Ask gamers about games based on movies and they'll remark, with Pavlovian predictability, "All movie games suck." While fun movie games such as Spider-Man 2, GoldenEye 007, and any number of Star Wars games would suggest otherwise, that mantra has been repeated so often that gamers now regard it as fact -- which is why some games based on movies aren't given the fair shake they deserve.

It's a fate that might befall The Bourne Conspiracy, a third-person action game that's inspired by 2002's "The Bourne Identity," as well as Robert Ludlum's original novel. You play as Jason Bourne, a spy who's lost his memory and thus doesn't know he's actually like James Bond ? if Bond was more a fighter than a lover, more scrappy than suave, and more conflicted than confident. The irony is that, had the developers at High Moon made the same game without the Bourne name, it would probably be hailed as a first-rate action game.

Starting where the film did, with Jason floating in the sea near death, the game hits upon all the major plot points. It also expands on the plot points with a series of flashback missions such as the one that starts the game by showing you how Jason wound up floating in the sea near death.

It is in that first mission that we're given a basic rundown of the gameplay. Running from place to place, Jason is constantly bumping into people asking if he knows Matt Damon. [We kid.] Sick of it, Jason proceeds to beat them up, or, if he's armed, shoot them. It is here that you first realize Bourne is, in some ways, a greatest-hits kind of game drawing on some of the best mechanics of other action games. The bare-knuckle brawling, for example, feels like a streamlined version of Dead or Alive while the shooting seems straight out of Stranglehold.

You can even hold down the attack buttons to release a more powerful kick, though the real kickers are the Mortal Kombat-esque finishing moves. Repeatedly slapping people builds up your adrenaline, and when you build up enough adrenaline you can hit the B button for a Takedown move that typically involves introducing someone's head to a nearby table or railing. You can even, if you have enough adrenaline saved, use Takedowns against multiple enemies, though you have to hit the right buttons when prompted ? la God of War. Since you slap a lot of people, you don't have to use Takedowns sparingly and will even need to do them multiple times on bosses.

The God of War-like button prompts come up a lot, in fact. You use them to counter when your enemies try Takedown moves on you and, in other situations, to avoid being shot or blown up.

But while Bourne borrows a lot from other games, it not only seems to borrow from the best, it also puts the borrowed elements together well. The brawling controls are tight and responsive and, while you can get by with a bit of button-mashing, you're better off combining light and heavy attacks and will have to block if you want to last longer than a few minutes. Similarly, the shooting is satisfying since the target aiming is easy and accurate, though the bad guys do take a slightly unrealistic amount of buckshot to bring down sometimes. Lastly, while some might be sick of God of War-like button prompting, its use in this game is not gratuitous and the button combos are not unnecessarily complicated.

The game is not without its failings, though. The aforementioned button prompts are small and easy to miss in particularly hairy situations. The bad guys have watched way too many martial arts movies, because even when they surround you they patiently wait their turn before attacking. Some of the bosses early in the game are exhaustingly tough, like the kind you'd normally find towards the end of a game.

The game also employs a Gears of War-like cover system, but it's not always available. You can't run and automatically grab cover like you can in Gears, and quite frankly, Bourne doesn't look as good as Gears, though most games don't. Of course, most games don't do as well at integrating their cut scenes, movie moments and gameplay parts as seamlessly as Bourne does, either. This version also looks better than the Xbox 360 version, though the differences are slight and only noticeable in side-by-side comparisons.

Some might complain about the lack of a multiplayer option, although it's hard to figure out how one might've worked. Some might also dislike that the game is decidedly linear, though that's never been much of an issue for me, especially compared to when a game is open for no good reason.

Ultimately, these are minor quibbles with a first-rate action game. That The Bourne Conspiracy happens to be inspired by a movie isn't a problem ? unless you let it be.

This review is based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.