Stranglehold is a video game sequel to the the 1992 movie, Hard Boiled, from John Woo. You play as Inspector Tequila, reprised by Chow Yun-fat, from the movie, as he attempts to rescue his kidnapped wife and daughter in Hong Kong, while in the middle of a dispute between to triad groups, The Golden Kane and The Dragon Claw.
Released in 2007, a product of Midway Games, now defunct, features impressive facial graphics and fun game mechanics. 'Tequila Time' is a huge feature and immensely similar to 'Bullet Time', in games like Max Payne. Any time Tequila dives or swings from a chandelier, enter Tequila Time and can dispatch of enemies in slow motion. You can also enter it manually with a button press, or when you jump on a cart. Tequila also has a cool set of abilities. There is a full circle of four abilities, the first is health and let's you refill your own. Precision shot let's you instantly kill an enemy and follows a bullet to where you aimed it. Barrage let's you rampage and constantly fire your gun without reloading or getting damaged. And finally, the spin attack, the most powerful of all as Tequila spins around firing and kills all enemies in sight.
The graphics and cutscenes were stellar, you can tell it was meant to be a movie. The facial detail was fantastic to look at, they all looked like real people. There was also a huge arsenal of weapons, even better, all weapons could be used with the barrage and spin attack abilities. There was a unique encounter with enemies, a standoff. You'd be outnumbered and surrounded by enemies, you have to quickly dispatch of them all while dodgy bullets. There's a number of high profile enemies, most of whom have a boss fight. Most boss fights are great and very challenging. You can also find collectable cranes, these speed up the process to getting your abilities.
On harder difficulties, it can be really hard. To make up for that, there's plenty of health packs around. You can also sacrifice your special moves in favour of refilling your health, the closer you are to a full circle of abilities, the more health you can refill instead. You can't enter Tequila Time manually all the time, you have a bar under your health that regenerates over time, so you can keep entering TT. You can crouch and take cover, sounds normal, but in a game that's as fast paced as this, it seems out of place and unnecessary.
The cutscene audio was so low, it was difficult to hear and I find myself constantly switching the audio up and down in between gameplay and cutscenes. Every time you click continues on the main menu, it asks you to pick a difficulty instead of just carrying on. If you die, you're often reloaded and left with different weapons to what you had, and if you had a full circle of abilities can be reset. It's so dumb, you could have saved up a spin attack and have golden guns, then lose them all on a reload. It can be difficult to aim, as Tequila is usually in the way and you have to aim through him. You often have to trigger enemy spawns, this can usually mean walking past a door which enemies spawn from, leaving you open to be killed. Using the reticle and aiming right at someone doesn't always hit them and you're left just hitting air. There was a poor turret section that was completely out of place and way too long, clearly put in the wrong game. Another thing that frustrated me was, I did the whole game on hard, and two chapters completely ignored that and said they were done on normal. I had to do them again...
A really fun game, with great graphics (at the time) and an interesting story. Unfortunately, due the the closure of Midway, the sequel was cancelled. I'd one hundred percent have played the sequel, I'm always down for games with bullet time. I'll be sure to now watch the John Woo film, Hard Boiled.
7/10
Thursday 27 April 2017
Thursday 20 April 2017
Oddworld New N Tasty (Xbox One)
Dark, depressing and scary. Such is the life for the Mudokons at Rupture Farms, and it's about to get a whole lot worse. Forced to live in fear as they clean up the food factory, now their own employers (or captors) are planning to turn them into their latest food product. Abe, skulking outside the corporate meeting as they plan the new tasty treat, is forced to get the Hell out of there before he ends up in someone's stomach.
Originally called Abe's Oddysee, a PS1 classic. For those who played the original back in 1997 will see a complete overhaul in graphics, making this 2014 release look like a current game. A 3D side-scrolling, puzzle game is how to describe it. Requiring a lot of trial and error to solves puzzles. The objective is to return to Rupture Farms and save as many Mudokons as possible. While navigating around, you're often presented with a board, indicating how many Mudokons you've saved, lost and how many are left. It's a great way to see if you've had any casualties, so you can try and go back to save them. You'd use the D-pad to command the Mudokons, you could say hi to get their attention, you could also tell them to follow you and wait. You'd have to lead them through enemies and traps to the safe portals you'd channel, then all fellow Mudokons would jump through to safety.
It's a great story of an unlikely hero, depending on how many Mudokons you save, you can have a different ending. I love the unique characters, I love the Mudokons, they are hilarious and have their own dialect, as do the Sligs, the guards of Rupture Farms. There are more unique enemies too, and each has their own abilities and specific ways to take care of them. You can even mind control some enemies and take them out by making them kill each other. Some enemies you could distract with meat or rocks, and some wouldn't attack unless there was more than one or they were backed into a corner by you.
One of the best features was the quick save, as well as the quick load. It really was... well, quick. If you messed up and died, you could instantly just quick load the last save to avoid watching the respawn animation. I milked the quick save and chose to save at any opportunity I felt I'd mess up on. Elum was a cool rideable, he didn't feature too much, but he was really fun. He ran so fast and it could be quite difficult to time the jumps, but it was so thrilling riding so fast and making difficult jumps at the same time. Password puzzles were unique too, using the dialect speak, you would have to copy the Mudokons in order to get passed. The Sligs also had doors which you would need to use their dialect for, another cool thing was the Sligs could command the dogs to attack other Sligs, one of many unique ways to dispatch of enemies.
I love this world, the characters and the humour. I can't wait to play more of the Oddworld games, and this is a great place to start for any new fans. There's plenty of reason to go back to it too, different endings, saving more Mudokons, getting better times. It can be quite frustrating having to redo parts over and over until you finally do it, but that's part of the fun and it feels great when you get past that one part you struggled on. My only wish is that it wasn't so short.
7.1/10
Originally called Abe's Oddysee, a PS1 classic. For those who played the original back in 1997 will see a complete overhaul in graphics, making this 2014 release look like a current game. A 3D side-scrolling, puzzle game is how to describe it. Requiring a lot of trial and error to solves puzzles. The objective is to return to Rupture Farms and save as many Mudokons as possible. While navigating around, you're often presented with a board, indicating how many Mudokons you've saved, lost and how many are left. It's a great way to see if you've had any casualties, so you can try and go back to save them. You'd use the D-pad to command the Mudokons, you could say hi to get their attention, you could also tell them to follow you and wait. You'd have to lead them through enemies and traps to the safe portals you'd channel, then all fellow Mudokons would jump through to safety.
It's a great story of an unlikely hero, depending on how many Mudokons you save, you can have a different ending. I love the unique characters, I love the Mudokons, they are hilarious and have their own dialect, as do the Sligs, the guards of Rupture Farms. There are more unique enemies too, and each has their own abilities and specific ways to take care of them. You can even mind control some enemies and take them out by making them kill each other. Some enemies you could distract with meat or rocks, and some wouldn't attack unless there was more than one or they were backed into a corner by you.
One of the best features was the quick save, as well as the quick load. It really was... well, quick. If you messed up and died, you could instantly just quick load the last save to avoid watching the respawn animation. I milked the quick save and chose to save at any opportunity I felt I'd mess up on. Elum was a cool rideable, he didn't feature too much, but he was really fun. He ran so fast and it could be quite difficult to time the jumps, but it was so thrilling riding so fast and making difficult jumps at the same time. Password puzzles were unique too, using the dialect speak, you would have to copy the Mudokons in order to get passed. The Sligs also had doors which you would need to use their dialect for, another cool thing was the Sligs could command the dogs to attack other Sligs, one of many unique ways to dispatch of enemies.
I love this world, the characters and the humour. I can't wait to play more of the Oddworld games, and this is a great place to start for any new fans. There's plenty of reason to go back to it too, different endings, saving more Mudokons, getting better times. It can be quite frustrating having to redo parts over and over until you finally do it, but that's part of the fun and it feels great when you get past that one part you struggled on. My only wish is that it wasn't so short.
7.1/10
Thursday 13 April 2017
Homefront the Revolution: Beyond the Walls DLC (Xbox One)
The third and final add-on for Homefront. Once again the trend of the DLC being good carries on. Seriously, why wasn't the game on the same levels?
When Beyond the Walls was announced, I read that it was meant to be much larger than the previous two. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case, it seemed only slightly longer and they raised the price, so it felt like it was worth buying the season pass.
The final piece to Brady's story has him leaving Philadelphia to link up with a Nato agent, who claims to have a plan to end the KPA's occupation of Philly. We meet a new char called Lisa, she sticks around for a while and actually accompanies you, after being solo for the majority of the original game. I liked Lisa more than most of the original cast and I'm glad she stuck around, as it made for some good exposition between the two.
I liked practically all the missions and liked the combination of stealth and assault. It's a shame they overpriced it and made it sound like it was gonna be a lot larger. It's probably my favourite of the three DLC's, but the pricing hurt it. They should've added more for the price they charged.
I enjoyed all the DLC's, but seeing as this is the final one, I sincerely hope that it's the last we'll see of Homefront. They've had their chance in a failed sequel, they improved with the DLC, but they don't deserve a third game, and Dambuster don't deserve a second chance. Adios Homefront.
3.2/5
When Beyond the Walls was announced, I read that it was meant to be much larger than the previous two. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case, it seemed only slightly longer and they raised the price, so it felt like it was worth buying the season pass.
The final piece to Brady's story has him leaving Philadelphia to link up with a Nato agent, who claims to have a plan to end the KPA's occupation of Philly. We meet a new char called Lisa, she sticks around for a while and actually accompanies you, after being solo for the majority of the original game. I liked Lisa more than most of the original cast and I'm glad she stuck around, as it made for some good exposition between the two.
I liked practically all the missions and liked the combination of stealth and assault. It's a shame they overpriced it and made it sound like it was gonna be a lot larger. It's probably my favourite of the three DLC's, but the pricing hurt it. They should've added more for the price they charged.
I enjoyed all the DLC's, but seeing as this is the final one, I sincerely hope that it's the last we'll see of Homefront. They've had their chance in a failed sequel, they improved with the DLC, but they don't deserve a third game, and Dambuster don't deserve a second chance. Adios Homefront.
3.2/5
Monday 10 April 2017
Assassin's Creed Brotherhood: The Da Vinci Disappearance DLC (Xbox 360)
The only story DLC for Brotherhood, was it needed? Should you buy it? Well, it's DLC, often pointless and overpriced. Leonardo, Ezio's companion has been kidnapped and finding Da Vinci's paintings is the only clue Ezio has to locate him. The paintings are believed to lead to an underground tunnel to where Da Vinci has potentially been taken.
A small amount of content was added, but the only worthwhile element is the story. In the form of eight new memories, Ezio looks to find Da Vinci where he is introduced to amother friend of Da Vinci's and a new enemy gang. You spend the missions hunting down paintings and ultimately a final showdown. Most of the missions were standard, the best was actually one of the first, you spent it infiltrating a mansion and escaping. It was pretty all down from there.
The story starts in game and you can play during your original game. However, you have to have done certain sequences to play the whole story. I started after the original story, and just like the assignment missions, they expect you to do it before the story. Using tunnels during the mission somehow lead to you abandoning the story. At the end, you were thrown a boss out of nowhere, with no set up.
Ultimately, this was not needed and didn't really fit into the story at all. Not to say it was bad, I did enjoy the missions but you can skip this. For a decent price I'd certainly recommend a try, but at full price it has to be a pass.
3.1/5
A small amount of content was added, but the only worthwhile element is the story. In the form of eight new memories, Ezio looks to find Da Vinci where he is introduced to amother friend of Da Vinci's and a new enemy gang. You spend the missions hunting down paintings and ultimately a final showdown. Most of the missions were standard, the best was actually one of the first, you spent it infiltrating a mansion and escaping. It was pretty all down from there.
The story starts in game and you can play during your original game. However, you have to have done certain sequences to play the whole story. I started after the original story, and just like the assignment missions, they expect you to do it before the story. Using tunnels during the mission somehow lead to you abandoning the story. At the end, you were thrown a boss out of nowhere, with no set up.
Ultimately, this was not needed and didn't really fit into the story at all. Not to say it was bad, I did enjoy the missions but you can skip this. For a decent price I'd certainly recommend a try, but at full price it has to be a pass.
3.1/5
Thursday 6 April 2017
Child of Light (Xbox One)
Child of Light was developed by Ubisoft and uses the beautiful UbiArt engine, that has consistently brought stunning looks games. The artistic style will have you in awe at times. Released in 2014 and thanks to the Games With Gold program, a free purchase for me.
Set in Lemuria, a young girl, Aurora wakes up after freezing to death, and must return the sun, moon and stars, that are being held by the Queen of the Night. Aided by a firefly named Igniculus, they work together to return the light to Lemuria. Along the way, Aurora is taken to all different cities across the land, and meets a bunch of friends and enemies alike.
A side scrolling game featuring turn-based combat. With the ability to fly, this isn't a typical side scroller. You can explore off the screen, go far up and down, and far along left and right. The combat gives you two players to control and you can even swap out Aurora if you choose to. The combat features a time bar and at the end of the bar is a a red zone, once your characters hits here, you're able to start your attack, and once you reach the end, it completes your attack. You can see all people involved in the fight on the timeline, so you can see how close the enemy are to attacking you. If the enemy is in the attack zone and you hit that enemy, they a hit back and forced at the start of the timeline, left to make their way back. This is a great tactic to hit them back here, possibly giving you a fight without losing any health. Igniculus can also hover over enemies to slow them down on the timeline, or even hover over your guys to heal them.
You meet a bunch of friendlies that join your party and you can use to fight with. I felt you got too many, at first you have a couple of allies for a long time, then all of a sudden you have a huge posse and don't have much time to experiment with everyone. You can avoid a lot of fights, as some are only triggered when you get in an enemy's vicinity. You can use this to test all your new companions and see who you prefer to use. While fighting you can also choose to defend if you feel you'll be attacked before you can. You can also use health and enhancements to speed you up or apply more damage. Unfortunately there is no health bar for enemies, so you have to just keep attacking until they fall.
There is no talking in the game, only when there is rarely some narration. There are speech bubbles when the characters talk yo eachother. There seems to be this rhyming dialogue that people speak with in Lemuria. One character doesn't rhyme, and Igniculus always corrects them with a rhyme they should've said. It got really annoying and made me want to just skip these segments, but I kept with it because I enjoyed the story. The lack of dialogue audio is accompanied by some well put together music. It's wonderful to listen to and goes perfectly with the artistic direction they went with.
Each character has a huge skill tree, because there is so much choice and so many characters, it can be quite daunting and often lead to me just choosing anything. Each character has a bunch of moves and once I found two or three characters I liked, I stuck with them and used the same few moves that did massive damage. Some enemies are resistant to certain attacks and could throw a spanner in your style. The boss fights are great and can be very challenging. As well as fighting, you can explore and solve some well done puzzles. There are chests scattered around, containing consumables, even better, when you can't find a way to a chest, Igniculus can and he can open them for you.
I loved the enemies, lots of them were unique and each had their own moves and fighting style. I never lost a fight for quite a long while, but I certainly didn't do every boss fight first time. You also can get side quests when you talk to certain people with exclamation points above them. A huge problem though, is you have no quest log and you don't know where to go for some. You can travel back to previous places you've visited, but the lack of a log means you have to remember what you've picked up. There was also a betrayal with someone in your party, thankfully it was someone whose move set I hated and found them to be useless.
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this, I pretty much wrote it off once I first played it, to save it for a later time. Especially because I'm not a huge fan of turn-based combat, but I loved it here. I'm in love with UbiArt games and will keep a lookout for future releases. CoL is quite short and I did lose interest at times, but this is a decent game, it does need improvements though. I'm more interested in UbiArt games than I am in actual Ubisoft games, as they often lead to disappointment.
6.8/10
Set in Lemuria, a young girl, Aurora wakes up after freezing to death, and must return the sun, moon and stars, that are being held by the Queen of the Night. Aided by a firefly named Igniculus, they work together to return the light to Lemuria. Along the way, Aurora is taken to all different cities across the land, and meets a bunch of friends and enemies alike.
A side scrolling game featuring turn-based combat. With the ability to fly, this isn't a typical side scroller. You can explore off the screen, go far up and down, and far along left and right. The combat gives you two players to control and you can even swap out Aurora if you choose to. The combat features a time bar and at the end of the bar is a a red zone, once your characters hits here, you're able to start your attack, and once you reach the end, it completes your attack. You can see all people involved in the fight on the timeline, so you can see how close the enemy are to attacking you. If the enemy is in the attack zone and you hit that enemy, they a hit back and forced at the start of the timeline, left to make their way back. This is a great tactic to hit them back here, possibly giving you a fight without losing any health. Igniculus can also hover over enemies to slow them down on the timeline, or even hover over your guys to heal them.
You meet a bunch of friendlies that join your party and you can use to fight with. I felt you got too many, at first you have a couple of allies for a long time, then all of a sudden you have a huge posse and don't have much time to experiment with everyone. You can avoid a lot of fights, as some are only triggered when you get in an enemy's vicinity. You can use this to test all your new companions and see who you prefer to use. While fighting you can also choose to defend if you feel you'll be attacked before you can. You can also use health and enhancements to speed you up or apply more damage. Unfortunately there is no health bar for enemies, so you have to just keep attacking until they fall.
There is no talking in the game, only when there is rarely some narration. There are speech bubbles when the characters talk yo eachother. There seems to be this rhyming dialogue that people speak with in Lemuria. One character doesn't rhyme, and Igniculus always corrects them with a rhyme they should've said. It got really annoying and made me want to just skip these segments, but I kept with it because I enjoyed the story. The lack of dialogue audio is accompanied by some well put together music. It's wonderful to listen to and goes perfectly with the artistic direction they went with.
Each character has a huge skill tree, because there is so much choice and so many characters, it can be quite daunting and often lead to me just choosing anything. Each character has a bunch of moves and once I found two or three characters I liked, I stuck with them and used the same few moves that did massive damage. Some enemies are resistant to certain attacks and could throw a spanner in your style. The boss fights are great and can be very challenging. As well as fighting, you can explore and solve some well done puzzles. There are chests scattered around, containing consumables, even better, when you can't find a way to a chest, Igniculus can and he can open them for you.
I loved the enemies, lots of them were unique and each had their own moves and fighting style. I never lost a fight for quite a long while, but I certainly didn't do every boss fight first time. You also can get side quests when you talk to certain people with exclamation points above them. A huge problem though, is you have no quest log and you don't know where to go for some. You can travel back to previous places you've visited, but the lack of a log means you have to remember what you've picked up. There was also a betrayal with someone in your party, thankfully it was someone whose move set I hated and found them to be useless.
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this, I pretty much wrote it off once I first played it, to save it for a later time. Especially because I'm not a huge fan of turn-based combat, but I loved it here. I'm in love with UbiArt games and will keep a lookout for future releases. CoL is quite short and I did lose interest at times, but this is a decent game, it does need improvements though. I'm more interested in UbiArt games than I am in actual Ubisoft games, as they often lead to disappointment.
6.8/10
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