Firstly, forgive the cheap pun, but I couldn t resist. The point of this article is that, as part of my on-going PS3 research, I have discovered that a game that is also being developed for PC and XBox 360 is shaping up to be potentially revolutionary. Stranglehold, for that is the title of the game in question, at first seems like it will be another Max Payne-esque third-person shooter with a gangster theme, but the truth is something a bit more special than that.
That its full title is John Woo presents: Stranglehold should give you more of a clue about what sets this game apart from the rest. The legendary action film-maker is not just lending his name or characters to a game, he is actively shaping its creation. Now, I know that the Wachowski brothers supposedly sat in on development of Enter The Matrix, but the truth is that they probably signed-off on the design brief and made the live-action clips that were scattered throughout the game, in the same way they had basically no input on The Animatrix, as all the shorts were ostensibly made by the animators who they signed up.
Woo is different. Woo is trying to make a sequel to Hard Boiled (possibly the best action film ever made, period) that just happens to be on a games console. The developers have stated in their blog, as quoted on ign.
com, that Woo is taking at least a directorial role over camera angles, whilst also taking a keen interest in how the player becomes Tequila, Chow Yun Fat s character in the earlier film that is reprised here. Fat is here in all his digital glory. I know that attempts to stick an action actor in a game have been made before (from a bitmap version of Arnie in the awful Red Heat game of the late 80s/early 90s, to Pierce Brosnan in Goldeneye , to Jet Li in the PS2 game Rise To Honor ), but the power of the next-gen machines really allows you to be Chow Yun Fat - you can see his expression and, with the input of Woo directing the action, the animations look to be exactly how Chow Yun moves in his films.
You get the obligatory bump-mapping, real-time lighting and the like, but the game doesn t look much better than any decent title on 360 or PS3 in terms of the modelling, etc. No, it is in the characterisation and, for want of a better word, emotional reaction to the game that the difference is. By using a film director who knows how to make the best action movies, you are ensuring that not only will the dialogue be of an acceptable standard, but also that the way in which the plot progresses feels like a movie, as opposed to feeling like a game that tries to be a movie (I am thinking of things like GTA, which wants desperately to be a Goodfellas , or at least an episode of The Sopranos , yet always feels like a game).
This is something that has not really been tried since the ill-fated (thank god) Interactive Movie games of the early to mid 1990s when CD was a new media for PCs and consoles - I am thinking of things like D on the Sega Saturn. Many of these games basically just linked CGI or Full Motion Video clips together in the same way the Quicktime Events in a game like Tomb Raider: Legend or Shenmue work. This lead to dull gameplay that was essentially just a string of either/or choices linked by video clips.
Since that time, the phrase interactive movie has been a bit of a pariah, a euphemism for looks lovely, but plays like crap at best. Stranglehold, however, looks to play pretty well - you shoot, jump, slide on things - everything you want in an action game, after all. The movie part comes in when you look at how the camera moves whilst you shoot, or how the action blends into a pre-rendered clip, for example.
If you are a developer (and I have been, albeit on non-gaming products), your main concern is that the mechanics work - if the camera doesn t clip the scenery and the player can see what is going on, then that s all you worry about. Look at it like this, you can probably point a camera at a person and get a photo of them that doesn t cut their head out of frame - you d still hire a professional photographer to take the pictures at your daughters wedding, wouldn t you? By using Woo s undeniable talent, the camera can be used to dictate the pace of an action sequence, your reaction to events on screen and even push the emotional part of the plot forwards without the use of extraneous dialogue.
Think of the shot in Jaws of Brody sitting in his beach chair when he thinks he sees the shark in the water - that pull-back/zoom-in shot shows not only his concern, but isolates him totally from the surrounding holidaymakers who are unaware of the danger. That s what a good camera move/angle can do and that is what, aside from the plot and the rights to use the characters, Mr. Woo ultimately brings to the table.
I am genuinely excited by this game - it is trying to do something genuinely new (make the line between cinema and gaming all but disappear) and, by choosing a genre that is ideally suited to a games console, there is a real chance of pulling it off. Even if the gameplay is identical to Max Payne, this game will still be better, as it will feel less like an homage to a Hong Kong action film and more like the real deal. Release is currently set at summer 07 , but it has been pushed back from November 06 already, so they are obviously not rushing to meet a release date at the expense of quality.
Hopefully it ll come out for summer and we ll all be shooting gangsters in slow-motion whilst a flock of doves flies past well before autumn.
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