If I were to mention the song Stuck in the Middle With You by Steelers Wheel, then perhaps a certain image might flash inadvertently in front of your eyes. You consciously squash the image, banishing it once more to the back of your mind where it has been imprisoned since it arrived. If I were to then say the word "ear" to you, just drop it into the sentence harmlessly, then the thought would tear its cage asunder and you would no longer be able to harness it. The notoriously graphic image of Mr Blonde, unceremoniously sitting astride the helpless Marvin Nash in an abandoned warehouse, cutting away at the flesh around his ear with a brutal looking cut throat razor, is an image emblazoned in the minds of any who have watched the movie. You remember Reservoir Dogs. Everyone remembers Reservoir Dogs. Well now it's a game, and its about to get a whole lot more visceral.

For me there are three main elements that made Reservoir Dogs such a classic movie: The music, the script and the violence. Tarantino's script flows beautifully, brought to life by wonderfully talented actors. The characters leap out of the screen at you, which is the only reason Tarantino gets away with setting most of the movie in one empty room. There are dozens of quotable lines that many a fan will bring out at parties and social events; who hasn't asked some loudmouth at the office Christmas do whether or not he's going to bark all day like a little doggie, or whether he's going to bite? That's how I lost my two front teeth. Even musicians have used quotes from the film - anyone unaware of The Fun Loving Criminals' song Scooby Snacks should not be reading this review. Speaking of music, the soundtrack is undeniable. K Billy's Super Sounds of the Seventies reverberate through the speakers and linger in the air like an old friend. Hands up who's done the slow motion walk down the street to the sound of Little Green Bag? You know who you are. Ooga Shaka! Ooga! Ooga! Ooga Shaka! Ooga! Ooga!

The violence. Oh the beautiful violence. Many speculate how successful this film would have been without that scene involving the lopped off ear to shock so many people into remembering it. The opening scene with Mr Orange covered in blood on the back seat of the car, and his blood soaked body lying unconscious on the floor of the warehouse are images that fuse themselves into your memory. There's some serious blood in the movie. You cannot help but be shocked by it in places, no matter how desensitised you are to violence. Luckily for developers Eidos, blood and violence work quite well in video games, and recent titles have proved that there is definitely a market for it. Bloodthirsty teenagers the world over have been patiently waiting for this, but they may be disappointed if all they're expecting is Mortal Kombat meets Goodfellas.

Reservoir Dogs has converted into an interesting game. With it being a movie tie-in, I was very suspicious to begin with - read my review of 24: The Game if you want a taste of my movie tie-in ranting. [He's not kidding when he says 'ranting' either! Ed]. The major difference here is that this isn't some licensed parasite released at the same time as the movie trading purely on the name - this has had time to ferment and mature. This is a game that Eidos has taken their time with in order to get the right balance of ingredients. As I mentioned earlier, the three main ingredients of the film were the script, the soundtrack and the violence, so lets see how the game has incorporated them.

The script is an easy place to start, as the game is set in and around the events of the film. The game is, however, in a privileged position to embellish those events and to show more of the characters. Particular levels are dedicated to characters and what they were up to when they weren't on screen - for example, how did Mr Blonde get a cop in the back of his car, and how did Mr Blue die? And even more intriguingly, what the deuce happened to Mr Brown (Tarantino's character) when he crashed the car? Did his head hit the wheel so hard that it killed him? It turns out that this isn't the case; he was actually shot in the head a short while back. Further to these plot extensions, a defining characteristic of the game and movie is the dialogue between the characters, the banter between wise guys and villains. There's plenty of this scattered throughout the game and most of the movie's major scenes are in pre-rendered format, if a little edited for time, while during the levels themselves the respective characters spout their favourite catchphrases. A great level involving a car chase has Mr White and Mr Brown telling each other stories, with jokes to boot, as you duck and weave through traffic, pausing now and then to curse the police. It's a nice addition and makes the whole experience that much more immersing.

Unfortunately, not all of the actors from the movie managed to get their likeness or voices into the game. Michael Madsen is the only one who did, and even his likeness is a little Hobbit-esque. His voice is essential though, and certain levels played as Mr Blonde are delightful as he calmly and coolly threatens the cops and the public alike. All the other characters are artistic interpretations of the original actors' likenesses, and look very little like their thespian counterparts. The balance Eidos has reached between looking too much like the actors and looking completely different is good enough that you don't notice it too much, although you may have a moan early on that Mr Pink looks nothing like Steve Buscemi and the guy who does the voice is too whiny, but once you get over it and the game gets going, you forget to do all that and simply get on with playing. Apart from Mr Orange being a carrot top - that annoyed me all the way through.

The music is, as you would imagine, fantastic. The original soundtrack is here, along with a few new tracks from the same genre and era that play through a variety of media. For example, during the driving missions songs play through the car's radio, but during some of the third person missions the music may come from a wireless radio somewhere. The way radios are dotted around is a really nice addition - rather than just ramming uber cool music down your neck as you commit violent acts, the local use of radios makes you feel much more involved in the scenario. You may pass a window with sounds blaring from it, the only sounds distracting you from the faint whispers of police radios, and passing it gives you an odd chill. There's a haunting resemblance to the echo and reverberation that the music has when playing in the warehouse in the film, that subtle echo that signified the removal of an ear...

To cover the violence, I'd better establish the gameplay parameters. Most of the game takes place from a third person perspective and you take on the role of one of the characters, Mr Blue for example. During the first level (following some training with Mr Orange), Mr Blue finds himself in a sticky situation and must escape the upper levels of the bank. The police are swarming around and you must make your escape. The tone is set as you grab a nearby teller's head and smash it into a desk - then, shotgun in hand, you edge toward the door. An innovation that mirrors elements of the movie is the decision to play as either psychopath or professional. As a psychopath you may be surprised to hear that the way forward is to kill every living being in your path. Simply head through the levels in a hail of blood and bullets, hiding behind objects when the need arises and sticking your gun out to shoot people some more while you're there. It's fun, don't get me wrong - heads explode from shotgun blasts and the rag doll effect of dead bodies is satisfying in many ways - but in today's gaming community we need something a little deeper.

A 'bullet festival' steps in to thicken the mix, consisting of an adrenaline meter that fills up when you shoot people and once full, a tap of a button slows everything down, allowing you a few seconds to take out a number of enemies. Once time picks up speed again you get a slow-mo replay of each death. This reeks of Max Payne, and to be honest Payne did it better, but it is still a nice addition and the animation of the character running a comb through their hair before the festival starts reflects the cool styling of the game. If you choose this simple shoot to kill method of playing, you will soon learn that some of the officers of the law later in the game are practically bulletproof. They're not invincible, but sometimes you'll have to pummel an entire assault rifle clip into somebody's chest before they go down. Instead try for headshots, or at the least centre your fire in the chest area.

The other, more professional, option is to not kill anyone. It seems a stark contrast I know, and let me assure you it is - rather than storming the level like Arnie in The Terminator, you instead use your surroundings and the people within it, to your advantage. Firstly you can control a crowd with the R2 button, making your character scream threats at anyone in the nearby area. They'll pretty much soil themselves and do as you say, and by using the R1 button and the right analogue stick you can move them around the room as you please. This can be handy for opening a safe or a door with a keycode, as the only other way to do this is by shooting them, which causes alarms to sound and in turn causes loads of cops to show up. As Mr White learned, Mr Blonde doesn't like alarms. While controlling unarmed civilians, pesky security guards might stick their head around the door and generally make a nuisance of themselves. In this situation, grab a hostage with the circle button and using R2, shout threats at the security guard until he drops his weapon. Once disarmed he can then be treated as any other unarmed hostage and manoeuvred around the room, or disabled against a wall (forced to their knees with their hands behind their head). Be careful though - if you turn your back on a security guard who hasn't been disabled, he'll reach for his gun again and try to pop a cap in yo ass.

The boys in blue, and SWAT team members respectively, pose a much more difficult conundrum - they won't just drop their weapons if you give them some stick. Instead they will try to flank you and shoot you in the back of the head. To persuade these tough cookies to drop their guns, take the butt of your own gun and smash the hostage in the face with it. Now the cops know you're not playing around and will lose their arsenal quicker than Paris Hilton lost her virginity. If you've beat the hostage's head to a pulp by smashing your gun into it and putting it through a vending machine and the cops still won't comply, then you can crack out a signature move. Each character has one - and yes, Mr Blonde does cut peoples ears off with a cutthroat razor. The rest you'll have to learn and enjoy for yourself. Don't do too much damage though, as hostages can only take so much punishment, and if you keep beating on them they'll eventually pass out. You can imagine the result if several armed guards are pointing their weapons at you when this happens. Can you say bullet festival?

The missions are laid out in a way that continually ups the challenge of getting through waves of armed authority types without taking too many down - like the way SWAT teams flank you so that when you believe you're in control of a situation, shuffling cops around into a neat line by the wall, there could be one sneaking up, ready to put a bullet in your skull. You have to watch out at all times, as the cops are really keen to take you down and they'll hide on tops of buildings, drop down around you on ropes and throw tear gas from afar (with the hilarious effect of getting high if you hang around the cloud too long). Be prepared to start the later missions a few times over before you get through, but stick with it, as you'll eventually find ways of disabling the cops enough for you to find a way through. Regular checkpoints help your progress too; you'll no doubt find a balance between psycho and pro, as more often than not it's impossible to simply shoot your way through a situation, and taking a hostage really opens up your options. You can disarm your enemies in an enclosed environment this way, and there's nothing to say that you can't kill them after you've taken their guns away. Or line them up against a wall execution style. Nice. Similarly when you're playing for pro and the cops keep winding you up, eventually you'll snap and take a couple down.

To break up the shooting, hostage taking and mindless killing, there are a couple of driving missions. These can be races, chases or escape levels, and make a welcome break rather than an annoying interruption. Smashing police cruisers off the road as Nice Guy Eddie so that Mr Pink can escape with the diamonds is fun, but the best driving mission has to be the escape with Mr Brown driving after he's been shot in the head; you only have a certain amount of time before he bleeds to death and the cops close in as the dark and bloody haze of death darkens the screen.

Reservoir Dogs is nice enough to look at; the graphics won't wow and amaze you, but given the context of the game, the locations are detailed and expansive. The characters are well presented and animated, though as I mentioned earlier they aren't in the likenesses of the original actors, which is a necessary evil. The blood effects are visceral and plentiful, as you unload shotgun rounds into your enemies the claret flies and coats surfaces in a most satisfying way. There are random scenery objects that you can interact with or smash, and putting a hostage's head through the glass of a vending machine is a lot of fun. Areas get drowned in smoke and bullet casings and bits of glass eventually litter the ground. The sound effects meanwhile are crisp and plentiful; each weapon sounds meaty, each smashing pane of glass is clear and the wet packing noise of you smashing someone's skull to bits is unnervingly realistic. Not that I know what that actually sounds like, of course… The highlight of the sound has to be the banter from the characters, as you threaten nearby cops you remember who these characters are and how witty they can actually be - as well as how nasty. While Mr White's voice is firm and professional, Mr Blonde's is quiet and sadistic.

Reservoir Dogs is a really enjoyable game - if you're a fan of the film and of violent games, then you should really enjoy yourself. It's got style, class and lots and lots of violence, as well as a kick ass soundtrack. It's not perfect by any means - some of the gameplay is a little two dimensional, even given the variety of ways that you can deal with the cops and the situations you find yourself in, which may affect the lifespan. I finished it in under ten hours, and any competent gamer should be able to do the same. There are a few extras; you can view pre-rendered videos as you unlock them and an art gallery that requires you to pick up hidden documents throughout the game to access more, but there's nothing that'll really keep you coming back for more. It plays through similar to the movie (staggered timeline and all) and once you've completed the missions you don't feel drawn to play them again, for any other purpose than if you enjoy messing with the cops. When Eidos took on the task of converting Reservoir Dogs into a game, I imagine their main ambition was to capture the look and feel of the movie, whilst giving it extra depth during the levels. They've achieved this really well - you'll slip into the theatre of the game quite easily and be humming the songs from the soundtrack in no time. It's just such a shame that a movie is such a finite thing, and this game has captured that too. If I were you I'd definitely play this, but make it a weekend rental rather than a purchase.

Reviewed by Jim Powell for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).