Chicago: a group of Russian Mafia kidnap two Asian girls.

Hong Kong: the Chinese Triads capture and murder a police officer in cold blood.

The two events, though occurring on two separate continents, are linked, setting the scene for a carnival of death and destruction to follow.

If you were reading the above synopsis on the back of a DVD, action fans would be salivating by now. If by chance you happened to be both an action fan AND a follower of all things John 'Wootastic' Woo, a general light-headedness would be occurring right about now, followed by a mad rush home, disk in hand.

Stranglehold if nothing else is the best example of merging the worlds of film and gaming to date. Let's take an example of a film that's heavy with action, packed with one-liners and a plot that makes you want to weep for its delightful simplicity. One immediate example that comes to mind is the Die Hard series. Imagine John McClane, larger than life, weaving bullets with his deadpan grimace, throwing about beautiful one-liners while killing inordinate amounts of enemies and causing an extravagant amount of destruction. Now take out Bruce, insert international film star Chow Yun-Fat (similarly straight faced but resistant to normal levels of hurt) resuming his role as Inspector Tequila (Hard Boiled), stick in Hong Kong and Chicago as the two key locations with a plot that twists and turns with surprises and you have an action film. Now place all that into a game and you have Stranglehold, a title bursting at the seams with choreographed displays of brutality and violence with a plot light enough not to get in the way of the body count.

The game uses all the standard tricks of the trade: a linear game model, the widespread health and ammo dumps, Slow-Mo (called "Tequila time") and a plentiful assortment of weapons ranging from grenades, sub-machine guns, shotguns to the rocket launcher. Then it jacks it up a notch with slick stunt-man action mayhem spiced with the occasional cinematic sequence, intriguing game mechanics and a superb all-encompassing damage model.

Now, "Tequila time" is a nice name representing the standard model of occasionally slowing down time in an effort to dodge large amounts of enemy agro. Represented by a small orange bar that only regenerates after usage in normal game time, it eventually becomes a well-used ability, which doesn't trivialise combat one bit (unlike many other slow-mo implementations). In fact, it gave me my most memorable moment (™) in the game. Up against a boss-like character within the closed confines of a museum room filled with all manner of statues, dinosaur skeletons and the like, I was faced with a stream of bullets. It was a moment of pure joy when I entered Tequila time, then entered a forward dive, only to see the same dive being made by the other character. This resulted in us both travelling (in slow motion) over each other, then spinning in mid-air with each now travelling in the opposite direction, all the while pumping out streams of deadly fire. Beautiful stuff.

Getting back to game mechanics, the most obvious example of where Stranglehold excels is 'Standoff', which sees Inspector Tequila square off against multiple enemies at once. The game enters into Tequila time where you have partial movement control. Using the left stick, players need to dodge incoming (and numerous) bullets in a given time by leaning left or right while trying to shoot back. It's all under a hidden timer so with only a few seconds given for each target before Tequila whips about 90 degrees to face the next enemy, you'll be smiling and swearing in a matter of moments. Being hit during Standoff is punishable by a large health loss - more so than in normal game mode.

The story includes interesting twists and turns, with major criminal figures having ties closer than you'd expect to our leading man, Inspector Tequila, who in turn feels the web of deceit and chaos tighten about him with each progressed level. The plot takes some interesting twists and turns, helped in part by some tight dialogue work and nice camera angles that simply ooze John Woo's trademark style.

In terms of AI, aside from the occasional boss character showing some half-decent display of tactics by using available cover, the most intelligence you'll come across is a quick dive behind certain objects, and the occasional audio cue signalling imminent attack followed by a head-long rush into your firing line. When large numbers of the enemy are encountered, Tequila does have a cover system whereby pillars and the like can be used for protection, thus opening up quick firing opportunities from behind cover.

In conjunction with 'Tequila time', four special abilities make the killing business just that little less a 'by the numbers' affair: Health, Precision Aiming, Barrage and Spin attack. These progressively unlockable abilities are represented by a circular meter that gradually fills with energy after each successive 'style kill' is achieved. Style points are awarded for a good-looking kill, such as rolling to the side in slow mo while shooting a gas bottle next to the target, dropping a neon sign or rocks on to unsuspecting heads or even using handrails to climb up while shooting.

Of all the special abilities, Precision Aiming is easily the most impressive. Aside from being able to enter slow-mo, aim then fire at distant targets with ease, sometimes even threading the bullets through very small holes towards the intended target, it's the choreography of death that shines when bullets hit bodies. Hitting a certain portion of the body brings up some beautifully appropriate responses: a bullet to the neck equals hands clasped to the now exploding throat, followed by glazed looks and choking sounds, then a nicely animated collapse to the floor. Of course, if they stand still long enough (which due to the mediocre AI they'll tend to do anyway...) shooting the groinal region and watching the resulting agony is something to enjoy time and time again.

Stranglehold's 'mindless mayhem' approach gets an encouraging paddle on the arse with the musical score performing as you'd expect from a film ... sorry, as you'd expect from a game with as much cinematic influences as this has. While the main menu tune sounds like a sampled version of the familiar Terminator tune, the game's mix of modern western rhythms intermeshed with traditional Chinese instruments are understated enough not to hijack attention away from the onscreen bravado. Different tunes running with the multiple environments offer the player a cliché free audio experience. As for the sound effects, there's nothing understated in that department; large amounts of big rumbling booms followed by the crispness of bullets tearing up all manner of objects to the satisfyingly wet splash of skulls being pierced with fast moving projectiles makes for a solid excuse to crank up the volume.

Different game play elements within each level help to keep the repetitive factor at arm's length, although it's a tad unfortunate that puzzle elements (if you can call them that) are fit for a 6 year old. Via the game's use of the 'Massive D' physics engine (Massive Destruction), you can't help but notice those massive boulders conveniently placed above a bunch of bad guys or the fact that one of the large posts holding up the platform is displayed in yellow and black stripes just begging for a well-aimed barrage of bullets. Even if by some small chance that didn't hint at the obvious (god help you if not) the bright sparkles shining off the target should finally do the trick. Just as obvious are the brightly coloured explosive drums placed alongside the occasional sniper or group of sneering meanies. It all sounds fairly simplistic, but strangely, the damn system works a treat, somehow keeping up the enjoyment factor high enough to counteract the no-brainer element. The second level, Tao-O, demonstrates this perfectly, with its warren of drug labs nestled within crudely built structures. Rising black plumes helpfully indicate a drug lab within. Spying out a barrel, you shoot, it explodes, which funnily enough leads to the drug lab also exploding, resulting in a massive boom good enough to make Arnold Schwarzenegger's shrivelled man-boobs spasm in joy.

Based on a modified version of the UT 3.0 engine, Stranglehold game looks good. But when things explode or are destroyed, they look great. On certain levels, the available destructibility is astonishing. Everything glistens and shines with satisfying appeal, but then that appeal climbs a few notches when, out of a general lust for destruction, you pump a few rounds into most things. Watching as jade figurines crackle, ancient fossilised remains break into in smaller chunks, fish tanks explode outwards with fish momentarily flopping about and tiles on walls and tiled pillars being torn into tiny ceramic shreds, exposing the supporting concrete structure beneath is, well, gaming mana.

Stranglehold is a perfect example of a game that knows its main strength - that being its levels of exaggeration. We're not talking about high rates of eyeball rolling followed by muttered statements like "yer right" here. The levels of reality and the usual consequence of having 10 bullets simultaneously fired in your direction is squashed like a mosquito on a warm summer's night and just as happily. 30 minutes into the game and you'll feel bloated with authentic Chinese flavoured arse-kicking action. The pace is continuous, unforgivingly, bone-snappingly relentless, with the occasional movie between levels the only possible relief (aside from hitting pause or the missus screaming out that dinner's getting cold...). While it's very firmly rooted within the gorgeous framework of Chinese Hong Kong surroundings and chic Chicago décor, realism isn't its strong suit, but who cares? Reality can go dive headfirst into a concrete mixer, with the unreal and extraordinary quickly becoming the norm. Stranglehold doesn't for a second pretend to be anything else except a prolonged and frenzied spasm of violence.

Stranglehold's multiplayer section is a strange disappointment – strange for its lack of substance. Sorted between the Ranked or Player matching system, the choices are bleak: Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch – that's it. Between seven maps focused around an assortment of the campaigns main sections such as Kowloon Teahouse, Golden Dragon Casino and the maze-like Tai O Drug Labs, it's as basic a multi experience as it gets. Add in the lack of available players and the long map loading times (when you eventually find someone willing to play) and the end result is an ad-hoc online experience, possibly added as an afterthought rather than some deliberate planning.

In Stranglehold, you're not meant to think. The gameplay is a no brainer. Point, shoot and they go down. But that's good. It's a testosterone fuelled rampage though a variation of suitably different environments weighted down with a judicious amount of machismo; Viagra gaming at its best.

Stranglehold will be in stores locally on the 6th September for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.