John Woo Presents Stranglehold (X360)

“Nothing to revolutionary about this game just shoot the bad guys but had tons of fun with this title. Unfortunately never had the chance to try the multiplayer as I bought this game awhile after it came out and no one was online!”

“Nothing to revolutionary about this game just shoot the bad guys but had tons of fun with this title. Unfortunately never had the chance to try the multiplayer as I bought this game awhile after it came out and no one was online!”

“It takes a brave shooter to try and make an impact on the videogame world, a few weeks prior to Halo 3 being released into the world. Step forward Stranglehold. Before your cynicism makes you discard this game before it has even had a chance to...”

“It takes a brave shooter to try and make an impact on the videogame world, a few weeks prior to Halo 3 being released into the world. Step forward Stranglehold. Before your cynicism makes you discard this game before it has even had a chance to breathe, throw away all your misgivings regarding games which have films as their source materials. Go on. Close your eyes and forget all about "The Matrix Online". Forget all about "Spiderman 3". The game and the film. If you are a PC gamer, even try and forget about the mooted, but thankfully never released desperate housewives "game".



Done that? Good. Because if the Stranglehold demo has taught me one thing, it is that I like to shoot people. With my two guns. With added "Tequila Time". Tequila time is essentially a version of bullet time, where you pick your target, shoot and the camera follows the path of your bullet. Sort of like a water-skier follows a boat. And believe me, shooting people in the nuts, in slo-mo, never gets boring.



If you are a John Woo fan, you may even be pleased to know that there are doves in this game. If you enjoy John Woo trivia, you may even be pleased to know that John Woo once directed a film which had Jackie Chan in it, before either were household names. But it is really the game that we are concentrating on and you will probably be impressed by the sheer number of destructible environments there are in this game. Fire extinguishers, propane gas tanks, even water melons follow very simple laws of physics. Click. Bang. BOOM.

And if there is a bad guy in the vicinity, the laws of physics adjust themselves. It then becomes: Click. Bang. Boom. Death. Haha.



The marketing blurb promises "a highly modified version of the Unreal 3.0 engine integrated with the Havok physics system", which basically means lots of shooting, lots of explosions and lots of colourful ways to die. You can also expect cutscenes, which should look impressive. Hopefully better than on the demo. Also, prepare yourself for a few special moves to unlock, which should make the killing even more fun. All that remains for me to say is, purchase and play.”

“Dumb fun”

“Dumb fun”

“Great action game, fast paced and fun, comical too...sometimes.”

“Great action game, fast paced and fun, comical too...sometimes.”

“Very John Woo, loads of over the top action. But the multiplayer is a bit duff.”

“Very John Woo, loads of over the top action. But the multiplayer is a bit duff.”

“Fun game until you reach the Lounge area where you have to protect the band...then gets REALLY hard”

“Fun game until you reach the Lounge area where you have to protect the band...then gets REALLY hard”

“All the cool stunt moves you can use are funny in the beginning, but the game gets boring already after a few minutes...”

“All the cool stunt moves you can use are funny in the beginning, but the game gets boring already after a few minutes...”

“I played about 20 minutes worth of this game and almost threw it out the window. The aiming is ridiculous, but that's probably the least of it's problems. Big hype - low performance.”

“I played about 20 minutes worth of this game and almost threw it out the window. The aiming is ridiculous, but that's probably the least of it's problems. Big hype - low performance.”

“Liked, the combat system was smooth and easy to keep track of weapons and combos while I rode rails down stairs and shotgun people.”

“Liked, the combat system was smooth and easy to keep track of weapons and combos while I rode rails down stairs and shotgun people.”