Stranglehold First Look Preview

Saving the best for last is a phrase often attributed to romance, and if you pardon the pun, John Woo’s Stranglehold did its best to win me over in my last appointment of this year’s E3 conference in Los Angeles. Fans of Hard-Boiled, Face Off or The Killer were promised a game experience to rival the cult appeal of those movies. Described by the overexcited US Midway rep as an interactive John Woo entertainment experience (we call them games here), you control the likeness of Chow Yun-Fat in what has to be described as the most explosive game I’ve ever seen.

The demo begins as we enter a restaurant that could’ve been lifted straight from Hard-Boiled, in crisp high definition. When we say crisp high definition, what we actually mean is astonishingly detailed and destructible environments, hand crafted to utilise the power of Xbox 360 in ways you didn’t think possible. Sure it looks fantastic, but considering every pane of glass, every bottle, and just about every other object in the game can be ripped apart by one of the thousands of bullets expelled from the multitude of guns used in the demo, it’s more a case of ‘seeing is believing’ than anything so far announced for Xbox 360. Single deform-mapped bullet holes begin to litter a tiled column in the centre of the restaurant. As the hail of bullets become more intense, so do the bullet holes, pulling the tiles off the column in what seems like such a natural way. As the tiles explode and shatter away from the column the underlying concrete is exposed, crumbling with every piercing shot, and as you continue to rip the column apart, the beam support becomes clearly visible.

Stranglehold isn’t a game of halves by any measure, and judging by the open-mouthed journalists sitting beside me, the next feature to be demonstrated heightened the appeal of the game even more. John Woo’s biggest draw as a director is his ability to choreograph the most full-on and immersive action sequences. Whether you’re walking up banisters or jumping back-first onto a food cart and spraying your bullets everywhere in bullet time, it’s thrilling, and exactly what John Woo fans would have expected from a video game. These are some of the hallmark action sequences created by the great man; there might even be an appearance by some white doves that Mr Woo is so taken with.

Mike Capp, president of Epic Games, was evangelical about Stranglehold even before its announcement. Speaking of what Midway were doing with the Unreal Engine 3 as “awesome, and something we never thought possible” sums up the expectation surrounding stranglehold, and so far, the game is more than living up to the hype. Although I only saw a one-level demo, I can’t wait to get my hands on the finished product at some point late this year. While the wait may be long, there’s nothing better than opening the box of your most wanted game when it finally arrives in the shops. Stranglehold became one of my most wanted games after E3. Add it to your wish list, because it looks like it won’t disappoint.