Stranglehold Demo

[H-Man]

On my first play through the game felt too cluttered - kept bumping into things and sliding around, camera felt too close, controls loose. A few plays and little adjustment later and everything suddenly came to together in a sublime way - none of the initial gripes apply anymore. What was messy before now looks cooler, and is possibly more satisfying, than any combat i've experienced in a video game.

Oh, I loaded up Max Payne 2 for a quick comparison after a frantic session and it was, well, complete ****e. Being a huge Max Payne and shooter fan, nobody is more suprised by this than me.

If there was ever a game that offered more scope for looking damn cool and hard as nails I haven't experienced it. Ordered!!

[Akira]

^ absolutely spot on!

[bash]

Bah! cant play the demo because my broadbands down, when does this come out?

[Akira]

Bah! cant play the demo because my broadbands down, when does this come out?

september 7th

[bash]

day after my birthday, kool.

[Yoshimax]

Gave this another bash last night and had that "everything clicks" epiphany moment.

It was sublime

[1P_King]

I'm not sure if its been mentioned in this thread but the more times you complete the demo the more options open up in the game. On the first play you only unlock the precision shot but you get another two moves if you complete the demo over and over.

[Jebus]

Yeah, but it doesn't save that progress does it? My second playthrough still only had the same as the first, so I think you have to complete it over and over on the same playthrough, rather than cumulatively...

[merf]

no saving the progress I guess cos of the microsoft rules preventing any demo saaving anything to the hard drive.

[1P_King]

Yeah you have to basically start the demo over without quitting to the dash. But thats not really an issue when the demo can be completed in around 5 minutes.

When you have the full options it becomes even more satisfying to play as well, you can really put on a show for anyone watching.

[MartyG]

Gave this another bash last night and had that "everything clicks" epiphany moment.

It was sublime

Definitely.

I've finally had chance to try this out tonight after the hectic last week of finding a new job, and I reckon it really does feel like playing a John Woo movie - the action is really quite intense ( although relatively easy I thought on novice - no danger of dying at any time ) I was quite glad at the rest-bite given by the cut scenes.

It ticks the right boxes for me, so this one is on the buy list after BioShock I think.

[Madbury]

Naff? Duff? Loose? Maybe your 360s are broken in some way?

This is action gaming done right. It's simple, no frills, adrenalin pumping action and I absolutely love it.

Btw I'm surprised everyone is all up on the U3 engine. Most of the cool stuff is happening through Havok in this demo.