I found a copy in a second-hand bookstore once, but it didn't play nice with modern PC hardware and OSes. Occasionally, I'd wonder whatever became of that weird John Woo game, but it had long gone out of print, as games do in this ephemeral world. I remember renting it, back in the days when you could rent games, playing the shit out of it for a night with a couple mates, and mostly forgetting about it. Pillars exploded with debris, objects flew through the air, and doves appeared all the time for no reason other than 'it's John Woo.' It's certainly one of the stranger film-to-video-game adaptations, in that it's an adaptation of a directorial style rather than a movie or franchise. Or 'Tequila Time,' as the game puts it.įor its time, Stranglehold's destruction physics were pretty dang impressive. The story's a mostly forgettable series of genre cliches and mission objectives issued via Symbian-era cellphone, but it is (of course) secondary to the action, which - given Woo's personal seal of approval, or at least his signature on the royalties agreement - is all about dat bullet time. In Stranglehold, players take the role of Chow Yun-Fat's character from Hard Boiled, in a new story that travels from exploding watermelon-filled Hong Kong to a comparatively drab Chicago. So a game about jumping through the air in slow motion while dual-wielding pistols was a solid decision.

It was 2007, the prime era of the 'not great, not terrible' action games that filled Xbox 360 and PS3 shelves, and the gaming world was in between Max Payne sequels.

He didn't develop it, but he put his name on it, so you know it's a good time. Once upon a time, John Woo released a video game.

John woo stranglehold pc