John Woo Presents Stranglehold Review

Most of the time, I find myself agreeing with the majority of reviewers about games. Obviously, I don't always agree, as will be apparent when you read my review of Super Mario Galaxy, but I do agree most of the time. Right now, Stranglehold has a 78.7% rating on gamerankings.com and a 77% on metacritic.com. This is one of those times I disagree.

I never saw Hard Boiled, which is apparently some of John Woo's best work. I have seen other John Woo movies though, like Mission Impossible 2, Face/Off, Broken Arrow, and Paycheck. Out of those, Paycheck is the only one I'd watch again, and that might be because I'm a tech guy myself and find the plot mildly interesting. It's safe to say I'm not a fan. Having said that, I think he should stick to movies, as all of those movies are better than Stranglehold.

Stranglehold has a serious identity problem. It wants to be a movie, but it just isn't. It clearly doesn't have the kind of budget that a game-wanting-to-be-a-movie needs to pull it off. To start the graphics are nothing to write home about. The character textures and lighting look plastic and completely emotionless. The animation is sufficient, although when you're switching between different types of moves, there's definitely a shift. This is in contrast to a game like Heavenly Sword where there's very little, if any, visible shift between motions.

One of Stranglehold's claim to fame is the destructible (and interactive) environments, and oh boy are they destructible. Just about everything can be blown up, much like a John Woo movie. The problem is that the debris from everything blowing up constantly fills the screen to the point where you can't see the guys you're supposed to be shooting. Another problem is that every level is littered with so much stuff, you can't run in a straight line without sliding over a table, or knocking something over, etc. In other words, the amount of junk in every section of every level is ridiculous and leads to a feeling of claustrophobia.

Go ahead, try to run to the other ride of the room while avoiding the tables.

The sound is decent, I suppose. There's nothing great about it, but there's nothing bad about it either. The voice acting seems stiff, but that could be because the actors look stiff. Chow Yun-Fat gives the best performance, but everyone else phoned theirs in.

The gameplay is where it starts to come together. The interactivity of the environments ranges from sliding down rails to hanging from chandeliers to riding dining carts across the room while shooting at a veritable legion of bad guys. The gunplay is pretty good, actually. There's always plenty of ammo laying around, and plenty of guys to fill with it. Another great feature is Tequila Time. You gain Tequila Time by performing Woo-worthy cinematic-style sequences (like shooting a sign above someone's head, which then drops and kills them). There are 4 possible uses for Tequila Time, and the best one is a single-bullet kill shot. To do so, you press a direction on the directional pad (down, I believe), and the camera will zoom in and let you aim in first-person. Aim at whoever you'd like to dispatch, and fire. The camera will then follow the bullet and treat you to an outstanding location and body-part specific death scene of your victim. If every shot was like that, I'd still be playing the game.

Awesome.

Unfortunately, the good parts are always balanced evenly with bad parts. In the case of Tequila Time, you'll find that if you happen to run up against a table, there's a good chance Tequila Time will activate and you'll suddenly see everyone running in slow-mo, using up your precious meter. I found myself hitting the Tequila Time button more often to turn it OFF than I did to turn it ON.

While you're running around shooting people, it may occur to you to use some of this "interactive" environment to your advantage. I must stress that this is an evil thought and must be immediately purged from your mind. The environment exists to prove that the environment can be interactive, not to actually be used interactively. You see, to use anything in the environment, you have to center the camera on it, hope it highlights, and press a button and hope that another object hasn't taken the focus from the highlight. If you do this correctly, you may be treated to some cool animation of Inspector Tequila doing something with the object. The downside is that while you're trying to get something to highlight, or pressing the button to interact with it, those pesky minions don't stop shooting you. Therefore, I urge a warning: Don't try to use the environment. It'll just kill you faster.

Man, look at all that crap. Is there a bad guy in there somewhere?

As for another note about the gameplay, it seemed like no matter how many bad guys I shot, there were always more coming. I especially felt that way in the casino (the last level I played, by the way). In that level, you'd walk into a restaurant on the first floor, place 2 guitar cases full of guns anywhere you'd like (and take as long to do it as you need, there's no rush), and wait for the onslaught. Once the second case is placed, bad guys start pouring out of every doorway. There must be about 10 waves of 5 guys each. When I was done, I felt like taking a nap. I was a good gamer though, and continued to the next room... where the exact same thing happened. I finished that room too, and it took me to a room with a band playing and told me not to let the band die. Sure, OK, I'll do my best. After about 30 bad guys, I died. I reloaded, and died again. I repeated this procedure for the next hour, dying a total of around 10 times. That's when I'd had enough. I play games for entertainment, and maybe some challenge, but it became frustrating. After Amped, I do not allow myself to become frustrated at games like that.

Thus, I have to give Stranglehold a 5 out of 10. It has a few moments, but those moments were far outweighed by frustrating gameplay, last-gen graphics, and endless spawnpoints (seriously, the end boss must have a million minions). I will admit that I did not finish the game, so if it gets much better after the casino level, awesome... I just didn't see any of that promise.

Bioshock

Bioshock is a new FPS from Irrational Games, and from the mind of Ken Levine. This is the same guy who made System Shock and System Shock 2 back in the day, so this game certainly has a lot going for it already. Let's get right into it.

The whole thing takes place in the 1950's city of Rapture, an underwater Ayn Rand-esk utopia built and run by Andrew Ryan. You arrive in the city after a plane crash, with very little in the way of introduction. You find a small submarine and ride it down to the city, hearing Andrew Ryan talk about how wonderful it will be to have a completely libertarian society. Of course, it doesn't work out the way he planned...


Bioshock is beautiful. Beautiful like, I can't believe they got it to work on a 2-year-old console when I'm sure it wouldn't look nearly this good on my 3-year-old, $4500 PC beautiful. The water effects alone are worth renting the game. This is the game you put in and watch the demo if you want to impress your in-laws with your new-fangled high definition television set.

The game also sounds terrific. Most designers overlook sound as not being worthy of their time because, let's face it, you can't put a screenshot of how good a game sounds on the back of the box. I'm happy to report that it has fantastic directional sound that really immerses you in the proceedings.

Irrational has created an atmosphere of dread and foreboding in the underwater city of Rapture. The graphics are the first thing people notice, but once you get down to the city and start wandering the halls, the sound is what completes the experience. Every step from a Big Daddies really thump the subwoofer. I highly recommend playing this with the surround sound turned up.

The best thing about the game though, is the gameplay. It's a first-person shooter, with the requisite guns and explosives, but it also adds some "magic" with the use of Plasmids. Plasmids are explained as modified DNA that allows you to do some interesting things, including telekinesis, pyrokinesis, cryokinesis, electrokinesis, and insectokinesis. (Granted, the electrkinesis and insectokinesis aren't really kinesises, since they shoot from your hand and don't appear from only a thought...)


In addition to the excellent gunplay and plasmids, there are tonics that enhance your abilities. For instance, you start the game with a wrench, which doesn't do a whole lot of damage. However, with the right tonics equipped, your wrench can become one of the most powerful weapons in the game.

I'm also obligated to say something about the moral dilemmas you'll face while playing. One of the enemies you'll come across are the aforementioned Big Daddies. Each Big Daddy protects a Little Sister, who looks just like a little 5-year-old girl. Little Sisters are the primary carriers of Adam, a substance that you spend to purchase new tonics and plasmids, or to upgrade existing ones. Once you kill the Big Daddy, you'll have the option of either "harvesting" the Little Sister, which nets you a large amount of Adam, or freeing her from her mental torment, which gives you less, but you have the luxury of knowing that you didn't brutally murder a little girl. These choices actually do have an effect on the plot later, and each time you're holding a Little Sister, if you have any heart at all, you'll feel a pang of guilt if you harvest her. That's some incredible emotional baggage, especially for a video game.


Bioshock is one of the marque games for the Xbox 360, and it definitely lives up to the hype. I'd give it a 10 out of 10.

Super Mario Galaxy Review

Like many gamers these days, I grew up playing Mario games. Super Mario Bros. holds a special place in my heart as one of the very first games I finished. Super Mario Bros. 2 holds a similarly special place for being the first game I thought was made by people who were high at the time. (This is a position I still hold, but I also think the game is good on its own.) Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World were, and still are the epitome of 2D platforming. Super Mario 64 took the winning formula into the third dimension, and was a huge success. Super Mario Sunshine was a decent game, but certainly not as good as its predecessors.

When I first heard about Super Mario Galaxy, I didn't think one thing or another about it. I figured I'd buy it because it's a Mario game, but I didn't think it would change the world or anything. Just before its release, I started reading reviews that said it completely redefined the platforming genre, much like Mario 64 did 11 years ago. To sum up, I disagree.

The game is entertaining, certainly. All the platforming elements are present, and they're just as good as they always have been. The variety of gameplay that I've seen so far is impressive, and I'm only 1/4 (maybe less) through the game. The integration of motion controlling is more than a gimmick, and in several sections, actually makes sense to use. (This stands in contrast to most Wii games where I'm often left thinking that a simple button, or button combination would be easier.)

As good as the game is, it's not perfect as many reviews would have you believe. There is one major problem, and it is perception. Since much of the game is spent running around on, and jumping between objects in space, "up" isn't always "up". There were plenty of times that I pressed up and Mario ran down. If you're dealing with an oblong object in space, viewing it from a stationary camera, and Mario is on the opposite side of the object, "up" to Mario is completely different than what you think "up" is.

Which way should Mario go if you press "up"?

The traditional attack for Mario, the jump, exacerbates the problem because now you're not only dealing with "up" not necessarily being "up", you also have to deal with depth. This can be a problem because each platform in space has its own gravitational field, and if you're running along the side of platform A that's nearest to platform B, if you jump, you may find yourself landing on platform B. Problems like this are why no company but Nintendo could pull off a game like this.

How high does Mario jump here if you were to jump?

Therein lies the dilemma. The game itself can be very fun, and can be played in 10 minute spans, which certainly is a concern if you're married and have a full-time job. However, if you took Mario out of the equation, would this game be getting the review scores that it's getting? No. The game is a solid 8 out of 10, but the control and camera issues are significant enough to keep me from giving it a 10. I will hedge that score with the statement that I'm only less than 1/4 of the way through the game, and perhaps those issues are adequately addressed later. However, in my mind, a game deserving a review score of 10 out of 10 doesn't have control issues like that, even in the early levels. Consider Super Mario Galaxy a Buy if you're a big fan of Mario, or think you can get past the control issues. Otherwise, it's a Rental.

Introduction

Let's get this out of the way. I'm not one for introductions, really, but here's what you can expect from this blog. I'm a technically-minded gamer with all the major consoles. I read a lot of magazines and websites, and I'm the guy whose friends ask about upcoming games. In this blog, I plan to preview upcoming games, review recently released games, and give my opinion on happenings in the gaming industry.

I don't buy into hype easily, and I won't give a game a good review just because it's a well-known and loved franchise. I also won't write off a game because it comes from an unknown publisher / developer (Far Cry, anyone?).

So, having said all that, welcome to the Gaming Hermit, and I hope I can grant some insight into this hobby of ours.