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As the game loads in, your fate is described. An alien ship appears over a city skyline, destroys a few buildings and then kidnaps you.

You are taken to the city of Xebecs demise where your adventure begins. You are clothed in the poorest coverings, have about 240 copper pieces, no weapons, no armour and little hope for survival. Ahead of you is the gateway to the city, as you walk through your destiny is sealed.

In the coming days, you will fight with deadly enemies, discover dark secrets, find marvellous treasure until finally you can return home to take out your revenge on your captors.

Alternate Reality will soon be available on disk for C64, Atari and Apple computers and will cost £19.95. This may seem like a lot of money for one adventure but you do get your money's worth.

In the box you will find two disks, two instruction books and a partly drawn map of the city. This only shows a few main streets marked on it, the rest you have to discover yourself.

Together the instruction books give you background information on the city, its buildings and possible inhabitants as well as a quick command summary and a guide to creating your character.

The strengths and weaknesses of your character are determined as you walk through the gateway. Constantly changing numbers freeze at this moment and determine the stamina, intelligence, wisdom, skill, charisma and charm of your character. Others indicate the number of hit points (how durable you are) and the number of copper pieces you start with.

You could time it right and get a character that could win you the game, a second later you could end up with someone who is unlikely to last the hour. I wouldn't worry about timing too much and leave it to chance.

One of the disks is used for creating your character an can be saved for later reincarnations. This wouldbe hero is then named for posterity. You are allowed 31 letters which gives you plenty of scope to get away from the standard Bill, Fred or Gandalf. In Alternate Reality, you can be Fred the Brave, Bill the Bold or The Mighty Gandalf and still have scope for more.

Once you've created your character, you're ready to enter the city.

The streets and buildings of the city are drawn in an impressive 3D view in a window in the centre of the screen. Above it are your characteristics. The space below it is reserved for option menus that appear whenever you enter a building or meet somebody or something in the street.

As you move down the streets, by pushing a joystick the 3D view scrolls with you.

You begin your adventure in the city's main square which is luckily the safest part of the city. Unfortunately, it is also the most expensive. If you were lucky, you may have about 200 copper pieces, in the main square a woollen jumper costs 600.

Sadly, the best is not for you just yet. So you have to leave the safety of the square and explore streets as yet unmarked on your map.

Danger lurks in these areas particularly at night and in bad weather.

You search for a safe place to sleep and find it in an inn. Here for a price you can sleep in a room or on the common floor depending on the money you're prepared to pay.

Food is next on the agenda and can be found along with a variety of drink ranging from water, sasperalia and grog in the taverns.

There are also the source of some clues in the guise of songs that are sung. Naturally they aren't actually sung but the words appear on the screen in time to the music that is hammered out.

Once you've eaten and slept, you can explore a bit more being careful to map the city as you go. It's a wise precaution to pause the game as you're drawing in case you get ambushed while you're away from the keyboard.

On your travels you will discover smithes to buy weapons and armour, banks to store your cash, shops to spend it and healers and guides to cure you and remove any curses you may have stumbled upon - for a fee.

The city's population is numerous and varied. Some may be kind to you others may eat you.

You will meet poor people, common people, merchants, couriers, noblemen, guards and gladiators. Hopefully you won't fall foul of too many thieves, assassins, imps (devilish fire-breathers), wizards, dwarfs or the numerous unnamed horrors that roam the city at night (and some during the day).

Whenever you meet a character, the computer first decides whether you saw him first and have the chance to surprise him, or the other way round. Either way, a series of options appear at the bottom of the screen. The list that appears depends on whether you are engaged in combat or disengaged.

If you're disengaged, you can try to trick your opponent (not wise against a thief) or charm them, if your charisma is high. You can also start a fight, cast a spell (if you have any) or run away. If a fight begins you then swap to the engage list of options that include attack, lunge and parry.

Defeating an opponent may gain you treasure in any of its main forms. Gold and silver, potions and magic swords are just some of the possibilities. Other possibilities are not so attractive. If you get hit by a poisoned or diseased creature, you will lose hit points and eventually die if you don't get to a healer in time. The trusty blade you just found may turn out to be cursed (probably why you won it so easily) something only a guild can cure.

Staying alive in the city will challenge you for the first days at least. But once you solve the problem of needing money but not having any, being an easy target without a sword or any armour and having nowhere to stay, to keep out of trouble at night you can being to think about treasure. Until they try using your charm or some tricks or if all else fails, your legs, to run away.

Alternate Reality is another attempt to capture the spirit of role-playing games.

Undoubtedly it is a massive game giving you a seemingly unlimited collection of buildings to explore, characters to meet and treasure to find.

The graphics are effective and add to the atmosphere of the game which is created by the eerie sound effects that follow you around the city.

Due to the size, almost constant disk access and changes are required but this isn't too bad since the program sensibly uses a turbo loader.

It will certainly take some time to complete the game, but even when you do your adventures are far from over. Alternate Reality: The City is just the first of seven episodes. Once you've conquered the city you can delve into "the dungeon", enter "the Arena", loot "the Palace", explore "the Wilderness" and then finally onto "Revelation" and "Destiny".

Alternate Reality: The City will be available from the beginning of March and is highly recommended.