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Those of you out there who know and love action movies, will have no doubt heard of Mister John Woo. Back in 1992 he blasted into mainstream cinema with an explosive masterpiece called Hard Boiled. Starring Chow Yun-Fat (the dude outta Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) as Inspector ?Tequila? Yeun. The film included some of the best action pieces shot out of Hollywood and featured lots of doves and slow-mo diving and shooting that was replicated in both the awesome Max Payne games.

John Woo presents Stranglehold has Woo and Fat re-united for the first time since Hard Boiled. In fact this game is cited as ?the spiritual successor to Hard Boiled? as Fat reprises his role as Inspector Tequila in this third person action game. To be fair the story is a little on the predictable side. Triads murder undercover cop, and only one person can avenge his death, and to make it more personal, his family get kidnapped too?nice!

This is one intense video game, and is one of the most enjoyable games of the genre to hit the xbox 360

This is one intense video game, and is one of the most enjoyable games of the genre to hit the xbox 360, if a tad short. The amount of destructible environments is phenomenal, and luckily this forms an integral part of the gameplay. Yep, this is not just about killing bad guys, hell no. This game is all about killing bad guys with bucket loads of style. To help you slay with style you can activate Tequila Time, which puts everything into slow-mo for a limited period so you can dive around in a kind of killing ballet.

You also get what they call Tequila Bombs, which mean you can gain stars for stylish kills and they form a meter, which can be traded in for 4 different special moves, which are mapped to the D-Pad. The first gives you a health injection-handy when you have just used up the last handy first aid kit on the level. Secondly is the precision aim that lets you go into slow mo and zoom in directly to a target and pick which part of the body you want to shoot at-(usually the head of course, or sometimes other parts if you are feeling particularly nasty!). Third you get the most useful which is a Barrage attack which makes you invincible & gives you unlimited bullets, for a limited time (about 20 seconds). Finally we have the spin attack which is handy if bad guys surround you and has John Woo's trademark doves, fly outta yer chosen weapon along with a armoury full of hot lead. Very classy & very cool.

The graphics are proper Hollywood eye candy. Very stylised , and most definitely a John Woo product. The camera does go astray on occasion when enemies get close up, but this is just a minor annoyance. As is the fact that after a bit you do find the gameplay a little bit repetitive. Not enough to stop you playing through till the end.
The major fly in the ointment is the multiplayer- just don't bother with it. I would stick with Gears of War, or Halo 3!

Audio wise this is top draw as the voice acting & one liners from the hapless goons combine with the excellent score to create a believable game environment. If you are a fan of John Woo's cinematic work, then you are in for a treat. Time for a Tequila Slammer I think- Cheers!.