Loose cannon Hong-Kong style…
In Stranglehold the player takes control of a Chinese cop named Tequila. During the course of the game –amidst firing a few thousand rounds of 9mm ammunition- he will find out about the officer’s past, as well as get involved in solving an organized crime plot, defeat the crime boss and of course get out alive without a scratch in a typical action movie way. Right from the start the game manages to raise a few eyebrows. Here we are in Hong Kong, playing an Asian police officer named after a strong Mexican drink. Riiight… It doesn’t make much sense except for film goers that have watched mr Woo’s Hard Boiled movie. In fact, the hardest difficulty setting in Stranglehold is named ‘Hard Bioled’, paying tribute to the film. Nevertheless solid background stories were not the main selling point of action games so as Tequila’s colleagues say across the Atlantic ‘Move along folks, nothing to see here’.
Mr Woo knows quality graphics.
As expected, having a well known film producer in charge of a game project will get great results in the visual sector. Stranglehold’s graphics are vibrant although over-polished at times but they do tend to draw the player within the game’s atmosphere. Whether it’s a shady coastal town, or a derelict neighborhood in Hong Kong, you will tell the difference. Explosions are quite standard when they occur either by the use of grenades or ricocheting bullets on highly flammable barrels. Furthermore, muzzle flashes are well done although somewhat typical by today’s standards. Keeping up with the recent trend of over-polished high quality graphics, Stranglehold manages to transfer a well done visual experience to the player. Members of the underworld do spin, fly and perform all sorts of acrobatics after having a close encounter with 9 grams of lead although somewhat over-done. To be honest once shot enemies tend to over-react similar to a martial arts action movie of the 80’s, a well made feature technically but after you’ve seen your foes perform a few dozen pirouettes it gets rather humorous. As for the main character Tequila or in other words Chow Yun Fat, it’s an accurate on-screen representation. It is evident that throughout the game there has been as much attention as possible to the game’s characters as well as ‘usual’ villains. To summarize it’s a rather impressive achievement by a newcoming developer.
Gunshots, screams and explosions…
As you might have guessed, Stranglehold’s sound suite is all about urban combat. Constant gunfire, ricochets and screams of agonizing pain are heard all over the game’s levels. As expected, there are different effects for each corresponding weapon so you will be able to distinguish what is the chosen instrument of mayhem that your adversaries have chosen. Simply put, a pistol does sound differently than an SMG or a machine gun. The game’s narrated cutscenes distinguish themselves for the believable and crispy character dialogues while in-game music is up to the task with its tempo alternating according to what’s happening on-screen, although repetitive after a while.
So far so good, do we have a game on our hands?
Sadly the answer is negative. Although Stranglehold manages to captivate for its technical aspect, it’s the title’s gameplay portion that manages to fall flat on its back as a Hollywood stuntman thrown out of a 3rd floor window. Those familiar with Max Payne will unequivocally identify Stranglehold as plausible Max Payne sequel. In both games the player takes charge of a cop that’s after big crime bosses that have mistreated his family, camera angles are similar and there’s even the ‘slow time a la Matrix’ function. Besides that, your foes will sometimes appear out of nowhere and most of the times behind your back. The spawning points are evident to the trained eye as well as the clever ‘technique’ to distract the player in order to get mobbed by more than four enemies at a time. Furthermore, there are clear and scripted ‘boxes of villains’ which in conjunction with Stranglehold’s confined spaces leave much to be desired with respect to gameplay.
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John Woo Presesnts Stranglehold 
