If the only John Woo movies you've seen are Mission Impossible II, Broken Arrow and Face/Off, then you really haven't seen a John Woo film. You've seen John Woo-light, a director hindered by American rules and regulations that prevented him from delivering the style that brought him to America in the first place. If you want to see vintage Woo, when he was firing on all cylinders, unrestrained by nothing but his own imagination, then you need to see his Hong Kong action films, specifically, The Killer, A Better Tomorrow and the action-classic Hard Boiled. What you'll discover is a style of film that has since been stolen and abused by just about every action director around, even including some games like Max Payne. Known for unrestrained gunplay, slow-motion action ballet, flying doves and million of bits of shrapnel covering the screen, John Woo delivered cinematic violence like no other director. Though his career in the states has mercifully come to an end for the foreseeable future, Woo has returned to China and is currently making the most expensive movie in Asian history, Battle of the Red Cliffs, which should hopefully find him returning to glory. In the meantime, we have Stranglehold, an action game Woo personally oversaw, that attempts to deliver the visual style of Hard Boiled.

Stranglehold may have a rough go of it with gamers, especially those unfamiliar with Woo's Hong Kong films. It's a foregone conclusion that a lot of people will mistakenly tag it as a rip-off of Max Payne, when the fact is Max Payne was an admitted homage to Woo. Like Hard Boiled, Stranglehold has all the hallmarks, including wave after wave of nameless thugs who aren't the best shots in the world, cheesy dialog between action scenes, and most importantly, unapologetically over-the-top gunplay, slow-motion, unique camera angles, and an environment built for total destruction. In this regard, Stranglehold is a total success, delivering a virtual Woo-world that relishes in his style. Just as comic artist and writer Frank Miller is enjoying recent film adaptations of his work that remain stylistically faithful to his Sin City and 300 creations, so too does Stranglehold achieve the gaming equivalent of brining an influential director's aesthetic to life. But all this points to a single conclusion: If you love Woo, you'll love Stranglehold. If you have no idea who he is, or do but don't really care, Stranglehold probably won't hold you attention for very long.

Stranglehold is held together by a thin narrative that, like Woo’s movies, serves as a much-needed breather between action scenes, of which there is no shortage of. You reprise Chow Yun-Fat's character Tequila, a Hong Kong cop who plays by his own rules, as he attempts to save his girlfriend and daughter from thugs. Along the way you'll experience copious amounts of double-crosses and triple-crosses, all of which gives you the excuse to slaughter another 200 gun-toting bad-guys with no regard for collateral damage or the cost of bullets. It's all action, all the time. You'll find yourself somersaulting off walls, sliding along counter tops, blasting objects off building facades and watching it slam in to the cranium of an unsuspecting criminal. Amidst all this carnage, everything within the environment that receives the brunt of a bullet will behave accordingly, so expect to see thousands of bits and pieces flying around, concrete pillars that diminish in size thanks to bullet carving and, yes, lots of exploding fruit. Just about every object in each action set has some form of interaction, from sliding down rails to food-cart surfing. These elements aren't just there for eye-candy but instead play in to the hands of the gameplay, as the more style you use in killing thugs then the more special tricks you can perform, from regenerating your health to the classic Woo signature – spinning in a slow-motion circle with guns a'blazing.

I loved every minute of the single-player campaign, though I must confess it has more to do with my total fanboy admiration of John Woo. I suspect that those unfamiliar with Woo may not find much to chew on here. The game does get a little repetitive, though the increase in difficulty in later levels will keep you on your toes. Multiplayer is pretty much a joke that was better left untold. It's hollow, void of much point and has all the signs of something that was added at the last minute so the box could say “Multiplayer”. Graphically, Stranglehold is quite competent, especially considering how much of the environment you're allowed to destroy, though character models are a little weak and animations aren't as smooth as I had hoped for. If you're an action junkie that just wants endless killing in an interactive environment, then you can't go wrong with Stranglehold. If you're looking for something like Bioshock, then you had better stay very far away. Ultimately, I think your enjoyment of this game all comes down to your love of Woo. It's like an amusement park for fans and I'm glad I went on the ride, even though it only lasted about 10 hours.