While only the Collector's Edition of Stranglehold includes an HD copy of Hardboiled, this is one of those unusual bonuses that actually makes the game itself better. Taken on its own, Stranglehold is "just" another shooter with a story of revenge and the ability to blow the hell out of pretty much everything in the environment. Taken with the movie as well, you see a continuation of one of the greatest stories to come out of the Hong Kong action genre from the early 90s, as well as a continuation of the style and cinematography of the movie. Characters that seem flat or unnecessary suddenly become interesting and special effects that seem like simple next-gen window dressing gain added meaning.
Movies like Hard Boiled are what started the whole concept of tough guys with dual Berettas who can dive through the air backwards while taking out half a platoon of villains. It's hard to remember sometimes, but the action in games like Max Payne (as well as the bullet time in The Matrix) are direct homages to John Woo's early movies. Slow motion shooting, dive-shots, and heavily stylized combat were all traits of movies like Hard Boiled, Bullet in the Head, and The Killer, so in some ways it's surprising that it's taken this long for John Woo to just come out and make his own video game.
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It's that kind of chaos that epitomizes Stranglehold. When you leave a room after a major gunfight, it looks nothing like when you first came into it. Pillars are torn asunder, statues break apart realistically, and whatever dishes in the room are now tiny bits of ceramic powder. During the fights, you'll be frantically dodging from behind cover, shooting people in slow-mo, grabbing health and ammo and generally do your best to keep alive when a dozen different thugs are shooting you at once.
Unfortunately, the game's attempts to make the stylized combat very free-form (EVERY railing can be ran on, even the ones that go nowhere), means that sometimes your character will just do random things. You may be trying to do a wall jump, but instead the game will think you wanted to run up a banister instead. Or you will actually want to run up the banister, but won't be quite lined up correctly and will instead just run into it like an idiot. While it's not a huge deal, it breaks up the fluidity of combat and can lead to frustrating deaths. I can appreciate the sand-boxy approach to combat that Midway took, but in the end it felt like it could have used some more tuning. 75% of the time you feel like a movie bad-ass, and 25% of the time you feel like the world's worst stunt man. It's a shame, because it *almost* works perfectly -- just not quite.
Graphically, Stranglehold is a bit of a mix bag. Chow Yun Fat looks recognizable, as well as the other characters in the game based on real people (keep an eye out for John Woo in a cameo), but they don't quite have that next-gen shine to them. It's clear that the real focus of the graphics is the Massive D engine and the ensuing destruction that happens as soon as anybody fires off a gun. Never has a game had this much onscreen destruction going on, and it is a sight to see. Boards, statues, tables, and marble pillars all break apart with startling realism and makes you feel like you're actually wielding powerful weapons. When you shoot a pillar with a military grade shotgun, it SHOULD rip chunks out of it. It's hard going back to games without environmental destruction after playing Stranglehold, because you miss the realistic effects of your weapon on the level.
Framerate-wise, the delay definitely did a lot of good. While not perfect by any means (at least one boss fight brought it to an almost stand-still as two huge statues exploded), it is very solid overall and never gets in the way of combat. The game can handle half a dozen enemies all blasting away at you as you dodge around and the level erupts into debris with nary a hitch in the framerate, which is pretty impressive. Though in case you're wondering, the Xbox 360 version definitely has a more solid framerate (though it was not perfect either).
Luckily, there is finally the solid transfer that fans have been clamoring about for years. While not as pristine as a modern day digital-to-digital, the 1080p re-mastering it is nicest that Hard Boiled has ever looked and may very well be the best it ever will. Compared side-by-side to the 1998 Criterion release, it is noticeably sharper, has considerably better sound quality and colors are much more vivid. Also, the sub-titles have been redone and now actually make sense throughout the movie. I wasn't able to detect any 'Engrish' or misspelling which greatly helps in keeping you engaged in the movie. And yes, for the Philistines out there, there is also an English dub -- which sounds about as good as any English dub out there. This, like any foreign flick, should really be watched in the original language though.
PS3 Fanboy score: 8.0
Second Opinion: Andrew
The Collector's Edition of Stranglehold is a terrific deal, especially for serious action movie fans like myself. However, there a number of flaws that simply can't be ignored. The game itself is a lot of fun, and does a fantastic job of recreating the way movement works in the John Woo universe. However, the game is repetitive, and actually features less interesting environmental attacks as the game progresses through its very short run. This transfer of Hard Boiled is the best yet for the film, but it's not without serious video issues. What hurts the video playback the most, however, is the use of a proprietary in-game movie playback UI. Instead of using the traditional PS3 playback system, the game assigns rather arbitrary buttons for basic functions, and removes useful ones such as "fast forward" and "rewind." Most likely, this was to prevent cannabilization of the upcoming DVD release, but it certainly makes the whole package seem a little cheap. Tying movies and games is something we hope continues in the PS3 lifetime ... albeit with better execution.
7.5
