This game is like a nice fuzzy blanket. Dusted off my Xbox 360 that still surprisingly works and popped in this bad boy. I beat the first Max Payne recently and I just can't help but get a kick out of this specific pipeline: Hard Boiled influenced Max Payne, which then resulted in Strangehold, a video game sequel to Hard Boiled, that was definitely influenced by Max Payne. Love it.
It's barely worth even mentioning that Stranglehold hasn't totally aged gracefully; video games from previous console generations rarely do, we really can ease up on mentioning that when talking about older games. That includes myself, I need to get better at it. But yeah, jumping and bouncing around as Chow Yun Fat just blowing the everloving shit out of bad guys, the environment, and everything in between, is so fucking fun.
Build up your "Tequila Bomb" powerups and snipe a dude in the nuts from afar, unleash the barrage attack with dual wielding submachine guns on a squad of goons, or do the ultra slo-mo spin attack that kills all enemies on screen like a Contra special attack. The fact that Max Payne 3 came out 5 years later than this (which obviously, plays/looks/feels incredible) is a sign of how ahead this game was in 2007. Everything around you breaks, shatters and explodes in over-the-top John Woo style violence, blood splatters, bodies fly, bullets are always in the chamber as you never have to reload, ever. Brilliant!
Not a perfect game, the difficulty ramps up quite a bit near the end as it throws so many dudes at you at every angle, and it gets a little much at times (also the bullet-sponge bosses don't really do much for me). But holy hell, as a John Woo/Chow Yun Fat diehard fan I ain't rating this anything lower than 4 stars. A must-play if you're into either of them.
If you're still reading: Some personal suggestions if you love this game and are looking to check out other movies by Woo or starring Chow Yun Fat that aren't Hard Boiled. The following are must-watches:
- The Killer
- A Better Tomorrow 1 & 2
- Bullet In The Head
- Once A Thief
- Full Contact
It's barely worth even mentioning that Stranglehold hasn't totally aged gracefully; video games from previous console generations rarely do, we really can ease up on mentioning that when talking about older games. That includes myself, I need to get better at it. But yeah, jumping and bouncing around as Chow Yun Fat just blowing the everloving shit out of bad guys, the environment, and everything in between, is so fucking fun.
Build up your "Tequila Bomb" powerups and snipe a dude in the nuts from afar, unleash the barrage attack with dual wielding submachine guns on a squad of goons, or do the ultra slo-mo spin attack that kills all enemies on screen like a Contra special attack. The fact that Max Payne 3 came out 5 years later than this (which obviously, plays/looks/feels incredible) is a sign of how ahead this game was in 2007. Everything around you breaks, shatters and explodes in over-the-top John Woo style violence, blood splatters, bodies fly, bullets are always in the chamber as you never have to reload, ever. Brilliant!
Not a perfect game, the difficulty ramps up quite a bit near the end as it throws so many dudes at you at every angle, and it gets a little much at times (also the bullet-sponge bosses don't really do much for me). But holy hell, as a John Woo/Chow Yun Fat diehard fan I ain't rating this anything lower than 4 stars. A must-play if you're into either of them.
If you're still reading: Some personal suggestions if you love this game and are looking to check out other movies by Woo or starring Chow Yun Fat that aren't Hard Boiled. The following are must-watches:
- The Killer
- A Better Tomorrow 1 & 2
- Bullet In The Head
- Once A Thief
- Full Contact
If you're looking for a Max Payne level of quality here, you're going to be disappointed. That said, it's a fun arcade action game with bullet time mechanics and highly destructible environments that doesn't overstay its welcome.
The destructible environments, environmental interaction, and power-ups are the biggest differentiators from other Max Payne-inspired titles. Destructible environments in particular deserve some special praise here, as you can really trash most of the levels in the game.
Environmental interaction is another mechanic that the game relies heavily on, but I didn't find it to be that exciting. Performing various moves always felt clunky, and it relied on you finding a trigger point that would lock your character in place (like running along the handrails). Also, for some reason you cannot jump manually, which was a puzzling omission.
Still, there's fun to be had here, but don't expect much. The story can be completely ignored. I found that it takes itself too seriously, and the voice acting is pretty bad, too.
As always, if you're playing on a PC, check out the PCGamingWiki for instructions on how to run the game at higher resolutions.
The destructible environments, environmental interaction, and power-ups are the biggest differentiators from other Max Payne-inspired titles. Destructible environments in particular deserve some special praise here, as you can really trash most of the levels in the game.
Environmental interaction is another mechanic that the game relies heavily on, but I didn't find it to be that exciting. Performing various moves always felt clunky, and it relied on you finding a trigger point that would lock your character in place (like running along the handrails). Also, for some reason you cannot jump manually, which was a puzzling omission.
Still, there's fun to be had here, but don't expect much. The story can be completely ignored. I found that it takes itself too seriously, and the voice acting is pretty bad, too.
As always, if you're playing on a PC, check out the PCGamingWiki for instructions on how to run the game at higher resolutions.
Despite the fact that Stranglehold's campaign is barely 3 hours, I just cannot finish it.
Midway was a very dear publisher to me, they made and published creative and fun games like no other company (well, maybe THQ). Stranglehold is not a fun game, I would even say that it is not that creative either.
This is the sequel of Hard Boiled, a John Woo film that seemingly everyone loves, despite the fact that John Woo's career almost ended 2 times before. He is not that good of a director and his style ages like milk.
His over the top action style is the core of the gameplay here. It almost feels like a railshooter, because you need to interact with the environment and also react quickly to enemies in order to gain style points, and the more you do this, you fill up a meter that let you do some "crazy" things like heal yourself and infinite ammo.
It is essentially an arcade game, but what makes this game really irritating are:
1. The camera is too close to your character, sometimes even basic navigation is chaotic.
2. The bosses are laughable. They are bullet sponges and they have very idiotic gimmicks that will make you suffer.
3. After the second chapter, the game becomes a gimmick festival, and you need to survive through waves of enemies while protecting a jazz band, avoid laser traps and etc. It sounds fun, but it is not at all.
I really wanted to like this game, but I just cannot. I am nearly at the end but the whole gameplay is just so bad.
Midway was a very dear publisher to me, they made and published creative and fun games like no other company (well, maybe THQ). Stranglehold is not a fun game, I would even say that it is not that creative either.
This is the sequel of Hard Boiled, a John Woo film that seemingly everyone loves, despite the fact that John Woo's career almost ended 2 times before. He is not that good of a director and his style ages like milk.
His over the top action style is the core of the gameplay here. It almost feels like a railshooter, because you need to interact with the environment and also react quickly to enemies in order to gain style points, and the more you do this, you fill up a meter that let you do some "crazy" things like heal yourself and infinite ammo.
It is essentially an arcade game, but what makes this game really irritating are:
1. The camera is too close to your character, sometimes even basic navigation is chaotic.
2. The bosses are laughable. They are bullet sponges and they have very idiotic gimmicks that will make you suffer.
3. After the second chapter, the game becomes a gimmick festival, and you need to survive through waves of enemies while protecting a jazz band, avoid laser traps and etc. It sounds fun, but it is not at all.
I really wanted to like this game, but I just cannot. I am nearly at the end but the whole gameplay is just so bad.
Making Chow Yun-Fat read this dialogue feels cruel and unusual. Fun for the first hour, borderline miserable for the remaining two. I imagine it would have been even worse playing on a console with a controller.
the biggest sin of the video game industry is not getting John Woo involved with more games
Those were some intense 5 hours.
What can I say? I'm a sucker for Max Payne-like games. If done right of course. This game isn't done right. And I wished it was.
It starts vey good. The level is big and adds a lot of dynamism to it's design. Teaching the basics as any game should. But then it devolves into a shooting gallery in the Third Chapter (Restaurant).
Enemies start appearing from spawn points, doors to be exact. Like, for a really, really long time. I counted, and some last for about 5 minutes or so on the same room. After some time fighting enemies, one of the many doors unlocks for you to go, but you have to hurry, because infinite enemies will appear to shoot you, unless you cross that door. It was dreadful the first time I realised this. They will keep spawning infinitely so there is no reason to stay there.
Tequilla is very jank to control. Pretty much like Max Payne 3, you can only dive through levels. Not jump exactly like in Max Payne 1 and 2. But the camera is so close to him in this chaotic shooting game it almost gave me motion sickness. And everything is so fast, bullets flying everywhere, enemies spawning. It's a nightmare.
Tequilla can perform some cool moves like a Wall Jump to a Dive, which is cool but it's not optimal. For the most part those are contextual actions. There are some more, like sliding through rails, vey cool and fun to use. You can cover too, a cover system from the era...it works better than expected.
Bomb Gauge is basically a power meter. There, you can perform 4 special commands such as giving you health, a Precision Aim Bullet, a Rage Mode and the Tornado Spin, which is basically a cutscene that kills all enemies on screen.
Those are very useful in combat, some are even broken against bosses.
Let's talk about the bosses. They suck. They are more powerful enemies with a healthbar and a shit ton of life. They have some special qualities to them too, but for the most part are normal enemies with more life and more complex patterns, adapted to the current arena you're fighting in.
I was fighting a boss that threw granades, very hard. Remember I talked about enemies infinitely spawning from doors? I accidently enter one of those doors the second an enemy opened it. I got trapped in a empty room that clearly wasn't meant to be seen. The boss was at the front of the door, keeping throwing granades to it, but it was locked so the granades kept exploding on him everytime. I ended up winning by accident, hooray. It was very hard and just plain bad so never even tried to beat him properly.
The levels were a bit dull. For the most part straight hallways with obvious open ended areas with structures for you to cover. The last levels are filled with med bags that stick out of the level aesthetic, very close to each other too. Those fully heal you once you touch it. That saved my entire playthough.
Don't play this game please, or at least just get through the first two levels and quit. It doesn't get any better than that. It gets worse and worse the more you go.
What can I say? I'm a sucker for Max Payne-like games. If done right of course. This game isn't done right. And I wished it was.
It starts vey good. The level is big and adds a lot of dynamism to it's design. Teaching the basics as any game should. But then it devolves into a shooting gallery in the Third Chapter (Restaurant).
Enemies start appearing from spawn points, doors to be exact. Like, for a really, really long time. I counted, and some last for about 5 minutes or so on the same room. After some time fighting enemies, one of the many doors unlocks for you to go, but you have to hurry, because infinite enemies will appear to shoot you, unless you cross that door. It was dreadful the first time I realised this. They will keep spawning infinitely so there is no reason to stay there.
Tequilla is very jank to control. Pretty much like Max Payne 3, you can only dive through levels. Not jump exactly like in Max Payne 1 and 2. But the camera is so close to him in this chaotic shooting game it almost gave me motion sickness. And everything is so fast, bullets flying everywhere, enemies spawning. It's a nightmare.
Tequilla can perform some cool moves like a Wall Jump to a Dive, which is cool but it's not optimal. For the most part those are contextual actions. There are some more, like sliding through rails, vey cool and fun to use. You can cover too, a cover system from the era...it works better than expected.
Bomb Gauge is basically a power meter. There, you can perform 4 special commands such as giving you health, a Precision Aim Bullet, a Rage Mode and the Tornado Spin, which is basically a cutscene that kills all enemies on screen.
Those are very useful in combat, some are even broken against bosses.
Let's talk about the bosses. They suck. They are more powerful enemies with a healthbar and a shit ton of life. They have some special qualities to them too, but for the most part are normal enemies with more life and more complex patterns, adapted to the current arena you're fighting in.
I was fighting a boss that threw granades, very hard. Remember I talked about enemies infinitely spawning from doors? I accidently enter one of those doors the second an enemy opened it. I got trapped in a empty room that clearly wasn't meant to be seen. The boss was at the front of the door, keeping throwing granades to it, but it was locked so the granades kept exploding on him everytime. I ended up winning by accident, hooray. It was very hard and just plain bad so never even tried to beat him properly.
The levels were a bit dull. For the most part straight hallways with obvious open ended areas with structures for you to cover. The last levels are filled with med bags that stick out of the level aesthetic, very close to each other too. Those fully heal you once you touch it. That saved my entire playthough.
Don't play this game please, or at least just get through the first two levels and quit. It doesn't get any better than that. It gets worse and worse the more you go.
Tequila time