Stranglehold Demo is Generous in Dishing out the Sweetness

Another day, another demo. But oh, what a demo it was! Actually, I've been giving the shaft to demos recently and have quite a few titles backlogged. Stuntman, Eternal Sonata and Blue Dragon are just some of the notable demos I've failed to play in the last several weeks. I'd normally blame it on a case of gamer fatigue, yet I've been playing plenty of Arcade titles and my soul still burns for that Elite rank in Rainbow Six: Vegas.

No, I've just been biding my time to play a demo to a game that I'm actually looking forward to. To that end, I dedicated over two hours to downloading the 1.2GB demo for John Woo presents Stranglehold (or simply Stranglehold as I'll refer to it from hereon in). Sluggish as the download was, the wait paid off in dividends with a very exciting and generous demo sampling.

Tequila Bomb the jump for my demo impressions...

The setup in the Stranglehold demo is simple. You step into the role of Detective Tequila as portrayed by iconic John Woo leading man, Chow Yun-Fat. There are some dirty crooks up to no good and you're sent in by your captain to investigate a kidnapped police officer. The demo takes place in a series of cramped Chinatown streets and alleyways. Once arriving on the scene, Tequila is immediately set upon by wave after wave of armed thugs.

In a bizarre mish-mash of synergy, homage and irony, Stranglehold plays a lot like the Max Payne series of PC games, which in turn were highly influenced by the classic Hong Kong gun epics directed by John Woo, who again serves as the primary source of inspiration for Stranglehold. The resulting gameplay is at once fresh and slightly derivative. This new game differs from Max Payne in the many progressive refinements made to the control scheme and I think these changes really enhance the fun and heighten the cinematic feel that the developers were clearly aiming for.

Our old friend Bullet Time is back, this time renamed to Tequila Time and can be triggered manually with the right shoulder button or when performing any number of context-sensitive stunts. Your interaction with the environment is probably the most noticeable enhancement you'll notice over previous 3rd-person action titles. Aside from his slick dives, Tequila automatically slides over low objects like counter tops and crates, so you always get a sense of continuous motion. Certain objects in your environment may flash as you approach. This is a cue for you to pull on the left trigger, which will activate Tequila into an elaborate stunt move, ranging from sliding down stairway railings or taking a ride on a wheeled cart.

All dives and stunts send the game into Tequila Time (slow-motion) so long as enemies are in the vicinity. This is a handy feature, as you're often surrounded by baddies and you need all the aiming assist you can get. Killing enemies as you perform stunts also rewards you with stars, which help to boost up your Tequila Bomb meter. Filling up your meter unlocks a variety of special moves, such as self-healing and precision aiming, plus two other moves I was not able to unlock in the course of the demo.

If all this isn't enough to keep you busy, you also have the option of taking cover and shooting around corners. But this is no Rainbow Six. Stranglehold is definitely not about being subtle, so you'll more likely find yourself diving through fruit stands, pistols blazing, than hunkering down behind every corner and taking carefully aimed potshots at your foes.

I had a lot of fun with the demo and was surprised at how long it lasted. It feels like an entire chapter ripped straight out of the final version. If I had to gripe about something it's that the game still suffers from the usual pitfalls associated with 3rd-person shooters. The guns, even the shotgun, feel dinky. There's a certain visceral sensation found in FPSs that can never quite be duplicated in the 3rd-person view. Stranglehold makes up for this with copious amounts of destructible objects and environmental damage. Taking cover behind a concrete pillar and watching it get shredded through by gunfire is a genuine rush. The precision aiming feature (another borrowed, but refined idea from Max Payne) is also a real kick to use as you watch in slow-motion as your bullet finds its target. Once shot, your victim reacts with chilling realism, clutching whatever part was hit and accompanied by some very convincing sound effects.

There's also the matter of aiming controls. Even when jacked up to maximum sensitivity, getting Tequila to swing around on the X-axis is a little slower than it needs to be and makes for some annoying situation when you're trying to fire at someone on your tail.

Even with these expected annoyances, the Stranglehold puts on a thrilling, pyrotechnic show and has enticed me into putting the game back onto my "probably buy" list next to Bioshock. Prior to exiting, you're treated to a lengthy gameplay montage that seemingly showcases every setpiece battle sequence in the final game, as well as some juicy footage of multiplayer deathmatch play. There are no multiplayer options in the demo but here's hoping they get another demo out specifically for that type of play before the final version hits store shelves later this month.