If you’ve been playing console games for any length of time you’ll know that movie tie-ins are almost relentlessly umm… crap, with only a few notable exceptions over the years being anything more than a cynical cash-in.

Well, first let’s mention the blockbuster Terminator Salvation movie starring Christian Bale that the game is loosely based on - I thought it was a good return to form after the rather disappointing, almost lampoon-like Terminator 3. Sadly the game is less impressive; firstly, although the visuals do an excellent job of portraying Los Angeles’s hazy sunlight, the textures are extremely basic, and the game engine doesn’t allow for any destructible scenery or exploration of any kind, it’s one of the most linear games I’ve played in some years. You play as the beleaguered Connor (or Blair, Connor's girly ally if you play split screen co-op) and the game is a cover shooter, plain and simple. You wander forward along what are almost un-erringly linear paths until you come across a machine, then press ‘A’ to cover, shoot, flank, cover, shoot till it’s dead. Then repeat on the next machine, ad nauseam (or until you feel sick). You might find a new weapon every now and then, but it's mostly M4 rifle & shotgun stuff. There are mounted machine guns and rocket and grenade launchers, an M249 SAW machine gun, grenades and pipe bombs to be found along the way which make slightly quicker work of the robots, but the ammo for these heavy weapons is usually limited so you go back to the basics. For some reason ammo and weapons glow and show up like you were a terminator yourself, you can even see where they are through walls! This seems like a needlessly nannying approach to me, the game is easy enough as it is, and there's hardly any exploration required whatsoever.

So it’s Gears of Warinators to all intents and purposes, with one slight problem. When you don’t have the budget, the development time or the production values that Epic had, you end up with something like this: A game that vaguely resembles the blockbuster movie, and plays a bit like a much, much better game - but only vaguely and a bit. The game’s one original idea is its cover and "quickmove" mechanic (which, come to think of it, is just a simplified version of the quickmove device Grin used in Wanted: Weapons of Fate, so scratch the "original" bit), which gives you the option of scampering/rolling/skidding quickly to the next bit of cover, as indicated on-screen with a crescent-shaped icon when you push the left stick in the direction of the next bit of cover. This’d be great - if it worked all the time, but you’ll find plenty of bits of scenery that look like perfectly good cover, and would act as a perfect bit of cover, but John (or Blair) aren’t interested in using them for some reason. Arrgh.

All in all, you can file this in the massive stinking pile marked “substandard movie tie ins”, and leave it at that. This Terminator’s only Salvation is that it’s rather easy, and despite some cruel restart points you’ll be through it in 5 or 6 hours for one of the easiest thousand Gs you’ll ever get – if you can bear its unremitting sameyness that is. The fact that it's priced at a tenner less than most games in many outlets suggests that the publisher is aware that it's rather a lightweight, average effort, and should be applauded for that. One thing’s for sure, once it’s finished you won’t be back.