Stranglehold puts you in control of Chow Yun-Fat's tough-as-nails Inspector "Tequila" Yuen as he attempts to fight crime on two fronts. In Hong Kong, his partner on the force is murdered, and in Chicago, two young ladies are abducted; there's a connection there, but it's unclear in the beginning. Tequila must break out every weapon necessary and take out Triad hitmen and tough Chicago mobsters to get to the bottom of it all.
If there's one thing that's impressed us most about Stranglehold from the beginning, it's the way that the presentation feels like you're popping in a DVD. Once you get past the Midway and Tiger Hill screens and just get to the game, the game's start menu feels like a DVD menu. Trust us, you'll see what we mean should you pick up the final product. Even the mission selections feel like scene selections. While Reservoir Dogs tried the same thing, it failed on a myriad of levels, including, but not limited to, the lack of good actor likenesses. Stranglehold takes that home theater ambition and cranks it up. It also doesn't hurt that the PS3 limited collector's edition will take advantage of the BD storage space to include a remastered Blu-ray version of "Hard Boiled," which is currently out of print on DVD.
In the first level, which breaks down gameplay fundamentals, you'll learn about Tequila Time and gunplay. While we think that the first level is much too big for a demo, we'd like to see portions of it be broken down and playable should Midway release something over PC, Xbox Live or PSN. You'll head down the mean streets of Hong Kong in search of the Golden Rabbit bar, where you're trying to find clues to your partner's death. Along the way, you'll discover that Tequila Time, naturally similar to Max Payne's Bullet Time, not only lets you slow down to shoot enemies, it also gives you time to look around, find environmental hazards (usually they're very shiny and you can't miss them), and use them to not only conserve bullets, but gain more points for stylish kills.
