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To date, Terminator 2 is the most expensive movie ever made. On top of Arnie's humungous fee, the movie makers had millions left over to spend on special effects - and it shows. So, when Ocean got hold of the licence to the year's biggest seller, you'd expect nothing less than a game of the same epic proportions, right?

Wrong. T2 is a multi-section game, with different game styles being used to represent various scenes from the film. Our first encounter with this new breed of Terminator is for fisticuffs. Combinations of pressing Fire and jabbing the joystick in seemingly random directions cause a sequence of punches, kicks and head butts to be directed at the bad guy. You're also armed with a gun and six bullets. The best strategy is to plug your adversary full of lead, firing each time he recovers 'til you run out of ammo, and then close in for the kill. It's not difficult to beat him, just tiresome.

You lose energy whenever you're floored, and, though it's fairly easy to get through this section, injuries are carried through to the next level. It's frustrating that all you can do, pretty much, is waggle randomly and hope for the best.

Next Arnie's on a Harley, being heavily pursued by your worst nightmare in an articulated lorry. Arnie has to avoid debris that litters the raceway while avoiding being run over by the ten tonner. If you succeed in escaping, you can move to a bonus level.

This enables you to claw back some extra energy. The mechanical innards of Arnold's wrists are exposed. You've got to sort the hyraulic components into the right order against the clock. It works rather like one of those plastic puzzles you always finf in the bottom of your Christmas stocking, where you have to slide the pieces around to form a picture.

Then it's back for another beating. This time the baddie's twice as hard and uses his elastic properties to dish out some rather nasty head butts. Apart from that, it's pretty much the same as Level One, only twice as frustrating. Further levels include another puzzle, a shootout, a helicopter and car chase and another beat-'em-up section (yawn!).

There are no complaints in the graphics department. They're excellent. The fighting sprites are large and well-animated with some neat effects. It's just that the game's so tedious! You only have one "life" as such, and fighting your way through previously mastered sections is a real chore, especially when you get killed through carelessness.

Terminator 2 is going to sell by the ton. Not because it's a great game, but because of the film and the fact it's got Arnie's phizog plastered all over the packaging.

If you're taken in by the hype that surrounds this film, then you'll have bought a poor quality game. It's strung together on a theme that follows scenes from the film quite closely, but isn't much fun to play.

1. Excellent graphics and fluid animation, approaching Prince Of Persia standards.
2. Old-fashioned International Karate style gameplay.
3. Boring and repetitive game themes - like so many other movie conversions.