June 27, 2007 - John Woo is known for his stylized films that turn gunplay into a beautiful dance. Well, if John Woo' s classic Hard Boiled is a ballet of bullets, then Stranglehold is a mosh pit of murder. In other words, Stranglehold takes the slick style of Woo and turns the knob to 11. This game is absolutely nuts. I can say that with confidence, having just played through three lengthy levels of the upcoming action shooter.

As Detective Tequila (played by Chow Yun-Fat), you are on your own against the gangs of Hong Kong. Just like yours truly, Tequila works best alone (and with an assault rifle). The story plays out as if it were from a John Woo movie that never made it to the Silver Screen. The action plays like Max Payne after a visit from Victor Conte. The violence is non-stop, with nary a moment to catch your breath. With pistols in hand, you will blaze a path of violence through hundreds of enemies, while laying waste to just about every object in the environment.

Stranglehold has a very simple control scheme. All you really need to worry about is shooting and using the context-sensitive action button. When it comes to firing, you will never, ever have to worry about reloading. As long as you have bullets, you will be able to keep firing (this is the one aspect of Stranglehold that' s aimed at realism). As for the all-important action trigger, this is what you' ll use to interact with the environment. If you' re near a glowing object (such as a rail, a dessert tray, or chandelier), hitting the button lets you use climb aboard for added style points. You' ll slide down rails or hop belly first on a dessert tray to deal a sugary death to your enemies. If there' s no object around, Tequila will leap in whichever direction you press and instantly go into bullet time. You can always rely on the contextual trigger to do something cool. One of my favorites is pressing it while running at a wall next to a door. Tequila plants his feet on the wall and leaps backwards. Why do this? I dunno, it just looks cool.