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Clive Barker is one of this country's most successful horror author/directors. His latest film, Nightbreed, is in much the same vein as the infamous Hellraiser. It's about a secret race of creatures, the Breed, who live in an underground Necropolis called Midian and face destruction at the hands of uncaring humans. The game of the film, an "interactive movie" which closely follows the plot, entails controlling the main character, Aaron Boone, and trying to save the Breed from extinction.

Boone has been accused of a series of gruesome murders. He seeks out psychiatric help and this is the point where the game starts. The psychiatrist tells him that he's psychotic, that he committed the murders and that he should book into a lunatic asylum at the earliest opportunity.

The scene changes to a map screen showing the asylum, the police station and the gateway to Midian, with a network of interconnecting roads. The first trip is to the asylum (doctor's orders, right?), where Boone hears of the mystical land called Midian and a race of supernatural beings that live there. Naturally enough, he decides he'd rather join them and the scene returns to the map screen and Boone's car.

To move the car you simply point at the next junction or bend in the road on the route to your destination. At certain junctions the police set up road blocks where you have the option to either run the road block or turn around. If you choose to run the road block you risk ruining the car, but back-tracking uses up a lot of petrol.

Set scenes occur in exactly the same way each time you play the game. If you enter the graveyard you encounter one of the Breed, a hideous chap called Peloquin, whom you have to out-distance. Failure means you can wave goodbye to your head and shoulders. (A difficult manoeuvre, but not one you'd want to have to practise often.)

The scenes in Midian are set in a warren of tunnels. The police and the Breed are out to kill Boone, so they both send search parties down into the tunnels. When you encounter someone you launch into a fight which follows standard beat-'em-up procedures. Run into the Breed and you have to take evasive action as they launch themselves at you. Come across a policeman and a fight takes place with each kick or punch losing either you or the cop a hit point.

Since this is an "interactive movie" the graphics are excellent. Sections of the game are in fact pixelised copies of the actual film. The animation of the rest is well executed - the car moves smoothly on the map screen, for instance, and the close-ups of Boone are pleasing to look at - but there isn't too much of it to see.

Sound is entirely sampled and there are several superior spot effects: Boone's footsteps echo down the corridors in Midian and when he is in the lunatic asylum he lets out a nice maniacal laugh.

Nightbreed looks great but plays like a turkey. "Interactive movies" have been done much better by companies such as Cinemaware - and their games weren't exactly awesome.

The main problem is the action sequences. There are too few of them, and all quite derivative. If you've played Double Dragon you've seen and done it all before. Nightbreed holds your interest the first time you play it because of the graphics, but complete it once and it loses all its appeal. It's also far too easy, since it mainly involves learning the correct set order for the handful of action scenes, and in fact can be completed in as little as two hours.

Ocean's approach to this licence is certainly original and the game shows off the ST's graphics, but it holds no lasting appeal. For 25 quid you're getting little more than a few animated sections from the film, so save your money and go to the cinema instead.