Game Review: 'Stranglehold'
John Woo's shoot 'em up filmmaking style, faithfully recreated as a video game.
— -- A tough-as-nails cop, a damsel in distress, a whole lot of bullets and a convoluted story line. Sounds like a John Woo movie.
But "Stranglehold" isn't a movie — it's a frenzied action game from Midway and Woo, an acclaimed action movie director. Like many of Woo's films, the story has more holes than the walls of a Chinese tea house.
Despite a feeling of "been there, done that," which increasingly accompanies the game's levels as you progress, "Stranglehold" throws enemies at you by the dozen, and, thus, manages to keep moving at a fast enough pace that you won't get bored, despite the repetition.
And in typical Woo fashion, there are multitudes of flashy ways to dispatch your foes, all while interacting with and destroying much of the in-game environments. In particular, a tap on the correct button initiates "Tequila Time," slowing down time, and giving the player an advantage over his many foes.
Fans are also treated to some top notch voice acting from Chow Yun Fat, who reprises his role as "Tequila" Yuen, a cop who shoots first and doesn't bother with the "questions" part. Even Woo shows up in the game.
What "Stranglehold" is missing in story, it makes up for in body count and relentless destruction, creating a "bullet ballet" worthy of Woo's name.
Taking the lead character, Tequila, from Woo's 1992 action drama, "Hard Boiled," "Stranglehold" is a kind of spiritual successor to the film. It tells the tale of a Hong Kong cop who takes on the crime boss who's kidnapped his family and killed a cop.
The story is a little hard to follow, as Tequila shoots his way through hordes of bad guys in markets and museums, seeking revenge and a chance to save his loved ones.
In between the game's many gun battles, cut scenes attempt to keep the story together, and fail. But this game is all about the play, and on that, it delivers in spades.
Whether squeezing off rounds from Tequila's signature double pistols while running up the spine of a brontosaurus in a natural history museum, or dodging enemy bullets while rolling across a restaurant's dining room on a dessert cart, the action is faithful to the intense action Woo made famous.
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