John Woo may have made some recent big-screen stinkers (Windtalkers and Paycheck anyone?), but Stranglehold looks like a spectacular return to form - even roping in Chow Yun Fat to reprise his role as Inspector Tequila from cult movie Hard Boiled. Theres little to the game other than blasting enemies in the most inventive ways you can think of, and it just so happens that you get to look amazingly cool while doing so. We can live with
Videogame makers have been ripping off John Woo for years. A longtime master of Hong Kong action films, the accomplished director's distinct style has been imitated in dozens of games. And Midway is helping Woo "take it back" with Stranglehold. The spiritual successor to the 1992 film Hard Boiled (directed by Woo and starring Chow Yun-Fat), Stranglehold is an attempt to faithfully recreate Woo's style in an interactive medium. The brief portions of the game we were able to play left us
Thursday 31 August 2006
"Chow Yun Fat movies are really famous for their gun ballet - lots of guns, really smooth flowing, dual-pistol action, lots of high body counts, everything in the environment getting destroyed, slow motion... so we try to recreate that in this game." So says Stranglehold senior producer, Alexander Offerman and, after getting a chance to play the John Woo directed action-extravaganza again, it looks like the Midway development team is going to achieve its aims and then
Tuesday 16 May 2006
We've just had a brief play of the Xbox 360 version of the John Woo-inspired action-shooter Stranglehold - and it certainly isn't lacking on the frenzied gun histrionics front. The area we played through makes up around 8% of the Tea House section, one of the game's eight levels, which also include a mob boss's Chicago penthouse and Hong Kong slums.
Our goal was simple: blast through dozens of goons inside the restaurant until an old-school end-of-level boss - replete with
Thursday 27 April 2006
Stranglehold is fantastic. We'll tell you why in a moment, but first a word to game developers, producers and marketers: slapping a different name on an old concept doesn't make your ideas any fresher. Destroying lots of stuff, for example, isn't new; from old-gen Mercenaries, through to Full Auto, The Outfit and inevitably Gears of War, everyone is at it.
And, while we're at it, labelling it, say, massive destructibility, or even 'Massive D' doesn't make it any more
“I've been trying to develop a sequel to Hard Boiled, but didn't know how,” said action movie helmer John Woo in a video interview shown at Midway's Pulse media event in late February. Looks like he found one: John Woo Presents Stranglehold, is an upcoming action/adventure game that reunites Woo with his frequent star Chow Yun-Fat in a return to the world of Inspector Tequila.
Better to call it a “spiritual sequel,” though; the game won't pick up where the film left
