Demo: Stranglehold

Just because a famous director decides to work with digital actors instead of flesh and bone ones doesn't mean a game with them is going to be any good. John Woo is taking a stab and a genre I'm going to call film gaming and so far I'm not really impressed.

John Woo's action films are part of a genre that are getting a little old for me though. So I'm a bit biased. Slow-mo, Matrix effects are in almost every action film now. Spilling into games just sort of feels like there's no imagination. I played the Matrix game and had an absolute ball with it. But it's called the Matrix-effect for a reason. It reminds everyone of the Matrix.

Here's what the game does well though. It introduces seamless movement. There's not a button for jumping over a counter or table. You run towards it and you automatically slide, Duke's of Hazzard-style, over almost any flat surface, guns level and still shooting. It's so fluid. It feels just like a John Woo/Japanese action film.

There's a time-limited slo-motion button that you can pair with a few special moves. The moves themselves work well. They feel natural in the game and they don't feel cheap. My favorite was the aiming move, allowing you to pinpoint an enemy, follow the bullet to it's target and watch, satisfyingly as the perp grabs his hand or leg...or pulls a Michael Jackson crotch grab. Sans flair.

The game feels mechanical though. There's no weight to the character as he runs around. It seems like the use of the Unreal Engine was directed physics for enemies and objects in the game. You, on the other hand, defy the law of inertia; turning on a dime and at the smallest twitch of the joystick.

Also, the game is about 12 hours long. The levels are pretty open, so you can take longer to complete it if you like jumping around railings and slo-moing everything. One play through a level I waited to shoot every single person that came out of a door. The second time through the demo I ran right to the checkpoint with no consequences (and a hell of a lot more life). So I bet a low 8 hours is even possible.

I don't like multiplayer online very much, but the ability to use the slow motion stuff over a live connection sounds interesting. I'd like to see how it was handled with you slowing down time a bit and the target your shooting at, well, not.

I'm sure this game will sell a few copies, but ultimately it will be on the $39.99 shelf in a couple of months.