It is far in the future, two years before the events portrayed in the film Terminator: Salvation. The world is awash with brutal killing machines, primed with technological brilliance to beef up their already dramatic threat levels. And in the midst of this brutal, advanced world, overrun by Terminators, there's something eerily familiar.

Guns that overheat.

How lazy a gaming convention is that? Granted, laziness is a trait that can be aimed at the game anyway, as we'll explain, but are we seriously supposed to swallow the fact that with brutal killing machines roaming the world, the technology hasn't also been introduced to put cooling into a weapon? We can buy it in a World War II-set Call Of Duty game, but it's just nonsense here.

But then the game borrows liberally from the conventions of others throughout, starting with predictable and obvious level designs that signpost a mile off when you're going to come up against resistance. And while it can be quite good fun blasting away, the game simply doesn't have a surprise of note in it. You shoot stuff, move somewhere else, shoot more stuff and repeat.

It's clearly based heavily on the Gears Of War template, as you spend much of your time running through levels and sliding behind cover. Then, from a position of cover, you're encouraged to target your next hiding place and slide there with a quick button press. This works well, to be fair, and is helpfully intuitive.

The cover mechanic doesn't throw up an impenetrable shield around you, but it's not too far off at times. It also helps with the other tactic you'll be using a lot: flanking your foes to get a better tactical vantage point. This is entertaining enough at first, in a seen-it-all-before kind of way, but the approach to most levels soon becomes obvious and this is part of it. You do have the option to fire in the sky without targeting if you're stuck behind cover, but it's an effect we found neither use nor ornament.

It's a shame the game does things so religiously by-the-numbers, because there are some merits in here. The visuals are strong, the music - pulled from the film soundtrack - is thumping and involving, and there are some interesting sequences.

But it's so predictable and routine that it's simply impossible to get excited about. The enemies you meet aren't varied, and just require you to pick the right weapon to beat. The levels you'll feel like you've seen many times before. And the game? Well, it might just make you wonder why you don't put Gears Of War on instead.

Verdict
An unambitious, glossy movie tie-in, which doesn't offer anything of note that's not been done better elsewhere.

Company: Warner Bros Interactive

Tags: gears of war world war ii game cliff bleszinski epic games call of duty gears of war 3 technology