by Jwan Jordan
March 27th, 2008 -
Run down ghettos of Hong Kong, poverty stricken societies, dozens of powerful Yakuza-like gangs, rampant police violence, and only one man to stand tall from the ashes of chaos. Meet inspector Tequila in John Woo's Stranglehold!
Created as a sequel to the cult classic John Woo film Hard Boiled, you play as inspector Tequila as he not only attempts to avenge his downed comrade, but also save his wife and daughter from the hands of the malicious Triads. Damn those Triads and their misbegotten ways, but all is not lost, because Tequila is on the job.
As inspector Tequila, you have all the abilities invested in you by a John Woo film, which will heavily aid you in the non-stop barrage of bullets that will undoubtedly cloud your immediate area. Stranglehold plays out as a third person shooter, similar to the original Xbox title, Max Payne. Ironically enough, Max Payne was created with very strong homage to John Woo films, so it's a bit of a flirtatious paradox. Though the game takes place after the Hard Boiled film, Tequila hasn't aged a bit and possesses the speed and agility that comes with the given genre. In a fashion that would make Jackie Chan tip his hat, officer Tequila uses the entire environment as his playground. At the press of a button you can slide down rails, hop onto rolling carts, dive over counters and back flip off walls with metal slugs breaking through the air. In true artistic Woo fashion you can also target key points in the area, causing the environment to respond accordingly. Shoot a barrel near a Triad and of course it explodes, flinging his lifeless, rag doll physics corpse into the sky. Should you see a weak pillar holding a cache of rocks over someone's head, give it a timely shot and watch the rolling stones cascade downward and crush your enemies as their screams echo from the crevices of death. Developer Midway certainly did an excellent job with how well Tequila's world can be interacted with and you're rarely void of options while in a shoot out. You're awarded for your Woo-esque moves with stars which prove your being as stylish as possible while you dispense justice.
Your 'bullet time effect' like reflex is conveniently renamed Tequila time, and unless you're a hardcore alcoholic you should know I'm referring to inspector Tequila's slow-motion effect. There are several ways to initiate Tequila time. You can manually start it at anytime, but it is void of any frequent purpose aside from giving you time to aim. Tequila time is also initiated automatically by leaping onto moving objects, such as wheeled carts, grinding rails, and chandeliers. In these aforementioned circumstances, you have time to not only aim steadily but rack up a lot of style points in the process and destructible objects are highlighted for your convenience.
Aside from the coined slow-mo effect, Tequila has several other unique abilities. As you perform well, you're awarded with stamina that can be used to heal yourself, perform a special zoom in shot, or go into a form of berserk mode. The zoom in feature is a nice quirk that grows weary after a while and lacks any true use aside from brief entertainment. Regardless, the zoom in feature allows you to zoom in on a target and hit a specific area of your enemy's body, causing the targeted person to respond accordingly when hit. The Tequila bomb technique allows officer Tequila to go into an invincible rage as he fires a temporarily infinite barrage of bullets, complete with doves majestically fluttering to the heavens as you transport the Triads to hell.
For more information please visit Midway.com