Hold your breath, because if you make a sound they'll find you and throw you in jail. Wait for the perfect moment to make a run for it - but the clock's ticking away, and if the perfect moment doesn't come in time then you're as good as dead anyway. Now! Go! Pulse pounding, dashing down a claustrophobic corridor, chased by heavily armed soldiers with only your fists and your wits to defend yourself, you dart around the corner and come face to face with a guard. Quick as a flash you've broken his arm and smashed his head into a wall. No time to stop - if you stop, you're caught. You are Jason Bourne, and this is what you do.

The Bourne films reinvented the espionage thriller movie for the new millennium, injecting it with pace, style and a brutality that Bond never had. Now, High Moon Studios is hoping to do the same for the games industry, with Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Conspiracy, a high-octane and decidedly cinematic third person action adventure.

Visually the game takes its cues from the films; slightly washed out, gritty and grimy, a thousand miles away from the opulence and glamour usually associated with spy games. The demo levels I've played all look good, with destructible scenery collapsing realistically, and bullets and blood flying around with gay abandon. Perhaps the most striking visual effect is the real time damage that Bourne and his foes suffer; eyes blacken, noses bleed and skin breaks, adding an authenticity to the already visceral fight scenes that a lot of games just don't have. The music is solid and enhances the tension, a mixture of hectic techno and orchestral sweeping that creates and sustains whatever atmosphere the game is trying to achieve. The sound effects are crisp and clear, with crunching bones and gun blasts that are realistic and often excruciating.

As for the gameplay, each of the levels has a distinct theme and feel to them, casting you in a specific role every time. At first I was the hunted, pursued throughout the level by relentless guards as I tried to escape the labyrinthine corridors of an embassy. The frantic pace and breathless upsurge of panic is added to by striking music and a red ticking clock in the corner of the screen. You know that something bad is going to happen when there's a red ticking clock in the corner of the screen! In almost total contrast to this, the second level turns the tables. Bourne goes from rat in a maze to ultimate badass, wielding heavy weaponry and cutting a bloody swathe through an army of henchmen on the way to apprehending an escaped convict. The change in tone is almost tangible, but the shift in gameplay doesn't feel jarring. Where at first you're unarmed and sneaking, taking out enemies only when you have to, when the tack changes and you're gunning for blood, the controls and manoeuvres you previously used to dodge suddenly take on whole new offensive potential.

And speaking of offensive potential, the most exciting innovation in The Bourne Conspiracy is the Takedown system; build up adrenaline by landing blows and bullets, and you can unleash a devastating, bone crunching melee or head splitting weapon-based attack. Unless you're fighting a boss character these moves are fatal, and provide the game with its best show off moments. You'll be telling your friends about them - you can trust me on that. Fill your adrenaline bar and you can chain together multiple Takedowns, leaving a pile of crumpled bodies on the floor. It's simple, but it seems to work, and leaves you feeling all warm and manly on the inside.

The third and final level is a car chase through busy Parisian streets, pursued by the police while darting through narrow roads in a Mini. This replicates the intensity of the vehicle scenes in the films and adds a spectacular feeling of speed and style to the game. The vehicle handling is spot on and, unlike some other games, the vehicle sections don't feel like they're tacked on to extend the experience. It's fast, furious and superb fun.

Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Conspiracy is shaping up to be a good game, tight and smart with an incredible sense of pace. The style of the films has been authentically reproduced; you feel like Bourne, and when Bourne's in peril, you feel that too. I've not played another game that sucks you in quite so much as The Bourne Conspiracy; I was honestly breathless after my first play through. The action is relentless, but feels fresh and often novel. The sad fact of life is that most of us will never leap from one balcony to another, dodge behind a heating vent to avoid a hail of sniper fire, take down three soldiers with a volley of kicks and then dive through a skylight to avoid capture. Thankfully, The Bourne Conspiracy looks like it's going to offer up the next best thing.

Previewed by Harry Slater for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).