold. From being able to swing on things hanging from the ceiling to being able to roll on carts, but the most obvious change is in the tequila bombs. There are 3 different tequila bombs. The first is Precision aim, which allows you to zoom in on your enemy . It's nice and allows you to see all of the cool death animations (go for the balls), but it doesnt work that well online, because of the shear speed that your enenmies are moving at, but it evens this out by making it a one hit kill if you shoot the person. The second is barrage, which is like rage mode in the punisher. The screen fades to blue and your charecter becomes invincable, and your attacks are exteremely powerful. The last is spin attack, which is basically a smart bomb that kills all enemies on the screen. It works differently online, by haviing you spin in a circle in tequila time, and turning all of your shots inot one hit kills (you cant kill people in barage though). The problems with the game are few, but stil important. The first and biggest one is that the game is quite short, but after Max Payne2 maybe you should have expected that, but it will be hard to keep yourself from going back to play through again on the harder difficulties and go for the acheivements. The other problem is small, but can still get annoying at times. Like Gears of War they put just a little bit too much on the same button. The left trigger is not only dive but interact so at times you may get a little annoyed by tequila jumping on a rail when you want him to dive foreward. The other problems are in the online, but first I just want to say that the online doesnt lagg, which is a huge step over several other games with online componenets that came out earlyer this year (The Darkness Two Worlds). The biggest problem is in the use of the tequila time. I commend them for trying ot use it in the online, but it doesnt work out to well. You can only use it when everybody else is able to use it, so usually you wont be able to use it, and when it does come on it will most likely be when you just running around aimlessly. This does work out okay in smaller rooms though. Speaking of smaller rooms, thats what you'll usually be in, becuase the online has a lock out feature, which basically means that how many players the game starts with is the number of players throughout the entire game, this mostely means that it will be hard to find a game, and when you get into one the person hosting will probably start it quickly, but if you can deal with these minor problems you will find a nice and fun expeirience.
When you hear the name John Woo, you immediately think of action movies. You know, the ones where things blow up everwhere while doves fly away in the background. Many a gamer, after seeing his movies, thought that the... Read Full Review
In Stranglehold you'll be controlling Tequila, a shoot first ask questions later cop that's actually from Woo's film Hard-Boiled. Tequila takes on a case that involves two rival Chinese gangs and also the Russian mob. I... Read Full Review
