Stranglehold First Look

If you remember John Woo's movie Hard Boiled, you'll know right away what Stranglehold is all about. To cut a long story short, it's about pure, over-the-top, non-stop action and bullets flying every which way. With Stranglehold, the action is quite simply being pushed to the limits, placing it into a neat package in the form of a third-person shooter.

In Stranglehold players take on the role of Detective Tequila (An Asian guy named after a Mexican drink. This game will be a winner. - Ed), portrayed by Chow Yun-Fat, whom you should recognize from flicks such as Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Bulletproof Monk, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and so on. Yep, Chow gets to reprise his role of Detective Tequila, a character from Hard Boiled, as he fights the gangs of Hong Kong. While waging a war against powerful Hong Kong criminal organizations, Tequila also travels to Chicago, where he's going to run into his ex who was kidnapped by the Russian mafia (wow, I wish the Russian mafia would kidnap my ex). The main character struggles to do his duty and fight crime, while being concerned with the safety of his family. That would be a summary of the plot that awaits players.

Flavored with John Woo's trademark scenes of pure action, the game should feature just about anything needed for a gritty shooter, such as destructible environments, dual-wielding gunplay and slow-mo sequences that are, apparently, referred to as "Tequila Time" (I guess as opposed to the ever-popular phrase Bullet Time).

In order to have things running smoothly in Stranglehold, Midway, the team behind the project, said they are using a modified version of the Unreal 3.0 engine integrated with Havok physics. The result is an impressive range of realistic effects and convincing environments, involving an improved damage model as well as an increased level of interactivity altogether. From the footage we've seen, character models look decent enough, although we couldn't help but notice a somewhat clunky animation system going on, which was a bit of letdown. This especially comes into view when the main characters falls to the floor in an attempt to avoid bullets a-la Max Payne. Anyways, hope the devs work on that a bit before the game hits stores.

Although the basic gameplay mechanics bring familiar games to mind, GTA or Max Payne above all else, Stranglehold offers a greater choice of moves and a more straightforward approach when it comes to character control. Using the context-sensitive action button, you'll easily be able to make your way through hordes of enemies. Reloading is automatic and therefore shouldn't be a problem too, provided you're always carrying enough bullets.

As I mentioned earlier, interacting with the environment is important and this game encompasses a system that makes every bit of interaction as easy as possible. When nearing a usable object, like a chandelier or rail, all you have to do is hit the designated button, which executes the appropriate move, thus allowing for more style points. Tequila also runs up banisters, swings from chandeliers and does just about anything to get out of tough situations. You'll also see him fall into Matrixy moments, when, say, hiding behind pillars while it gets torn to bits by intense enemy fire.

That's not all, of course. During the game, there are four special abilities to worry about. Health is one I'm sure we need not discuss. Trueshot, on the other hand, is far more interesting. It gives you a chance to perform a long-distance killshot and what's cool is that each executed shot can bring about a whole assortment of different death animations, depending on where you hit the enemy. For those of you who are really out to make your foes suffer. Aim carefully, between your opponent's legs, fire and then just watch as he crosses his legs and falls down in agony.

Continuing further, we come to a barrage skill that can be unleashed with whatever type of weapon you happen to be carrying. Though with short duration, it can be very effective when things start to heat up. Finally, we come to the 'T-Bomb', another useful skill - when activated, time slows down, your character spins and then guns down practically everybody and everything nearby.

From what we gather, these special moves are what Stranglehold is all about. In its core, this is a pure action game.

In a nutshell, we see two possibilities here. Stranglehold will deliver a technically satisfying experience relying a bit on next-generation make up and familiar gameplay mechanics. Of course, in contrast, the game may collapse for the simple fact many may dismiss it as a generic Max Payne clone. We are hoping this is where John Woo's influence will prevail and the game ultimately delivers. (Even if the main protagonist is called Tequila. - Ed)

Stranglehold is scheduled to come out this winter and is being prepared for the PC, X360 and PS3. Unfortunately, we cannot give you more info at this time, but as the E3 draws closer, we expect to know more.