Post by Gilvan Blight on Mar 18, 2008 11:50:39 GMT -5
Quickly: Great concept, great story, really like playing an action movie. Way too short!
[glow=Blue,2,300]Summary:[/glow]In this game you play part two of the Hong Kong Action Movie Hard Boiled. You take on the role of Chow Yun Fat as Inspector Tequila who yet again is neck keep in Triads, the Russian Mafia, Police Corruption and a hail of bullets. The main plot revolves around Tequila trying to save is Girlfriend and estranged Daughter who are being used as bargaining chips in a Russian Mafia plot to take over some of the Hong Kong drug trade. In the typical Hong Kong Style, he dies, she dies, everybody dies, in the midst of a ton of action, even more melodrama ending with an almost happy scene.
The gameplay is basically a 3rd person shooter with a lot of flash thrown in. Similar to the engine in the matrix games, the player can enter Tequila time and slow down time for precisions aiming and added style. In addition to the Tequila time as the game progresses you unlock signature John Woo moves. The first is just a quick heal. The next is a precision aiming system that stops time and allows pin point accuracy at incredible ranges (with an equally satisfying 'death' graphic at the end). Next is the Barrage move, in which your weapon gets unlimited ammo, shoots twice as fast and does twice as much damage. This is perfect for clearing out cover in the destructible environment. The last is the spin move. You get classic John Woo doves flying as Chow spins and takes out all enemies around him.
In order to do these signature moves you need to kill enemies with style. The best way to do this is to interact with the environment and to kill people while diving. Diving is as simple as pushing one button and you automatically enter Tequila time if you have someone in your sights. The interacting with objects part is pretty amazing as almost everything in the environment is destructible or can be interacted with. This means ridding on food cards, running up railings, sliding down zip lines, sliding over tables, swinging from chandeliers all with just the touch of the action button. You can also use the environment to do your work for you, from shooting the usual exploding barrels to shooting neon signs off of buildings in order to crush enemies below.
The game has 4 difficulty levels and online deathmatch style multiplayer adding some re-play value after the main story is complete. Also you are ranked on each level so there is some incentive to go back and play through again to improve your score. Due to the interactive environments sometimes its worth re-doing a level just to find other ways to kill people. There is a bit of puzzle work in a few of the levels but 99.9% of the game just involves running and gunning and using the environment to your best advantage.
[glow=green,2,300]The Good:[/glow]The graphics are pretty top notch, The main character really does look act and sound like Chow Yun Phat. The other characters are also faithfully re-created. The plot is awesome as far as Hong Kong action-ness. It really made me want to run another Feng Shui campaign. The environments chosen for each level were awesome, from shooting it up in a Hong Kong Marketplace, to blasting away the Chicago History Museum the environments were amazing. The whole style and feel of the game was just cool. Pulling off amazing moves with just simple button presses was even cooler. There are a cool set of unlockables you can purchase that include skins for multiplayer and lots of pre-production videos and stills.
[glow=yellow,2,300]The Bad:[/glow]The difficulty on this one is up there. I had to switch from normal to casual on the second level and I don't think I would ever have a chance of beating this on Hard Boiled difficulty. This meant for some 'controller throwing' moments even on the easiest difficulty. A hardcore gamer may find this an asset, I didn't.
[glow=red,2,300]The Ugly:[/glow]The gamebreaker: way way too short. I finished the entire game within two sittings. I didn't time myself, but I would guess well under 4 hours total. That is way too short for a modern game. This fact alone means this probably isn't worth full price. The multiplayer should add some re-play value but I don't seem to be the only one that thinks if I'm going to play an online deathmatch I'll play Halo 3, because I couldn't even find 4 players to have a player match with (even with waiting 20 minutes to find a game). I didn't try the ranked matches, maybe there are people in playing those, but still, it shouldn't take more then a couple minutes to be playing online and find a team to play with. The added difficulties do mean I will probably go back even if just to earn a few gamerpoints, but I probably won't play through the entire game again, not when there are other games out there to try and beat.
[glow=purple,2,300]Overall:[/glow]An amazing video game version of an Hong Kong Action Movie. You really feel like you are in the movie and will be doing amazing John Woo moments with only a few simple button presses. It's not an easy game though, and can be frustrating at times. The biggest problem though is the length. Due to how short this game is I can't see it as anything better then a rental. Maybe if there were more people online playing the multiplayer, it may be worth it. If you can find this used cheap enough, it's a fun well done diversion you may go back to now and then to re-try a level or two, but other then that stick to a rental. On the positive note, this is a MUST rent for action movie fans and action gaming fans, it's well worth seeing the 4 or so hours of story.
[glow=Blue,2,300]Summary:[/glow]In this game you play part two of the Hong Kong Action Movie Hard Boiled. You take on the role of Chow Yun Fat as Inspector Tequila who yet again is neck keep in Triads, the Russian Mafia, Police Corruption and a hail of bullets. The main plot revolves around Tequila trying to save is Girlfriend and estranged Daughter who are being used as bargaining chips in a Russian Mafia plot to take over some of the Hong Kong drug trade. In the typical Hong Kong Style, he dies, she dies, everybody dies, in the midst of a ton of action, even more melodrama ending with an almost happy scene.
The gameplay is basically a 3rd person shooter with a lot of flash thrown in. Similar to the engine in the matrix games, the player can enter Tequila time and slow down time for precisions aiming and added style. In addition to the Tequila time as the game progresses you unlock signature John Woo moves. The first is just a quick heal. The next is a precision aiming system that stops time and allows pin point accuracy at incredible ranges (with an equally satisfying 'death' graphic at the end). Next is the Barrage move, in which your weapon gets unlimited ammo, shoots twice as fast and does twice as much damage. This is perfect for clearing out cover in the destructible environment. The last is the spin move. You get classic John Woo doves flying as Chow spins and takes out all enemies around him.
In order to do these signature moves you need to kill enemies with style. The best way to do this is to interact with the environment and to kill people while diving. Diving is as simple as pushing one button and you automatically enter Tequila time if you have someone in your sights. The interacting with objects part is pretty amazing as almost everything in the environment is destructible or can be interacted with. This means ridding on food cards, running up railings, sliding down zip lines, sliding over tables, swinging from chandeliers all with just the touch of the action button. You can also use the environment to do your work for you, from shooting the usual exploding barrels to shooting neon signs off of buildings in order to crush enemies below.
The game has 4 difficulty levels and online deathmatch style multiplayer adding some re-play value after the main story is complete. Also you are ranked on each level so there is some incentive to go back and play through again to improve your score. Due to the interactive environments sometimes its worth re-doing a level just to find other ways to kill people. There is a bit of puzzle work in a few of the levels but 99.9% of the game just involves running and gunning and using the environment to your best advantage.
[glow=green,2,300]The Good:[/glow]The graphics are pretty top notch, The main character really does look act and sound like Chow Yun Phat. The other characters are also faithfully re-created. The plot is awesome as far as Hong Kong action-ness. It really made me want to run another Feng Shui campaign. The environments chosen for each level were awesome, from shooting it up in a Hong Kong Marketplace, to blasting away the Chicago History Museum the environments were amazing. The whole style and feel of the game was just cool. Pulling off amazing moves with just simple button presses was even cooler. There are a cool set of unlockables you can purchase that include skins for multiplayer and lots of pre-production videos and stills.
[glow=yellow,2,300]The Bad:[/glow]The difficulty on this one is up there. I had to switch from normal to casual on the second level and I don't think I would ever have a chance of beating this on Hard Boiled difficulty. This meant for some 'controller throwing' moments even on the easiest difficulty. A hardcore gamer may find this an asset, I didn't.
[glow=red,2,300]The Ugly:[/glow]The gamebreaker: way way too short. I finished the entire game within two sittings. I didn't time myself, but I would guess well under 4 hours total. That is way too short for a modern game. This fact alone means this probably isn't worth full price. The multiplayer should add some re-play value but I don't seem to be the only one that thinks if I'm going to play an online deathmatch I'll play Halo 3, because I couldn't even find 4 players to have a player match with (even with waiting 20 minutes to find a game). I didn't try the ranked matches, maybe there are people in playing those, but still, it shouldn't take more then a couple minutes to be playing online and find a team to play with. The added difficulties do mean I will probably go back even if just to earn a few gamerpoints, but I probably won't play through the entire game again, not when there are other games out there to try and beat.
[glow=purple,2,300]Overall:[/glow]An amazing video game version of an Hong Kong Action Movie. You really feel like you are in the movie and will be doing amazing John Woo moments with only a few simple button presses. It's not an easy game though, and can be frustrating at times. The biggest problem though is the length. Due to how short this game is I can't see it as anything better then a rental. Maybe if there were more people online playing the multiplayer, it may be worth it. If you can find this used cheap enough, it's a fun well done diversion you may go back to now and then to re-try a level or two, but other then that stick to a rental. On the positive note, this is a MUST rent for action movie fans and action gaming fans, it's well worth seeing the 4 or so hours of story.