Fans of Hard Boiled will enjoy seeing Chow Yun-Fat reprise his role as Inspector Tequila, a rogue cop on the Hong Kong police force. Stranglehold takes place many years after Hard Boiled, and when a member of the force is murdered by one of Hong Kong's major gangs, Tequila steps up to put a lot of bullets in a lot of people and somewhere in there, Tequila's former girlfriend and daughter both end up being held hostage.

A lot of people get shot in Stranglehold. The body count gets pretty high when enemies come flying out of every nook and cranny of each stage, and always with guns blazing. There's plenty of opportunities to use the bullet time or Tequila Time, as it's called in Stranglehold, and not difficult at all, sometimes being as easy as pushing a button.

Tequila can interact with almost every piece of scenery in a level. For instance, when running up to a table, you can choose to slide right over it, or kick it over and use it as temporary cover until it's blown to bits. When running to a wall, you can dash up it and dive even further than usual. You can run up or slide down a nearby rail. I think you get the idea. Pieces of the environment can also be shot or otherwise destroyed to use to your advantage. If an enemy is standing underneath a neon sign, shoot it and it will fall on him. Exploding barrels are all over the place. Do I even need to say more?

Pulling off stylish moves throughout the game fills up a meter that lets you trigger one of four different "Tequila bombs” which are special abilities that vary from recharging your health, to letting you spin around while still shooting, killing all the enemies surrounding you, all while doves go fluttering off into the sky (You had to know Woo would throw the doves in there.). Another is the accurate-shot ability, which lets you move a targeting reticle in slow motion to any part of an enemy's body, and then watch the bullet fly directly to its target. The next ability is an all-out barrage of invincibility and limitless gunfire that usually lasts long enough to clear the room.

I'm not sure if the last element of game play can be considered an ability or minigame. Periodically, Tequila will enter into a standoff with a group of enemies. These standoffs quickly snap Tequila's focus around from one enemy to the next. Using both analog sticks on the controller, you have to simultaneously dodge enemy gunfire and move a targeting reticle over enemies to take them out one by one. It's a lot easier than it sounds.

By no means is Stranglehold a hard game. The early portions of the game are a bit of a cakewalk at times, even while you're getting used to the different abilities. Around the third level you'll actually have to use those different abilities smartly to survive. Cover points are also helpful, though you'll rarely stay in one place for very long, as the environment around you tends to get destroyed very quickly. The Tequila bombs can be a lifesaver in a few situations, though they also tend to make a few of the boss fights overly easy. Turning the game up to the hard difficulty level fixes that some, but not by much.

In addition the short single-player campaign, there are some bonuses to buy through an extras shop. John Woo himself sits behind the counter to peddle his wares. The multi-player mode isn't that interesting and feels like it was just thrown in. You can only engage in standard deathmatches or team deathmatches with up to six players. The multiplayer is similar to the single-player game, just not as good. Maps are a bit shorter, and though you can use Tequila Time in multiplayer, its scattered execution in this mode makes it all but worthless. You can't go into slo-mo unless you and your opponents all have a full Tequila time meter. It almost becomes pointless because by the time the meter is full, you could have already taken out your opponents.

Stranglehold is a decent game with a few shortcomings. The destructible environment is visually amazing. On the downside, character models are not especially detailed and the animations are lacking. The game does run smoothly aside from the occasionally hiccup from the camera trying to keep pace with the fast action.

Stranglehold won't revolutionize the shooter genre. It's more of a re-vamp of an idea that already exists but it's tweaked enough to succeed. It can get repetitive but there's enough exciting action here to keep shooter fans interested. It's a short trip but the journey is fun and amusing on whatever system you play it on.