It's like Max Payne, but better.  Read my review of the video game Stranglehold.

Question: What’s cooler then Chow Yun Fat in John Woo’s Hard Boiled?

Answer: Getting to be Chow Yun Fat in John Woo’s Strangle Hold.

Yes, the sequel to John Woo’s action classic, Hard Boiled, has finally come.  Only this one is in video game form.  As you can probably already tell, the game Strangle Hold is a continuation of the Hard Boiled universe.  You control Hong Kong police office “Tequila,” who bears the video game likeness of Chow Yun Fat, and much like in the movie Hard Boiled, you get control Tequila as he runs around Hong Kong blasting away an unfathomable amount of gun wielding crooks as tequila performs grandiose acrobatic stunts and dives.  All without ever having to reload.

When reviewing the game the word “over the top” comes to mind.  But who cares?  The reason you bought this game is to blow away as many enemies as you can, and this game delivers just that.  The game is non-stop action.  Every corner you turn and ever alleyway you walk down there are more enemies to kill and more things to jump off of to do the killing.

The gameplay of the game is well done.  It’s far from original, but it is well done.  The game basically just takes everything from Max Payne, but then adds some extra stuff on it, such as being able to use the environment to your advantage, I.E. sliding and running down railings, flipping over tables, sliding across countertops, etc.  Just like Max Payne, bullet time (called Tequila Time in this game) plays a major part in being able to progress.  Run into an area filled with attacking enemies, one must be willing and able to utilize the Tequila time button in order to get out alive.  The game also doesn’t have a reload function, which actually works.  Basically every gun just has a bullet count, without ever having to reload it.  This lets you just constantly blast away without ever having to break up the action, which helps keep the game fast past and non-stop.  There are also special attacks you can use in the game called “Tequila Maneuvers” where Tequila does special Hard Boiled inspired maneuvers to take out multiple enemies at once.  As stated before, the gameplay is far from original, but it is a lot of fun.  It’s kind of like Max Payne, John Woo style.

The graphics in the game are decent.  I wouldn’t say they are next gen quality though.  I would more say that the graphics are high end last gen graphics.  Not to say they are bad, but they aren’t great.  The sound is very well done however, and the voice acting is like out of an action movie.

The story is, er, pointless.  I don’t even really know what was going on to be honest with you.  Something about a cop being kidnapped and Tequila going to save him by himself.  But who cares?!  That’s not why you want to play this game anyway.  As far as this game goes, story is just a reason to go into the next room to shoot some more enemies!

So in a short sentence, Stranglehold is a lot of fun.  It’s not original by any stretch of the imagination, it might as well have just been a sequel to Max Payne 2, but it’s still a hell of a lot of fun.

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