It’s hard not to see why the kinetic, gun-based ballet – though beaten to the punch in game form several years earlier by the Woo-influenced Max Payne series – is still an intoxicating and brilliantly implemented form of play. It’s another one of those games that didn’t seem to get much love upon release, but has plenty of fans even now. It’s a hugely compelling translation of the Hong Kong cinema tropes favoured by Woo. It feels great and the almost superhuman abilities of Yun-Fat’s character are brilliantly handled in interactive form, with some scenes slowing down even further during standoffs, adopting a more cinematic view than the standard third person angle and seeing you dodge bullets as you take out bad guys from a fixed position. Your character – Inspector Tequila, portrayed, as mentioned, by Chow Yun-Fat – is a joy to control, sliding over surfaces, running up and down banisters and diving through the air in homage to the balletic shootouts often seen in Woo’s movies. The plot is secondary to the chaotic but carefully choreographed action and each area you enter on your journey through the game is filled with destructible objects and scenery, with a satisfying physics engine lending a properly tangible feel to each environment.
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It doesn’t hurt that Stranglehold leans heavily on Woo’s trademark style either – shots of doves, plenty of dual-wielding, slow motion and scenery destroying gunfights.
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That said, there were a number of genius moves involved here the masterstroke was to enlist Chow Yun-Fat, star of Woo’s biggest Hong Kong movies, to star in the game – a sequel to Hard Boiled, arguably Woo’s finest hour as an action movie director (The Killer probably being in competition for that honour too).
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So, despite a reputation as a superb action director at least in his early career, by the time the Midway Games title Stranglehold – which Woo was heavily involved in, and is credited as a producer of – was released, Woo’s name wasn’t the guaranteed seal of quality it once was.