Stranglehold

Stranglehold (or John Woo Presents Stranglehold) is a third-person shooter developed by Midway Games' Chicago studio, released in late 2007 for Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. It is Midway's first game to use Unreal Engine 3, and was developed in collaboration with John Woo.

Stranglehold is the sequel to Woo's 1992 Hong Kong action film, Hard Boiled, and stars Chow Yun-Fat in a reprisal of his role as hard-boiled cop Inspector "Tequila" Yuen. Stranglehold is the first project on which Woo and Chow have collaborated since Hard Boiled.

Plot

In latter-day Hong Kong, a policeman goes missing. The department is dumbfounded by the disappearance until they receive a ransom call from an unnamed source. The kidnappers request that a single officer appear at Kowloon market. Tequila volunteers for the assignment against his superior's wish, beginning a sequence of battles with rival Triads and the Russian Mafia that extends from the street markets of Hong Kong to the museums of Chicago.

Tequila finds the missing officer's badge with the picture of the officer dead. Tequila chases the kidnappers, which eventually lead him to Wong, the Triad boss of a group called Dragon Claw, who claims he was set up by Golden Kane. Tequila learns that his ex-wife, Billie—who is also Wong's daughter—and her daughter have been kidnapped by the Russian mob group, Zakarov. Tequila then heads to Chicago to rescue his family, leading to a shootout in a Chicago museum in which Tequila kills the Russian mob boss, Damon. Tequila finds Billie, and at the same time Tequila's undercover partner bursts in and opens fire on both of them, killing her. Tequila pursues him and manages to corner him. His undercover partner reveals that the Russian mafia was going to use Billie (through threatening her daughter) to remove the Triads from power by making her testify against Wong and that he was sent by Wong to kill her. Tequila kills him in an intense gunfight and heads back to Hong Kong, collaborating with Golden Kane to take down Dragon Claw by arranging an exchange in the slums of Kowloon as Golden Kane has Billie's daughter and would return her for "a slice of Hong Kong". The plan fails when Tequila did not make it at the arranged time and Wong's right hand man kills the leader of Golden Kane. Tequila chases Wong back to his estate and kills his second in command while his daughter kills Wong.

Influences

Stranglehold attempts to translate the gun ballet aesthetic popularized by director John Woo, used in films such as Hard Boiled and The Killer, to an interactive media format. Although the game has drawn comparisons to Remedy Entertainment's Max Payne franchise (which in fact was highly influenced by Woo itself) a more accurate account of both games' creative provenances traces the games to Woo's lengthy, balletic shootouts. The similar styles are more appropriately attributed to Woo's own artistry, applied into a new media format.

Tequila Time

Inspector Tequila's principal advantage is his speed; during play, jumping in any direction or interacting with any object while aiming at an opponent will slow time, creating a short window during which Tequila can select (and destroy) targets. This technique— called Tequila Time —generates a cinematic effect that mimics Woo's. Tequila Time is managed through a meter which drains with use and regenerates with time.

Technology

Stranglehold uses a heavily modified version of the Unreal Engine 3. Among these modifications is Massive Destruction (also known as Massive D), a set of physics technologies that allows players to destroy nearly every object in a given level. Stranglehold also incorporates a body swapping technique that randomizes parts of enemy character models, producing varied characters rather than repetitious clones.

Stranglehold incorporates location-based damage. The A.I. responds differently to various hit locations, varying enemy reactions with damage-mapped impact points. This feature is integrated throughout the game, but especially apparent during the second of four Tequila Bombs: Precision Aim. Also, while targets take time to recover from flesh wounds, they will eventually revive (even if unable to stand) and continue to fire until passing out from simulated blood loss.

Stranglehold contains dynamic in-game advertising, such as posters and billboards for real world products appearing during game-play.

Collector's Edition

Midway has announced that there will be a Collector's Edition of the game for next-gen console versions of the game.

The PlayStation 3 Collector's Edition includes the aforementioned Hard Boiled fully remastered in high-definition and on the same Blu-ray disc with all the additional game extras and features. The Xbox 360 Collector's Edition will include the same extras and featurettes but on a separate disc without the Hard Boiled movie.

Map Pack

On December 6, 2007 Midway announced a downloadable map pack for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 video game systems. The map pack features 10 additional multiplayer maps, as well as 21 all-new multiplayer character skins. The Xbox 360 version will include 10 new achievements worth 250 points.