Stranglehold
Gripping.
For mash get Hulk Smash
As well as making the game extremely easy to get to grips with, Midway has gone that extra mile to ensure that pretty much smash everything up. And while the 'Massive Destructibility' is mostly there to add an extra touch of incendiary drama to the chaos, some of it's highlighted with a glint of white light to encourage you to send groups of enemies to their doom in the most spectacular fashion possible. For example, anyone stupid enough to stand under a neon sign will find themselves closely acquainted with it were you to shoot it, while all manner of other physics-driven moments of destruction gives the game an extra layer of strategy to the mindless diving run-and-gun antics. It's the gift that keeps on giving.
The environments, too, offer plenty of scope for hilariously over-the-top fun - at least to begin with. If anything glints at you, the chances are you can utilise it as a means of pulling off some kind of improbable stunt if you dive towards it. Trolleys, walls, tables, bannisters and chandeliers happily provide Tequila with some comical opportunity to take down bad guys in a stylish, if improbable manner. And as with the regular dives, the game automagically slows down time, taking the wise assumption that you're going to want to savour every last second of the glorious stunt-ridden action.
Layered on top of all this is the game's combat reward system. Based loosely around the premise of building up style combos, if you can chain kills together in a smug manner, you gain an ever-increasing number of stars until you either run out of things to kill, or fail to chain the moves quick enough. The more stylish you are, the more stars you're awarded, and doing so builds up your Tequila Move ring quicker than usual. Devised to match the orientation of the dpad, you initially gain the ability to administer a bit of emergency health by nudging left on the dpad when required - handy if there are no health packs in the vicinity.
Say hello to my Improbable Super Powers!
Within the first few levels you'll accumulate another three combat-specific specials; the first being Precision Aim, which effectively turns any weapon into a sniper rifle for a few seconds and allows you to take out enemies from distance with pin point accuracy. Not only is this highly effective, but also gives Midway yet another opportunity to follow the trajectory of the bullet right to its destination in a gloriously grisly display of slow-motion death and gore. Later, you gain access to the Barrage attack, which is effectively a chance to run around in (you guessed it) slow motion in the knowledge that you're not only invulnerable to enemy attack, but have unlimited ammo for the duration of the move. And finally, the Spin Attack takes out everyone within the vicinity in super stylish slo-mo - and scares some doves into the bargain. Yes.
But as slick as the game undoubtedly is in terms of visuals and playability, it does blow its wad rather early on for my liking. It's as if Midway worked on the assumption that most people don't bother completing games (and let's face it, they don't) and wanted to ensure that everyone gets to see all the cool stuff as soon as possible. Within the first few levels you've unlocked all the abilities, leaving the game to hold your interest through the storyline and differing environments alone. There are no attempts at varying the pace, the style of the gameplay, or even the scenarios. Basic plan? Kill everyone. And when they're dead? Kill their friends. And so on, until you meet the big bad scary end of level boss who, to be honest, aren't all that scary if you've saved up a Barrage attack and are handy with the Precision Aim. Given the team's previous project was the hugely underrated Psi-Ops, it's somewhat disappointing that it seems to have discarded how important it is to keep giving the player new toys to play with throughout the game, not just for the first few hours.
Once you're done with the six to eight hour main campaign, what's left? Well, not a huge amount to be frank. There's the Hard Boiled uber-difficult mode to go for if you fancy mining the game for some more achievement points, and an Unlock Shop where you can buy the usual concept art frippery, extra multiplayer characters (including Woo himself), but the incentive to replay the game is somewhat limited. There is an online Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch mode for up to six players, set across the seven small maps based on the areas used in single player, but without the Tequila Time ability, and limited destruction you're left with a rather uninspiring mode that has none of the effortless charm of single player. Seeing people diving around like buffoons in real-time doesn't quite cut it, really.
If you're prepared to do without online, then Stranglehold has an awful lot going for it. It might well be the most direct, straightforward action game you've played in years, but in a way I'd see that as job done by Midway - it never seeks to overcomplicate, the combat and controls are refined, the learning curve is well balanced, the visuals fantastic, and in many ways there's an almost old school purity about it. Simply put, it's exceptionally good at what it sets out to achieve, which is to distil the best bits of John Woo's cinematic vision and turn it into a crazed video game approximation that anyone can play - in that sense, you can't really fault it. Some might baulk at the lack of depth, and the sense of mindless repetition, in which case steer clear. The rest of you can put your brain on standby, and enjoy the most ridiculous display of videogaming carnage ever.