Shoot them in the balls!
Stranglehold features a standard weapon set: pistols, machine guns, shot-guns and rocket-launchers are the order of the day, but you are given the freedom to use them a variety of interesting ways.The first feature worthy of note is 'Tequila Time', in which the action slows down, giving the game a movie feel and enabling you to take out multiple enemies. Comparisons are always going to be made to 'bullet time' in Max Payne, another third person shooter influenced by the Hong Kong action movie genre. Yes, Tequila Time is visually identical to bullet time, which isn't a bad thing, but that's about the only comparison that could be made with Stranglehold and the Max Payne games.
Tequila Time can be manually activated, but also begins automatically whenever you interact with an object, such as a table, or whenever you dive forward, backward or to the side. It's an essential feature in the game, because it would be difficult to kill all of the enemies in the game at full speed due to the sheer amount and, as previously mentioned, it does give the game that movie feel.
Click for larger image
Click for larger imageThe problem is that Tequila Time often activates when you don't want it to, so in the levels where there are plenty of objects lying around (for example: market stalls in Kowolo Market), you'll inadvertently bump into them and set off Tequila time when all you wanted to do was find a decent angle to get a shot of your enemy.
This frustration is mainly due to the over-sensitive controls and the speed in which Tequila moves around the environment. The game would have been less frustrating if he moved a little bit slower and the camera angles were improved. As it stands, the camera sits too close to the main character and doesn't allow you much freedom to pan around the environment and Tequila moves around the environment like Speedy Gonzales on amphetamines.