There's an old adage that the old ones are the best ones and judging by the amount of time I've invested in Stranglehold of late, I'd be inclined to agree.

A much-appreciated Christmas present, John Woo's Xbox-based offering is starting to look a little dated but still offers plenty of thrills.

Duck behind cover, swing from a chandelier, throw yourself upon a trolley or scramble upon the back of dinosaurs and slide down their tails; there's plenty of nicely animated destruction to be had. Just to put the dinosaur thing in to context, time travel plays no part in this game... the dinosaurs (a Brachiosaurus and T-Rex, to be exact) are rather prominent artefacts in the Chicago History Museum level - there's even an achievement to be had for destroying them!

The story is typical Woo and the plot typically convoluted (read it in great detail here), involving the police, triads and the occasional kidnapping. Saying that though, there's plenty to keep you gripped and encourage you to keep playing. Even though games have advanced so much aesthetically since Stranglehold's launch in 2007, the cutscenes and ingame graphics still look pretty impressive - especially on the Slums of Kowloon stage, with its great rain effects. Who needs Heavy Rain, eh?

The levels are occasionally taxing and you should expect to be riddled with bullets and restart some of them countless times on the harder difficulties. Some of the earlier stages seem far tougher than the later ones, and the pace and length of them varies wildly.

To help you on your quest, however, you're blessed with an array of special moves... Precision Aim briefly slows everything down and gives you control over a single killer shot, Barrage temporarily provides unlimited ammo to pump into your enemies, and the Spin Attack does exactly what it says on the tin.

As you progress, you'll also rack up style points and stray upon collectible origami cranes that provide you with some of the special moves above.

Once you've completed the solo campaign, there's a fairly basic multiplayer mode that pales in comparsion with the likes of Halo 3 and Gears of War. You'll be hard-pushed nowadays to find many opponents online to rack up some of the multiplayer achievements... but there are some out there. And the maps are many and varied, so it's still a good laugh.

All in all, Stranglehold is a decent enough game and an enjoyable one at that. As it's getting on a bit now, it's available ridiculously cheaply from most stores... you'd be a fool to miss it.

(Photo credits: Bojeeva, BlogDeManu)