For every great shooter there is a gimmick and no gimmick do I enjoy more then diving in slow motion and plowing through someone's face with a shotgun. Though unfortunately not every game can be a Max Payne, but instead end up being aggravating to the very end. These are such tales.



A sequel of sorts to one of the greatest action flicks of all time, Hard Boiled, comes Stranglehold. Man I wanted to like this game, but instead I hated it. Man, did I hate it. For better or worse (better) the game is short, but the whole time I struggled with shitty bullet time (it seems to activate on it's accord when either diving or looking from cover) and a pointless cover mechanic as enemies keep constantly either bum rushing me or just destroying my shitty cover as a whole. That and the camera is a pain in the ass in tight corridors as Officer Tequila (that's who you play as) takes up over 1/3 the screen and constantly respawning enemies who keep popping out from dimesional doorways leads to alot of cheap deaths. That and you really never want to dive because alot of the time Tequila in the heat of action with bullets flying everywhere, he'll literally just lay down for awhile and get shot at. It's annoying as and made me scream at the TV more then need be. So you Stranglehold, four hours of gameplay is more then enough out of you.

I Wished they took more cues from the movie it was based on, meaning Tequila never needs ammo for his handguns and he would never have to do something as stupid as slide down railings or swinging on chandlers. Instead his fists are somehow more effective or stronger then bullets more then half the time.