Positive: Cinematic, over-the-top action, wonderful environment destructibility, solid voice acting, and great sound effects.

Negative: Single-player portion of the game is very short, multiplayer is very much tacked on, and fairly repetitive game play.

At first glance, John Woo Presents Stranglehold may be ignored by the average game player as a Max Payne rip-off. Stranglehold is definitely not a Max Payne rip-off, but it does borrow some elements from the iconic game, all while adding its own original ideas. Fans of Hard Boiled will appreciate John Woo working with Chow Yun-Fat again, even if it is only virtually.

 The virtual Chow Yun-Fat looks and sounds just right. 

Nearly every part of the environment is interactive. Tequila can slide over tables, counters, run down (and up) rails, jump in a shopping cart and even crazier interactions such as running up a T-Rex in a museum. However, the scenery isn’t just there to slide your buttocks over. For example: killing enemies while sliding down rails will earn Tequila style points which allow him to use one of his four abilities that can be triggered by the d-pad. Tequila’s first ability allows him to restore a portion of his health. The second ability Tequila acquires is called “Precision Aim” and allows you to zoom in on an enemy, and shoot him with one bullet which will usually result in an instant kill. And yes, you can shoot an enemy in the crotch; there are specific animations for it. The third ability is called “Barrage” and makes Tequila invincible for a brief period of time, while increasing the power of his bullets, and giving him an infinite amount of them. Tequila’s last ability is called “Spin Attack” and kills all enemies on screen while doves fly away. After all, this is a John Woo production. Spin Attack isn’t fun to use, but on a higher difficulty it becomes fairly useful.

Stranglehold is clearly a spiritual successor to John Woo’s cult-classic action flick Hard Boiled, and while it occurs more than a few years after the film, inspector Tequila –with Chow Yun-Fat’s likeness and voice– hasn’t changed a bit. He’s still a cop on Hong Kong’s police force, and often “crosses the yellow tape” The basis of the story is the death of a Hong Kong police officer caused by gang members, and the kidnapping of Tequila’s ex-girlfriend, as well as his daughter. While the story and its many plot twists may not be anything special, it’s still good enough motivation for the player to play the game.
Tequila will face many, many enemies in Stranglehold, but he does have some unique abilities to aid him in his quest for his family. The most useful as well as the most used of these abilities is “Tequila Time” which is essentially bullet-time from Max Payne, but with a new name. Entering Tequila Time will slow the world down, but Tequila will still aim in real time. When you pull of a dive or environmental interaction with your cross-hair near an enemy, Tequila Time will be turned on automatically which is where Stranglehold’s bullet-time differs from other games. Also, a button exists which lets the player enter Tequila Time manually, but this feature is rarely used throughout the game.