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The Seiddab are back! Hewson Consultants have resurrected their old arch-nasties for their latest game, but this time around the author, Steve Turner has used the same sort of programming techniques that worked so well in his two Avalon games.

Astroclone has a number of similarities to Marsport, in that Hewson have taken a formula that worked well in mythological settings and turned it to a science fiction setting. Taking the part of a crack Astroclone warrior, you must gain control of the Seiddab bases in order to deactivate the Stargates that they used to reach Earth.

The graphic layout of the game is of course similar to that of the Avalon games, but this time you have more than one stage to the game. You can either move around the bases (or Technibo as they are called) in search of the Graviton devices you will need, or you can take off in your fighter and head off to combat the Seiddab cruisers. These two parts of the game provide a nice balance; the action in the bases is of the problem solving arcade-adventure style, whilst the space combat is a fun piece of shoot-'em-up action.

Astroclone is quite compex (the reviewers' notes that Hewsons sent out with the game make quite a fat folder), and though I enjoyed it I'm not sure if it will appeal to everyone. Like Avalon and Dragontorc the problem solving can slow the game down quite a lot in places, and despite the combat sequences the game may not appeal to the shoot-'em-up brigades.