Stranglehold Demo Status

[Gradthrawn]

According to Patrick Curry, Senior Game Designer, the 360 demo is finished (as of 7/19), and awaiting approval by MS. The PS3 version is currently being worked on and should be "coming soon." The demo starts at the beginning of the game, and Mr. Curry seems to feel that the demo section is pretty full featured.

Just what does the demo contain? Tons. The demo starts off the same as the singleplayer game, introducing you to the controls and combat of Stranglehold. The Hong Kong Marketplace has tons of interactions, lots of combat, plenty of gags, a couple standoffs, doves, and even some extra hidden content. You’ll be hard pressed to find a demo with this much gameplay crammed into it.

Hopefully the 360 demo hits this week. Feel free to use this thread to post hands-on impressions when it does.

 

[AntShaw]

Seems fun! Can't wait to get my hands on this game.

Gameplay looks great. Controls seem intuitive. Looks action packed!

Sign me up!

 

[nintenho]

demo is up. 1.28 GB. downloading but I heard VERY mixed impressions.

 

[Todd33]

Damn, I should have started it at lunch....

I'm kind of hoping I can grab a PS3 SE for <$40 after the holidays if it's any good.

 

[Daozang]

Starting the download now!!!

 

[<nu>faust]

i played&finished the demo this morning and here are my impressons:
good
it's basically a fun action game at its core (think of a console max pane with john woo stylistics) and it does have some neat ideas (standoffs, precision shot powerup)
bad
execution.the controls & environmental interaction mechanics are faaarr from being solid, the graphics are a mixed bag (at times it looks awesome and at some other times it looks like a hd ps2 game), ai seems average at best and things get repetitive pretty quickly(use bullet time, jump, shoot bad guys, rinse and repeat)
overall
i'll wait for the reviews since the demo is pretty short but at this stage it's a rental at best(for me)

 

[kyleb]

I agree with the above, I was figuring I'd buy it for my PC, but having played the demo I doubt I'd even bother renting it for either console.

 

[AlNom]

So should I keep holding my breath for Max Payne 3?

 

[Arwin]

I agree with the above, I was figuring I'd buy it for my PC, but having played the demo I doubt I'd even bother renting it for either console.

Since it is a later day Havok game that seems to feature destructibles rather heavily, I'd be interested in finding out whether or not the PS3 has benefited at all from the Havok optimisations resulting from Motorstorm. So, that could be one reason to rent it for either console.

I'm guessing though we won't see it. Wasn't this also one of the earlier UE3 games? If so, I'm not yet holding my breath for the PS3 version's performance. But it'll be interesting to see for progress purposes.

 

[kyleb]

Sure, I might download the PS3 demo just to see if it runs better, the 360 version gets rather nasty in heavy action. Regardless, even if it could run smooth as butter on my PC I can't say the demo gave me any intrest in buying it.

 

[morlock]

This game is based on UE3 right? Then I have little hope that it will run good on the PS3...

 

[nintenho]

It doesn't say UE3 in the logo screens. It just says Unreal Technology like rainbow 6.

I thought it was really fun but nothing like max payne. first play through it on casual to unlock the hard difficult and another ability to make it a lot more fun. The enemy AI is pretty nonexistent and the game is pretty much just about letting you be a bad ass. it's all about comboing kills and it can get challenging when the whole level is falling apart and a dozen guys are shooting at you. it's nothing like max payne.

 

[RobertR1]

The precision shot stuff was pretty cool. The rest was rather repetitive. The graphics are all over the place. Tons of debris flying around, if that's your thing.

Too many other good games coming out for me to spend money on this. In a slow season, a couple of months back, might have picked it up.

 

[AlexV]

It doesn't say UE3 in the logo screens. It just says Unreal Technology like rainbow 6.

I thought it was really fun but nothing like max payne. first play through it on casual to unlock the hard difficult and another ability to make it a lot more fun. The enemy AI is pretty nonexistent and the game is pretty much just about letting you be a bad ass. it's all about comboing kills and it can get challenging when the whole level is falling apart and a dozen guys are shooting at you. it's nothing like max payne.

Which should show that all of those that theorized that R6 was UE2 simply due to that may have been wrong. Is Gears branded with UE3 anywhere?

 

[groper]

Excellent demo!
I beated it 5 times and i have to say that the gameplay feels much better than Max Pain.
Actually Stranglehold delivers exactly where MP fails: in variety.
MP's gameplay was always ending up to be a one trick pony.
In Stranglehold , the more times i play the demo and become familiar with controls and gameplay mechanics, the more creative and stylish i can get with the ways i choose to kill the enemies.
Also their "massive desctruction" engine is really MASSIVE. Definitely the next benchmark for fps/tps physics. It makes the gunfights alot more intensive and believable than those of MP.
For me after playing this demo its a must buy.

 

[Cheezdoodles]

im curious about how the multiplayer is going to be. apparently you can do all moves that you can in single player in multi

 

[scooby_dooby]

Fairly dissapointing demo for me.

All I could think was "For $30 million budget these are the quality of cut-scenes your producing!?"

The gameplay was...ok.

It felt like it had some really cool concepts, I liked how you could interact with the environment like rails, the precision aim thing was pretty damn cool, and the overall speed and mobility of the character was refreshing. The stand-off feature was really cool, though it did feel like it would get old fairly fast.

Despite those good elements, the enemy AI, and lame gunfights just ruined it. If all the game is is wave after wave of the same braindead enemies, it will be a long repetetive ride.

I'll probably rent this someday, but no purchase based on the demo.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Fairly dissapointing demo for me.

All I could think was "For $30 million budget these are the quality of cut-scenes your producing!?"

The gameplay was...ok.

It felt like it had some really cool concepts, I liked how you could interact with the environment like rails, the precision aim thing was pretty damn cool, and the overall speed and mobility of the character was refreshing. The stand-off feature was really cool, though it did feel like it would get old fairly fast.

Despite those good elements, the enemy AI, and lame gunfights just ruined it. If all the game is is wave after wave of the same braindead enemies, it will be a long repetetive ride.

I'll probably rent this someday, but no purchase based on the demo.

hordes of braindead gun fodder is what Hard Boiled was all about. Maybe that doesn't make a great game though.

 

[Lost Perfection]

Played the demo and it really wasn't anything spectacular. I got my fix just with the demo. No need to rent or buy the game.

 

[iceberg187]

Cool demo