If an enemy is standing underneath a neon sign, shoot it and watch the sucker get crushed. Pieces of the environment can also be shot or otherwise destroyed for both fun and efficiency.
See a little wheel cart sitting around? You can jump onto it and roll around the area, blasting everyone silly. If there's a rail nearby, you can run up or slide down it. If you run up to a wall, you can dash up it and dive even further than usual. If you run up to a table, you can choose to slide right over it, or kick it over and use it as a temporary cover point. Tequila can interact with practically every piece of scenery in a level. That's not the only ability he's got, either. There is also a specific button that puts you into bullet-time completely separate from the shoot dodging, though it's rare when you ever need to use it. The one trick is that you won't ever go into bullet-time automatically as a result of diving around, unless you specifically have an enemy in your targeting reticle sights. Though the game refers to it as "Tequila Time," this is really just the bullet-time mechanic from Max Payne given a fancy makeover. Fortunately, they don't have the ability to jump and dive around in bullet time like our man Tequila. Enemies come flying out of every nook and cranny of each stage, and always with guns blazing. This game's body count is pretty staggering for a game that runs only about six or seven hours. You will shoot a lot of people in Stranglehold. Nevertheless, the plot serves as an OK-enough motivation to get Tequila back in action and shooting people in the face-and really, that's pretty much all you need. It lacks the gritty feel of the original flick, and a lot of the film's cool factor to boot. It's a decent crime tale that's certainly better than much of John Woo's American work (though exactly how involved Woo was in this game's production is debatable), but there is still something about the whole story that feels very Hollywood. Somewhere in there, Tequila's former girlfriend and daughter both end up being held hostage by one of the gangs. What follows is a sometimes confusing and ham-fisted story of gangs double- and triple-crossing one another. He's still a rogue cop on the Hong Kong police force, and when a member of the force turns up dead, evidently offed by one of HK's major gangs, Tequila steps up to deal with the situation. Stranglehold takes place many years after Hard Boiled, though Yun-Fat's Inspector Tequila doesn't seem to have lost a step.
It seems sort of criminal that Midway didn't license that Champs song to play every time you go into 'Tequila Time'. It's an interesting piece of work that's more fun than it isn't, and fans of Hard Boiled ought to especially enjoy watching Chow Yun-Fat reprise his role as Inspector Tequila. Stranglehold effectively takes the elements that made Max Payne fun and uses them to its own advantage, while sprinkling in a number of original touches and gimmicks that give the game its own Hong Kong cinema flavor. Regardless, if you're going to make a game based on a badass cop dodging, diving, and shooting all over the place in slow-motion, there are certainly worse places to look for inspiration. Midway and John Woo's video game sequel to the director's classic Hong Kong action flick Hard Boiled borrows very liberally from the mechanics of Remedy's slow-motion, heavy-action franchise, which is a little ironic and mind-bending because Max Payne was itself a tribute to John Woo's brand of cinematic action. That's because, in a sort of round about way, it is. Let us know your thoughts.It would be very easy for the average person to take one look at Stranglehold and write it off as a Max Payne rip-off.
We hope it resonates a bit with everyone. And also to our good friend Julian Rodriguez of Good Looks Collective for another friendly write up. Many thanks to Chris Jackson of VJ 4th Wall for the exceptional video editing. The remix begins with U2's iconic song, then morphs into Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" interlude, and concludes with Rage Against The Machine's "Bullet in the Head." The mashup comes together when U2's soaring guitar riffs, recorded anew by the great Peter DiStefano, are layered over top Rage's timeless protest anthem. We feel it accurately depicts the mood of many of us in the US right now. We wanted to capture the essence of the music with the proper imagery, raw and powerful. We finished this track many years ago, but the final video took some time. Proud to finally release our video of "Bullet the Blue Sky (Lance Herbstrong Remix)".