Stranglehold

 PC
User Score
7.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 111 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 62 out of 111
  2. Mixed: 38 out of 111
  3. Negative: 11 out of 111
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  1. pretty_ugly
    Nov 10, 2012
    5
    The presentation of this game is pretty good. It tries to be cinematic with a moving story and it succeeds at that. However, the gameplay itself is really bland. It's more of an interactive movie than a game. The closest equivalent i can think of is Virtua Cop. You enter one area and then enemies pour out and you shoot and shoot until all of them die then you move forward and the sameThe presentation of this game is pretty good. It tries to be cinematic with a moving story and it succeeds at that. However, the gameplay itself is really bland. It's more of an interactive movie than a game. The closest equivalent i can think of is Virtua Cop. You enter one area and then enemies pour out and you shoot and shoot until all of them die then you move forward and the same thing repeats until the end of the level. Yeah, it's fun to play one of these stages once in a while but a full game of this and I'm sick of it.… Expand
  2. TheGrindeR
    Jun 17, 2012
    6
    Looks like than Max Payne series, but this game much better. The graphics, the sounds and the story is okay. This game building the slow motion effect. You can do a lot of wonderful motion and you can destroy a lot of things.
  3. LewisDanny
    Jun 7, 2018
    5
    Ultra-linear shooter with a fairly straightforward structure (stuck in a room/area, people with guns come out, shoot 'em, next area becomes accessable). The slow-mo and other shooting effects jazz up the gameplay enough that it's worth playing for an hour or two, but it quickly becomes repetitive.
  4. Jok`RdeMo
    Oct 10, 2007
    5
    Very nice graphics. Very weak gameplay - repetetive. So after 1h of playing it starts to get boring, but after 3h you just uninstall the game.
  5. PublicNuisance
    Feb 28, 2022
    7
    Stranglehold is a game with a singular purpose: to recreate a John Woo movie in video game form and it does this very well. It has also aged really well in the last decade and a bit since it’s initial release. The game play itself is still very fun. You have a variety of weapons to wield each with their own strengths and weaknesses. You can utilize a bunch of different environmentalStranglehold is a game with a singular purpose: to recreate a John Woo movie in video game form and it does this very well. It has also aged really well in the last decade and a bit since it’s initial release. The game play itself is still very fun. You have a variety of weapons to wield each with their own strengths and weaknesses. You can utilize a bunch of different environmental triggers in levels to kill enemies such as propane tanks; signs; etc. There are also a few special moves you can do such as precision aim, where you can zoom in to shoot your pistol in slow motion, or barrage where you go into a slow motion god mode where you can’t take damage and have infinite ammo. These abilities come into play mainly in boss or mini boss fights where the enemies have much more health than normal although I found precision aim useful against snipers as well. One thing I will mention about the weapons is that the shotgun is limited to 12 shells which is strangely low. I can have over a hundred rounds for the carbine; 200 rounds for the SMG; and over a hundred for the pistol; etc. I want to complain about the health of the bosses for a second here. I understand that boss fights are supposed to be more difficult but to see the only difference between them and a normal enemy be their massive health bar and doing more damage to you seems lazy. So many games do this as they also make the only difference in difficulty levels be health and damage. I wish more games would make enemies smarter not just bullet sponges. The graphics have held up pretty well as I mentioned. The object detail is pretty poor but the clothing and facial detail are both very good even after all these years.

    I played Stranglehold on Linux using Wine. The game never crashed on me. The only bug or glitch I noticed was that some times there were these little stutters that lasted about a second. They didn’t happen often though. There was an option for resolution; and a toggle for dynamic shadows and decals. Alt-Tab works. You can’t change the difficulty mid game but you can change it when choosing to continue the game. The game uses a checkpoint save system. Some save points are spaced out well but others are terrible and can take 20-30 real time minutes between them. You can’t view the controls mid game either, just from the main menu which is a weird design choice. I couldn’t monitor frame rate but the game felt smooth outside of the odd stutter.

    Game Engine: Unreal Engine 3
    Disk Space Used: 13.5 GB
    Game Version Played: 1.1

    Settings Used: dynamic shadows and decals on; 1920x1080
    GPU Usage: 1-51 %
    VRAM Usage: 614-791 MB
    CPU Usage: 5-14 %
    RAM Usage: 2.4-2.8 GB

    Overall the story and game play was very fun and I enjoyed my time with the game. I didn’t like how the boss fights were handled or the save system though. The game is a bit short but it feels right and doesn’t feel dragged out or rushed. I finished the game on normal difficulty in 5 hours and 10 minutes.

    My Score: 7.5/10

    My System:

    AMD Ryzen 5 2600X | 16GB DDR4-3000 CL15 | MSI RX 580 8GB Gaming X | Mesa 21.2.6 | Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500GB || Linux Mint 20.3 | Mate 1.26.0 | Kernel 5.4.0-100-generic | AOC G2460P 1920*1080 @ 144hz | Wine 7.3 | DXVK v1.9.4L-2    … Expand
  6. Tomle1202
    Jun 13, 2018
    7
    Sometimes the fast and stylish actions of Stranglehold can temporarily cloak its dated graphics, laughable animation and short length. Sometimes only.
  7. AlexKVideos1
    Mar 15, 2021
    7
    Stranglehold at first might look like a Max Payne clone, but it isn't.

    The developers of Max Payne made it clear in the past that that they were inspired by John Woo's films, like Hard Boiled, one of his most popular movies. Later on, John Woo decided of instead of doing a movie sequel to Hard Boiled, he decided to do a sequel in video game form, Stranglehold. Developed by Midway Games'    Stranglehold at first might look like a Max Payne clone, but it isn't.

    The developers of Max Payne made it clear in the past that that they were inspired by John Woo's films, like Hard Boiled, one of his most popular movies. Later on, John Woo decided of instead of doing a movie sequel to Hard Boiled, he decided to do a sequel in video game form, Stranglehold. Developed by Midway Games' Chicago on the Unreal Engine 3, the game released on September 5, 2007.

    So why isn't this game well known? Well, my guess is that its due to two reasons: Lack of marketing, and 'being' a Max Payne clone. It seems that the people who knew about the game thought it was ripping off Max Payne, when actuality it was made by the person who inspired Max Payne's gameplay.

    Compared to Max Payne, Stranglehold is way more intense, destructive, and action packed. Instantly you are thrown into a densely packed world with waves of enemies thrown at you to kill. You jump, slide, and dive around, either in normal time, or in Tequila time, slowmotion shooting. The game also controls very well. I played on PC, but the controls should just be as good on console. What makes it so good is that Tequila, the main character, flows with the environment, automatically sliding over objects like tables without losing your aim. You also don't have to reload, which might seem stupid at first, but it makes sense for the game as you never seem to lose your momentum, taking cover to reload every 2 seconds. What also very much impressed me was the level of destruction. Like there is a lot of stuff that can break, including the rare times when you have to take cover, and the enemy shoot all of the cover. This means you can break platforms above enemies to crush them with stuff, or break platforms below their feet to have them fall to their death. With the more people you kill, you fill up a special ability bar. The abilities include precision shot, barrage, and spin attack.

    Like every game, it has its problems. One that I noticed is its 16:9 support. For 16:9, they just cut off the top and bottom of the 4:3 picture, which happens on any system you play it on, and you can't adjust FOV. Since it was one of the first titles to use Unreal Engine 3, the textures, and lighting look awful. Gameplay wise, because of the lack of directions in the environment, I got lost, or couldn't find my way. Some levels want you to destroy buildings that you find by looking for black smoke. That was actually harder for me that I thought, as I not only had a hard time finding them, but some of them were difficult to get to. Also, you'll see there are some areas in the environment where you can run along a railing, which shows up as a long white line above it. Sometimes its fine, but other times your aim is restricted so you can't pan over to a certain spot, or sometimes you just won't jump on even though you pressed the button. Lastly, I would have to say the difficult will spike in a few spots, as there can be way too many enemies, health packs can be hard to reach, or you run low on aim in a certain weapon. Other things I can note is the weapon bullet spread. Because there is no recoil, they went with bullet spread, which makes weapons a lot less accurate in long distance engagements. For the precision shot ability, the bullet travels way too slow, so you can miss a target if they move. Lastly, the story is alright, I just didn't find it as engaging as Max Payne.

    Regarding the PC port, its decent. Runs on Windows 10 with no problems. No forced mouse acceleration, thank god. FPS wise, the game runs fine at high framerates, but the weird menu controls, and how you can't adjust mouse sensitivity until you load into the game is just some of its quirks. On PC it also doesn't seem to have controller support. Lastly, both the Collector's Edition, and Map Pack DLC weren't released for PC, not like it matters though. It also doesn't use Games For Windows Live.

    Finding a standard edition copy, or even the collector's edition copy of this game is very cheap these days, with the game up on GOG for $10. So if you want a game that turns Max Payne up to 10, then Stranglehold is for you.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

57
#57 Best PC Game of 2007
77
#77 Most Discussed PC Game of 2007
69
#69 Most Shared PC Game of 2007

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
77

Generally favorable reviews - based on 15 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 15
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 15
  3. Negative: 0 out of 15
  1. IGN
    81
    There are plenty of "Oh my God" moments and just enough challenge to sustain anyone's interest from start to finish.
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  2. GameSpot
    70
    For as long as it lasts, Stranglehold delivers a satisfying, if somewhat derivative action game experience.
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  3. Jolt Online Gaming UK
    79
    What this game is about is mayhem, destruction and style, all of which it has in bag loads. It doesn’t have the most original gameplay, nor is it the most sophisticated game of this type, but it is essentially an officially licensed John Woo game, doing what a lot of wannabe John Woo games have been doing for a few years now.
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