Joystiq impressions: Stranglehold
What makes Stranglehold so impressive is how intuitive it is. The controls have been fully streamlined to make the player look awesome at all times. Is there a table blocking your way? Simply run to it, and you'll jump right over it. Want to roll to the side, and hide behind a cabinet? Just use your analog stick. Simple movement is anything but: the interaction that the player has with the environment is incredible, and it's even more impressive knowing that a single button doesn't need to be used.
But, Stranglehold would be a failure if all you did was move around. Unsurprisingly, the shooting is fun, brutal, and intuitive. The L button activates a bullet time mode, which will allow the player to jump and doge in slow-mo while shooting. A clever mix of careful navigation and wise use of slow-mo will make you a lethal killer. However, Strangehold ups the ante even further: the D-Pad is used to activate some truly over-the-top bonuses. Our favorite has to be the zoom-in function, which will focus your aim. By pressing the trigger, the camera will follow the high-powered bullet, making head shots even that much more enjoyable.
Other abilities include high-powered, rapid-fire shooting. Press RIght on the D-Pad, and the shotgun will become a devastating weapon that will literally tear up the environment, and your enemies. Finally, there's one special attack which will unleash Tequila's signature spinning move, where he circles around, firing at all enemies around him.
The environmental effects are nothing short of astounding. The graphics are impressive as-is, but seeing almost every element in a level destroyed is awe-inspiring. Nearly everything in a level can be destroyed. Not only will everything fall apart, but the debris that's left behind will remain in the stage permanently. It's highly refreshing to see everything simply stay, without fading away, or disappearing. After a quick gunfight, utilizing all of Tequila's advanced abilities, the world will be absolutely devastated. In addition, the physics in the world can be used to your advantage: building signs can be shot to fall on enemies, wooden floors can be destroyed beneath goons, and explosives will, well, explode.
Stranglehold combines great graphics, intuitive controls, and dynamic gameplay to craft a true action movie experience. The game will launch on both PS3 and Xbox 360 in August.
The environmental effects are nothing short of astounding. The graphics are impressive as-is, but seeing almost every element in a level destroyed is awe-inspiring. Nearly everything in a level can be destroyed. Not only will everything fall apart, but the debris that's left behind will remain in the stage permanently. It's highly refreshing to see everything simply stay, without fading away, or disappearing. After a quick gunfight, utilizing all of Tequila's advanced abilities, the world will be absolutely devastated. In addition, the physics in the world can be used to your advantage: building signs can be shot to fall on enemies, wooden floors can be destroyed beneath goons, and explosives will, well, explode.
Stranglehold combines great graphics, intuitive controls, and dynamic gameplay to craft a true action movie experience. The game will launch on both PS3 and Xbox 360 in August.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
TonyBlair @ Jul 13th 2007 5:57PM
Im beginning to notice that the more hype a game receives from the video game "press," the more likely it is to suck when it actually comes out.
Funny thing is that reviewers never acknowledge they sucked this game's tit for eleven months before it came out, and when it hits they give it a weak review.
Re: Spider-Man 3: The Movie: The Game
Im betting highly that Assassin's Creed and Stranglehold here both suck monster balls, and Joystiq will deny ever having posted in the positive about them.
colin @ Jul 13th 2007 7:29PM
they could be super non-commital like x-play and bash the hell out of it for 5 minutes straight and then give it 4 steaming dog turds out of five. 3 is about par on xplay, and they give it out to everything. i've seen more shitty jrpgs get bashed to hell, then they say "but if you're a fan of x, x will be right up your alley ... which is why we give it 3 bisexual swordbearers out of five"
TonyBlair @ Jul 13th 2007 7:45PM
What the bloody hell are you talking about man?!
Andy @ Jul 13th 2007 9:30PM
There's a world exclusive cover feature of Assassin's Creed in this months Official Playstation Magazine, UK. These guys have had hands on experience and they rate it very, very highly.
Some weird stuff mentioned though:-
"Here's the deal: there are nine people the Assassins want dead - nine bigwigs manipulating the Crusades for their own ends. There's a conspiracy to uncover a secret sect running the show from behind the scenes. And this conspiracy may well stretch out into the modern day and beyond . Early trailers hinted that the game might be about genetic memory - specifically a theory that our genes hold autobiographical information about our ancestors. In one infamous trailer shown last year, Altir is killed, the screen fades out and suddenly the player appears to be in a high-tech lab, looking at a computer screen that's telling him a genetic memory simulation has just ended. What does that mean? There has been a mass of specualation, but Ubisoft won't say anything. Then things get really strange. As Patrice (Desilets) guides Altair through the streets in front of us, certain characters he passes regularly glitch and break-up like hologrmas; around them strands of indecipherable data appear, scroll and blibk into the ether. We ask the obvious question. "We're not talking about that," laughs Jade (Raymond).
"Patrice wont divulge anything about the secret at the heart of Assassin's Creed - he and Jade won't even show us the game's HUD, which gives you handy information about enamies in your vicinity, including their line of sight - but it gives away something about the game we're not supposed to know. He's indiscreet though; at one point revealing that an earlier design for the game involved twin assassins - a male and female. Apparently, a dedicated co-op spin-off title is a definite possiblity. On that subject, there will be no multiplayer or co-op mode in this iteration of Assassin's Creed. It's sinlge-player only."
The first bit reminds me of Michael Crichton's 'Timeline'. This game will not suck anyway Tony!
t_m @ Jul 15th 2007 7:47AM
Strangely i've notices that when mags get "world exclusive reviews" they tend to ALWAYS rate the game very highly.
Even if it later turns out to be a complete piece of garbage. (and that they actually reviewed beta code).
I remember PC gamer UK giving the world exclusive of Jedi Outcast 9/10 or something crazy.
DO world exclusive reviews EVER get lass than 9/10??
Matt B @ Jul 13th 2007 6:14PM
From what I've read, Joystiq has praised this game the highest out of all the others.
Psychotron @ Jul 13th 2007 6:17PM
E3 is like pre-season NFL. Right now, every single team "has a strong chance" of winning the Super Bowl. And then week 1 comes and goes. Although every single game at E3 always looks like a sure winner, we all know MOST of them are going to suck...the fun part is finding out which ones!
colin @ Jul 13th 2007 8:08PM
assuming you really are tony blair, i'll explain. X-Play is the title of a shitty videogame review show over here in the states on G4TV. The thing is, they hardly give bad reviews. they poke fun at a shitty game for the whole 5 minute review, then give it a middle-of-the-road review with three out of five stars. but they never say stars, they use some obscure comical element of the game instead ... like "and Dragon Ball Z Parliament gets 3 unpopular post-war Labour Prime Ministers ... out of five"
but my point is that they seem to rate everything at about the same, always wait for other reviewers to speak first, never going out on a limb
Michael @ Jul 14th 2007 12:49AM
Theirs going to be a demo too!