Just a basic rundown of my experience with the game.
Played it, on my second run-through now. I have to honestly say, it doesn't suck. Now this being a John Woo game, I'd say it was executed pretty nice. The game is pretty much an all out action game through and through. The level of destruction is damn nice as you can basically shoot up and destroy everything. While it doesn't play a significance to the gameplay itself, it just makes it feel nice.
Tequila Time as they call it is pretty straight forward. It's bullet time. However there's an option where you can have it turn on automatically (default) or manually. Automatically will just have it turn on as you slide across flat surfaces (just by running into them) or doing some kind of nifty stunt trick. Say skiing down a banister or something that would require "quick reflexes". In the environment, there are certain objects you can shoot which will bring down objects of death to kill a villain which is clearly marked with a star so to speak. It's interesting, but not all of them are marked which leaves you to to find them for yourself. In the demo they are mostly clearly marked though. While it may detract from the gameplay later (seeing how as it'll just give you a big gaping hint), I hope there's an option to disable it.
You have four abilities to use. One is unlocked from the get-go, a second is unlocked later, and a third is unlocked when you beat the demo on the first run, and the fourth is unlocked on the second run. Each ability shares from one bar, and how you increase the bar is pretty straight forward. Kill. Kill in streaks, kill in some stunty way by sliding, or when you're on a banister, or by shooting something which makes an object fall on them.
The first is just health and just gives you health if you're low. No magic there.
The second is precision aiming which puts you in Tequila Time and you can aim at a specific body part of someone. It's one shot per precision aim, so if you miss, you'll have to enter that mode again. What I like about it is where you hit the person, does decide what death animation they use, which I find nice. Instead of just having going into a ragdoll. Also you seem to always have your basic pistols on you as well, even if you run out of ammo for this attribute.
The third is barrage, and to put it simply. Your pistols become an infinite firehose of death until the bar is depleted or you disable it. I didn't get a full chance to play with this yet as I'm still on the second run.
The fourth is spin attack and that's straightforward. Whatever weapon you have equipped, you just go into a spinning frenzy of accurate death. Bullets come out of your weapon and into the hearts of your enemy.
Graphics aren't bad at all, but they don't have that 100% next-gen feel, but I don't really care at all. Some minor touch-ups would be nice, but I'm pleased with it as is. They don't hold back on the gore at all either, but it isn't to the level of Soldier of Fortune. It's just your typical slightly exaggerated (but pretty) violence. I've noticed a few glitches with player animation though as Tequila would be facing left or right, and you would be running forward, but your bullets would be going forward with the direction that you're running. Expect a lot of things to disappear though when you destroy them. For example if you shoot a basket of grapes, expect most of them to just fall through the floor. The reason for that is obvious as they don't want to chug up all the resources.
The physics in the game aren't bad at all. Some minor things for touching up, but it's still done well. I've noticed some free-floating things that don't like to follow the rules of gravity, but it's no biggie.
Controls are VERY basic and simple which isn't bad all the time. Sometimes simple is good, and in this case, it is. There is a lack of a jump button however. You can crouch though, but I haven't found much use for this.
The sound isn't groundbreaking, but it doesn't fall short of what I was expecting. It feels like it hits the spot. It doesn't overdo it, but it doesn't sound like they rushed with it. There's a good amount of ambient noise to give it a little feel of authenticity. Guns sound like guns, when the bullets impact something it sounds like it should. I can't say I didn't really focus on the music though, although I knew it was there. The music is dynamic though, but it just doesn't feel like it makes its presence known. Maybe that's intentional, maybe it isn't. Perhaps they expect the gamer to just have a full focus on the gunfights and where to go and what to do than just listen to the BGM.
The AI feels pretty basic, but eh, I can't complain. They won't live long enough for it to matter anyway. They do put up a good fight though.
You don't ever seem to have to reload, which when we're speaking of action flicks, never seems to happen. So who's complaining? Who ever said this game was meant to be realistic? You just have your stash of bullets and ammo seems to be plenty. At least with pistols.
But what happens when you run out of ammo? Well, our hero gets to use his FISTS OF FURY! Eh, but they don't feel very furious. I haven't gotten into a fight with no ammo just yet, but he just seems to like pulling left jabs only.
Also, if you run up to an enemy with a weapon, you beat them to death with one bash. I wouldn't want to be at the end of that.
Has the demo swayed me to a final decision of buying the game or not? The answer is yes. I will most likely buy it.
So Stranglehold is slated to come out on the Xbox 360, PC, and Playstation 3. The 360 and PC will see it August 27th, 2007 and the PS3 September 14th, 2007.
If you have any questions about it that I didn't answer, feel free to ask.
Played it, on my second run-through now. I have to honestly say, it doesn't suck. Now this being a John Woo game, I'd say it was executed pretty nice. The game is pretty much an all out action game through and through. The level of destruction is damn nice as you can basically shoot up and destroy everything. While it doesn't play a significance to the gameplay itself, it just makes it feel nice.
Tequila Time as they call it is pretty straight forward. It's bullet time. However there's an option where you can have it turn on automatically (default) or manually. Automatically will just have it turn on as you slide across flat surfaces (just by running into them) or doing some kind of nifty stunt trick. Say skiing down a banister or something that would require "quick reflexes". In the environment, there are certain objects you can shoot which will bring down objects of death to kill a villain which is clearly marked with a star so to speak. It's interesting, but not all of them are marked which leaves you to to find them for yourself. In the demo they are mostly clearly marked though. While it may detract from the gameplay later (seeing how as it'll just give you a big gaping hint), I hope there's an option to disable it.
You have four abilities to use. One is unlocked from the get-go, a second is unlocked later, and a third is unlocked when you beat the demo on the first run, and the fourth is unlocked on the second run. Each ability shares from one bar, and how you increase the bar is pretty straight forward. Kill. Kill in streaks, kill in some stunty way by sliding, or when you're on a banister, or by shooting something which makes an object fall on them.
The first is just health and just gives you health if you're low. No magic there.
The second is precision aiming which puts you in Tequila Time and you can aim at a specific body part of someone. It's one shot per precision aim, so if you miss, you'll have to enter that mode again. What I like about it is where you hit the person, does decide what death animation they use, which I find nice. Instead of just having going into a ragdoll. Also you seem to always have your basic pistols on you as well, even if you run out of ammo for this attribute.
The third is barrage, and to put it simply. Your pistols become an infinite firehose of death until the bar is depleted or you disable it. I didn't get a full chance to play with this yet as I'm still on the second run.
The fourth is spin attack and that's straightforward. Whatever weapon you have equipped, you just go into a spinning frenzy of accurate death. Bullets come out of your weapon and into the hearts of your enemy.
Graphics aren't bad at all, but they don't have that 100% next-gen feel, but I don't really care at all. Some minor touch-ups would be nice, but I'm pleased with it as is. They don't hold back on the gore at all either, but it isn't to the level of Soldier of Fortune. It's just your typical slightly exaggerated (but pretty) violence. I've noticed a few glitches with player animation though as Tequila would be facing left or right, and you would be running forward, but your bullets would be going forward with the direction that you're running. Expect a lot of things to disappear though when you destroy them. For example if you shoot a basket of grapes, expect most of them to just fall through the floor. The reason for that is obvious as they don't want to chug up all the resources.
The physics in the game aren't bad at all. Some minor things for touching up, but it's still done well. I've noticed some free-floating things that don't like to follow the rules of gravity, but it's no biggie.
Controls are VERY basic and simple which isn't bad all the time. Sometimes simple is good, and in this case, it is. There is a lack of a jump button however. You can crouch though, but I haven't found much use for this.
The sound isn't groundbreaking, but it doesn't fall short of what I was expecting. It feels like it hits the spot. It doesn't overdo it, but it doesn't sound like they rushed with it. There's a good amount of ambient noise to give it a little feel of authenticity. Guns sound like guns, when the bullets impact something it sounds like it should. I can't say I didn't really focus on the music though, although I knew it was there. The music is dynamic though, but it just doesn't feel like it makes its presence known. Maybe that's intentional, maybe it isn't. Perhaps they expect the gamer to just have a full focus on the gunfights and where to go and what to do than just listen to the BGM.
The AI feels pretty basic, but eh, I can't complain. They won't live long enough for it to matter anyway. They do put up a good fight though.
You don't ever seem to have to reload, which when we're speaking of action flicks, never seems to happen. So who's complaining? Who ever said this game was meant to be realistic? You just have your stash of bullets and ammo seems to be plenty. At least with pistols.
But what happens when you run out of ammo? Well, our hero gets to use his FISTS OF FURY! Eh, but they don't feel very furious. I haven't gotten into a fight with no ammo just yet, but he just seems to like pulling left jabs only.
Also, if you run up to an enemy with a weapon, you beat them to death with one bash. I wouldn't want to be at the end of that.
Has the demo swayed me to a final decision of buying the game or not? The answer is yes. I will most likely buy it.
So Stranglehold is slated to come out on the Xbox 360, PC, and Playstation 3. The 360 and PC will see it August 27th, 2007 and the PS3 September 14th, 2007.
If you have any questions about it that I didn't answer, feel free to ask.
Last edited by MURcarnage (2007-08-08 17:08:34)