Constantine (PS2, Xbox)

Herald rating: * *

I remember experiencing that sinking feeling part-way through the movie Constantine when I realised that despite the US$100 million budget, the rich material and strong cast, the movie is a fizzer.

And I like stories about hell and damnation. Unfortunately, the game is pretty average as well, its production values disappointing, the gameplay repetitive.

Constantine keeps its cinematic feel, something that will strike home when you play the first sequence of the game before the opening credits start.

You will be reminded of dark, gothic movies that deal with hell and possession, movies such as Hellraiser, End of Days, Stigmata and, of course, Constantine.

If you were dubious about Keanu Reeves playing a doomed demon-hunter in the movie, you're stuck with him in the game, or at least someone doing a Keanu Reeves impersonation in the voice-overs.

The story roughly follows that of the film, pared back to make room for the third-person action sequences.

On the face of it there's a lot of material to work with in Constantine and some of the cutaway scenes are effective. I especially like the opening one, plucked from the movie, where a demon is trapped in a three foot-high mirror and hurled out of a window. That's original.

But as you progress through the game you realise you have seen shades of it all before in games such as Bloodrayne, Soul Reaver, Half Life and Return to Castle Wolfenstein.

There are the gloomy passageways littered with rotting bodies, the rubble-strewn streets and creatures bathed in fire.

Even Lemony Snicket had the rats, the puzzles, the creaky corridors and - although aimed at kids - was much more engaging.

Constantine may have worked better if the developers had more closely followed the more stylistic artwork of the original Hellblazer comics that inspired the movie, and given it more of an arcade, surreal touch.

Constantine's mission is similar to that of the vampire hunters in Blade and John Carpenter's Vampires - to hunt down half-breed demons and beat the spirits out of possessed souls.

That would be fine if you could steady your aim long enough to blast away the approaching demons. But the controls float around on you too much for that.

The characters of the movie make it into the game. One of Constantine's first tasks is to find the alcoholic priest, Father Hennessy.

And to battle the undead hordes you're given a strange assortment of weapons - pistols, nailgun, the holy shotgun, a flame thrower and magic spells. The latter are unleashed when you press a series of buttons on the controller in sequence. You can launch yourself into true sight mode to identify half-breeds that need taking out.

Water is Constantine's lifeblood. When he drinks he regains his health and the water flash can be refilled throughout the game.

The soundtrack is suitably gothic, but the sound effects are generally bland and disjointed. At one stage a wrecked car flew over my head but made no sound when it crashed to earth. Snatches of dialogue translate from the movie, but the game is lumbered with the lame dialogue of budget games.

My favourite exchange near the start of the game goes like this:

"Damn you, Constantine!"

"I've been damned by worse, much worse," he responds.

At the price you'll have to stump up for Constantine, be damn sure you're a fan of the movie to avoid disappointment.

* $110