Captiosus
Shared on Mon, 09/10/2007 - 10:06As much as I was looking forward to some next-gen Max Payne goodness, I hate to say that John Woo's Stranglehold was a complete let down.
I completed the game on casual and got to the last chapter on normal and then completely lost interest. Why? There's a couple reasons:
First, the story is really disjointed, and extremely short. By short I mean if you played it through from beginning to end, didn't die, and filmed it, it would be about as long as any one of the non-director's cuts of the LOTR movies. By disjointed I mean (and I'll spoilerize the text here so you'll have to highlight it if you want to read it): at one point in the game, your undercover cop friend turns on you and the following cutscene does a very half-ass attempt to explain why. Then, all of the sudden, your enemies are your semi-friends as your former semi-friends are now your enemies. A John Woo attempt at a plot twist that fell flat on its face. Even if you endure that travesty, you get to the end and realize the ending is just as short and pretty lame.
Secondly, by Chapter 4 (of 10), I found the Tequila Bombs were more parlor tricks than worthwhile gameplay elements. By this point, the Healing Tequila Bomb was all but worthless, on both Casual and Normal because the designers placed full-health recharging First Aid Kits damn near everywhere. Enemies flood out of every possible door and shoot at you from all sides so there's just no comfort zone to use Precision Aim when you have both Barrage and Spin Attack which can kill everyone as opposed to Precision Aim's killing just one. At some point I realized I was only using Barrage and Spin Attack, a fact that only got worse when playing through on Normal and the enemies were more plentiful and/or took more shots to kill.
Third, collision detection left a lot to be desired, especially on levels that involve a lot of object walking. There were many occasions where I'd try to get on the object I had to traverse, and the object was highlighted, but when I'd hit LT, it would put me on an object right beside it. Annoying at first and then just outright frustrating, especially when you're being shot at from above, below, in front, behind and from both sides and trying to get onto the object.
Fourth, Standoffs start off as a fun little distraction, but after the midway point in the game, they slow down the pacing. It's very annoying, at least to me, to be moving along, exploring or what have you, and then get into a standoff, having to sit there and watch Tequila posture and prepare before resuming play. Sure it makes the game a bit longer to complete, but slowing down the pacing of some levels just for a standoff is pretty damn annoying.
Fifth, and finally, multiplayer bored me. That's right. Bored me. Admittedly, I only played three games online, but it's all the same crap. Dive, shoot, dive, shoot, Tequila Time, shoot, Tequila Bomb. Watching it unfold is actually kind of amusing because it looks like Drunken (Gun) Fighting since everyone's doing, basically, what I just wrote. The only thing fun, to me, in multiplayer, is killing someone with the environment and even that got old fast.
All in all, to anyone on the fence about Stranglehold, I strongly encourage you to rent and not buy. Even at last week's Circuit City price of 47.99, I don't think it's worth it, not when you can play through the game in about 3 hours, 4 - 5 if you die a lot. Coupled with multiplayer that didn't feel very solid and looked hilarious, Stranglehold was a real let down. The only thing I can say I miss is destroying the T-Rex in the Chicago Museum.
I completed the game on casual and got to the last chapter on normal and then completely lost interest. Why? There's a couple reasons:
First, the story is really disjointed, and extremely short. By short I mean if you played it through from beginning to end, didn't die, and filmed it, it would be about as long as any one of the non-director's cuts of the LOTR movies. By disjointed I mean (and I'll spoilerize the text here so you'll have to highlight it if you want to read it): at one point in the game, your undercover cop friend turns on you and the following cutscene does a very half-ass attempt to explain why. Then, all of the sudden, your enemies are your semi-friends as your former semi-friends are now your enemies. A John Woo attempt at a plot twist that fell flat on its face. Even if you endure that travesty, you get to the end and realize the ending is just as short and pretty lame.
Secondly, by Chapter 4 (of 10), I found the Tequila Bombs were more parlor tricks than worthwhile gameplay elements. By this point, the Healing Tequila Bomb was all but worthless, on both Casual and Normal because the designers placed full-health recharging First Aid Kits damn near everywhere. Enemies flood out of every possible door and shoot at you from all sides so there's just no comfort zone to use Precision Aim when you have both Barrage and Spin Attack which can kill everyone as opposed to Precision Aim's killing just one. At some point I realized I was only using Barrage and Spin Attack, a fact that only got worse when playing through on Normal and the enemies were more plentiful and/or took more shots to kill.
Third, collision detection left a lot to be desired, especially on levels that involve a lot of object walking. There were many occasions where I'd try to get on the object I had to traverse, and the object was highlighted, but when I'd hit LT, it would put me on an object right beside it. Annoying at first and then just outright frustrating, especially when you're being shot at from above, below, in front, behind and from both sides and trying to get onto the object.
Fourth, Standoffs start off as a fun little distraction, but after the midway point in the game, they slow down the pacing. It's very annoying, at least to me, to be moving along, exploring or what have you, and then get into a standoff, having to sit there and watch Tequila posture and prepare before resuming play. Sure it makes the game a bit longer to complete, but slowing down the pacing of some levels just for a standoff is pretty damn annoying.
Fifth, and finally, multiplayer bored me. That's right. Bored me. Admittedly, I only played three games online, but it's all the same crap. Dive, shoot, dive, shoot, Tequila Time, shoot, Tequila Bomb. Watching it unfold is actually kind of amusing because it looks like Drunken (Gun) Fighting since everyone's doing, basically, what I just wrote. The only thing fun, to me, in multiplayer, is killing someone with the environment and even that got old fast.
All in all, to anyone on the fence about Stranglehold, I strongly encourage you to rent and not buy. Even at last week's Circuit City price of 47.99, I don't think it's worth it, not when you can play through the game in about 3 hours, 4 - 5 if you die a lot. Coupled with multiplayer that didn't feel very solid and looked hilarious, Stranglehold was a real let down. The only thing I can say I miss is destroying the T-Rex in the Chicago Museum.
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Submitted by ImaginaryEngr76 on Mon, 09/10/2007 - 11:29