Legendary Director John Woo revolutionised action film-making with the 1992 blockbuster Hard Boiled, which featured Chow Yun-Fat as Inspector Tequila. Everyone’s favourite Chinese gun wielding action hero, Chow Yun-Fat is back in John Woo presents: Stranglehold. A cop is murdered in Hong Kong and one hard boiled cop investigates, during this time Inspector Tequila’s ex-girlfriend and daughter have been kidnapped and are caught-up in the middle of a crime war between two major rival clans in Hong Kong. Inspector Tequila must go beyond the boundaries of law and order to try to bring his family to safety in which there are certainly some very satisfying gun battles and massive explosions along the way.

Gameplay:

Stranglehold plays exactly like what you would envision a typical run and gun shooter to play like, which is of course lots of guns, ammo, health packs and more importantly tons of bad guys to fill with lead. While this is indeed how the majority of the game is played, there are other and more inventive ways to dispose of your foes; and that is to make good use of the environment and the objects within. Destructible environments are always a nice touch, even more so when they’re executed as well as they are in Stranglehold. Not only do these destructible and interactive items assist the player in killing, such as stair rails and carts – which if timed correctly can work very well. Especially as you slide down a rail shooting at marked objects which in-turn collapse and usually strike your enemies and by the time you slide down to the bottom of the rail you may find a wheelie-cart which if you time just right you can then leap onto this and continue to wheel around the area taking out bad guys all in one swift movement. It is kills like these that reward you with increased style points - which can then be used at the main menu in the Unlock Shop for unlocking extra items. Other interactive objects for quicker movement around the area include Zip lines and Chandeliers, which are useful for getting to areas quicker whilst maintaining that sophisticated cool Tequila is renowned for. You’re also rewarded with more style points if you can kill any enemies while interacting with these items. The pace of Stranglehold is generally very fast as you are essentially just running around the level shooting anything and anyone in your way. There are a few head-scratching moments which you will stumble into as you may need to shoot at some items like poles or explosive items, which when damaged may create a path for you to continue further. While these generally slow the pace down, especially if you don’t spot them straight away; at least they do however give you a few moments to just wander around and dry off those sweaty palms from those previous and intense gun battles. I however found them more of an annoyance; luckily these scenarios are few and far between. Stranglehold’s gameplay overall is just best described as extremely satisfying, especially with the use of Tequila time and the special moves. There’s nothing better than seeing a building full of enemies not so far away and using one of Tequila’s special move’s to scope in with your equipped weapon and aim for some explosive object which when shot blows the building to bits, in a nice way, at least for Inspector Tequila. The only thing more humorous than this may be shooting an enemy in his privates, which you hear the painful groan and see the grab of the groin as he collapses. It’s sometimes difficult not to feel sorry for a video game character at times… While it’s true that 99.9% of Stranglehold is all done on foot with your two trigger-happy friends, there is at least one occasion where you get to ride in a helicopter, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter style. This enables you to gun-down your enemies whilst aiming for explosive objects. You also have the benefit of still being able to use Tequila time to slow things down a bit to make sure you kill that last bad guy or blow-up that last building.

Graphics:

Stranglehold is one of those games where the cut-scenes look so much alike to the actual in-game action, which is certainly pleasing and the only game that I recall recently to have pulled that off is Gears of War. Stranglehold does this so well, and more importantly with legendary film-maker John Woo involved, you know you’re going to get some impressive and over the top movie like cut-scenes. Stranglehold delivers the exhilarating gameplay and in-game visuals to compliment the impressive cut-scenes. Some of the areas in the game however do look rather bland, but for the most part the game’s visuals are up there with the best that the gaming world has to offer. A couple of the later levels even feature some excellent water effects with night-time settings; which dramatically alters the tone and certainly brings a much needed break from the typical environments. This just helps to make things appear different as of course repetitiveness is bound to be apparent in a game such as this. I certainly think it’s found the right balance between fun gameplay, interesting locales and the general tone of a level.

Sound:

I was never keen on the voice-acting in the Hard Boiled movie, still it beats reading subtitles. Stranglehold is not quite that bad but I wasn’t completely sold on the voice-acting in the game. Most of it is convincing, but it’s actually Chow Yun-Fat as Inspector Tequila that raises a few eye brows here and there as it sounds like he’s literally reading it off the script instead of actually acting it out more convincingly. However, I found the bosses in the game and even more so the clan leaders to be more convincing than the hard boiled action hero himself. One thing that can’t be knocked is the games sound effects. Of course these have to be of a high calibre with distinctive sounds for all that shooting, as well as the convincing sounds from smashing plant pots to the crumbling bones of a T-Rex; not to mention the insane amounts of explosions throughout the game.

Longevity:

The single-player campaign is not particularly lengthy by any means. It is however one hell of a roller-coaster adrenaline fuelled ride full of insane amounts of gun battles and explosions. This also gives a good excuse to replay the campaign on harder difficulties to unlock achievements and earn style points. As previously mentioned these style points can then be used at the Unlock Shop, which is where you’ll meet John Woo who has a selection of goods on offer for you to purchase using your acquired style points. These points can then be spent on things such as Art, Video footage and Multiplayer skins – the latter of which can then be used in your intense online gun battles over Xbox Live.

Overall:

It’s hard not to like Stranglehold, as anyone who has played and liked the Max Payne games will certainly thoroughly enjoy the action experience extravaganza that is Stranglehold. The multiplayer side of the game may add some considerable replay value, although the game’s multiplayer modes are only playable over Xbox Live and are sadly not playable over split screen or system link. A single-player demo is available on the Xbox Live Marketplace for download, and this in its self offers considerable replay value.