John Woo presents Stranglehold
 

Since the demo has been out for a week and the release is just around the corner, I figured I would start a thread.

I enjoyed the demo. They really went out of their way to make the gameplay look as "cool" as possible. The non-shooting elements seemed like they were an afterthought (aka the cover system), but the main bread and butter of the game (gun-play) is great fun.

Anyone else excited to get their hands on this ??

I liked it but I thought the camera needed some work and the game seemed really drab to me. Like too much was going on and I couldn't exactly tell what was what. Fun, but not $60 fun.

Yeah, I can't wait to get <s>Max Payne 3</s> Stranglehold.

i liked the walking up and and down hand rails he does. reminds me of my skating days :-D


I'm anxious to try out the multiplayer on this game. it definitely looked like it had potential

I felt the controls were a little sloppy, but the game had enough elements in it to make it entertaining. Oddly, it felt like a Midway game (well it is Midway) in that - it's nice, but it is lacking and feels somewhat generic despite nice production values.

Loved the demo, but the timing for this game's release is pretty bad, with Bioshock and Metroid Prime 3 coming out at the same time as this. If I finish both of those before Halo 3 comes out, I'll probably rent Stranglehold (or buy it if there are any good deals on it).

i'd say its good, in that, Ill wait 2 months and get it for 30 online

This is the same discipline I'm trying to teach myself, it's harder than it sounds that's for sure.

This is the route I'll be going as well.. Won't be hard for me as I really don't have any game money atm.

oh, most definitely :lol:


especially when you are constantly reminded of it's release while coming here day after day. surprisingly, i talked myself out of ALL the big releases coming out next week. If I can get Metroid 3 for 30, I will, but i might have to wait.

I thought the demo was pretty sweet. Had a lot of fun with it than I imagined and the demo even ended at a pretty good spot. Really left me wanting more.

A lot of signature Woo touches, too (the birds, etc.). I'll definitely be at least renting this. The preview at the end looked awesome. I really like the scene at the museum of sliding down the T-Rex skeleton.

yeah that's what i was thinking. it played pretty close to max payne. i'll probably skip this one.

I didn't think the game was anything like Max Payne.

If you take out the destructible environments and rail walking/table sliding stuff, then it pretty much is Max Payne. It makes sense though because Max Payne was inspired by John Woo movies.

I don't understand why people are complaining that it is similar to Max Payne. Max Payne was a great game, and it's 6 years old. The sequel is 4 years old. So aren't we due for a new game along those lines, and given how popular Max Payne was, shouldn't we be glad to be getting a new game along those lines?

Anyway, I really enjoyed the demo. I'm all about Bioshock next week, but I will definitely be picking up Stranglehold at some point soon.

I wasn't complaining at all. I did love the Max Payne games, and I am looking forward to Stranglehold too.

its strictly because of the slow-motion bullet time effect.

the motion made me sick, i'm going to pass on this one.

I still can't get over my jaw dropping after sliding around on the food-cart and picking off enemies

I'll definitely pick this up. I thought it had a great demo.

Awesome demo, but I'll wait til it's cheaper.

I want to get it, but with Bioshock coming next week. It will have to wait.

Yeah, that was definetly cool! For some reason, ive been calling this game Strange-Hold until i actually heard someone say the correct name, weird.

I'm going to pass on this one, but I really liked the bullet-time feature. Other than that, I have the same issues with it that others have expressed: clunky camera and controller movements.

The game seems very linear too me. I liked the shooting elements. It just seemed like it would lead you from one area to another without much room for exploring. I may pick it up after a price drop.

I was always hoping for a Max Payne 3 I guess this will hold me over until that happens. This looks like it's going to be a lot of fun especially after playing the demo.

The destructible environments is what sold me on the game though. I think the similiarities begin and end with slo-mo.

I'll be buying this on release day. I've played the demo so many times for free that I feel I should just buy it for the entertainment I've gotten out of it so far. I'm a big John Woo and Chow Yun-Fat fan anyway and the multiplayer looks awesome. I do agree it looks and plays like Max Payne but it's like they took all the good of Max and made an even better game.

There are other smaller, less noticeable similarities too. Max Payne was inspired by John Woo movies, so it obviously has the same over the top action and the classic dual wielding pistols, jumping and diving everywhere. The "tequila time" move where the camera spins in slow-motion around the character looks like the slow-mo thing that Max Payne does occasionally when he reloads or kills someone in a spectacular way. Strangehold uses the same "bullet cam" for the sniper rifle that Max Payne used too.

Max Payne would have used the fully destructible environments (a few things were destructible) and the rail surfing/table sliding stuff if it could have, but technology was too limited when Max Payne came out. Max Payne 2 was one of the first games to use Havok physics and ragdoll animations, and it was pretty limited back then. I guess what I am saying is that if Max Payne 3 was released today, it would have looked exactly like Strangehold basically.... not that is a bad thing because I love the John Woo style action.

I think the demo was pretty fun, and I'll definitely rent this one.

One of the coolest things was the ability to not only dive and shoot, but roll on the ground while shooting. I can't think of another game that allows you to do this, something that's in damn near every action movie ever mad.

Diving and shooting a guy in the head, then rolling under a table shooting someone in the kneecaps while his shotgun blasts cause everything on the table to explode is pretty fucking awesome.

When is this coming out, and will it be on PS3.

IGN Review - 8.1

After reading that it's only 6-8 hours and it has very little replay value, I've totally decided that it's worth only a rental or a possible buy down the road when it hits the $20 price point or something like that.

Next week on 360. Not sure when the PS3 version hits.

It's supposed to hit the PS3 in mid-September, but it was supposed to hit the 360 in late-August, so who knows if the PS3 release will hit on time.

The PS3 version also comes in a collector's edition -- it costs $10 more -- that includes an HD copy of the movie Hard Boiled, so be sure to factor that in if you're weighing the two versions against each other.

And to be clear, the movie is on the game disc and can ONLY be played via the game menu. i.e. ONLY in PS3s.

Are the demos different lengths on the different levels? I think that when I played the demo on easy a few weeks ago when it was released, I got to a club scene. I just played it on normal, and I didn't get that far before it ended. I am about to play on hard now, and maybe hardcore later.

I think it was pretty obvious this would be a short game from the get-go. This style of gameplay (walk into room, shoot everything that moves, rinse and repeat til end of game) does not lend well to long play time without getting extremely repetitive. The reviewer even said that at 6 hours, it was getting monotonous by the end.

Well I found this at amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/Midway-26930-S...8670074&sr=8-6

Looks like just the game will be available as well for PS3 for $59.99 available on September 17, I don't care about having the CE as I already have the dragon dynasty Hard boiled DVD.

To answer my own question, I guess I was just talking about the cut scene at the end. I must have just hit A and went past it.

Agreed. Seems more like a renter than a purchase. I do like the demo though.

6-8 hours?? That kinda sucks. I was really anticipating this game but I may wait.