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The Bismarck was the pride of the Germany Navy. Thought to be unsinkable, she was completed in 1941 and plans were then drawn up for her to break out of her Baltic port into the Atlantic, where she and her support ship, the cruiser Prinz Eugen, could terrorise British convoys. Obviously, it was the British intention that she should do no such thing and, if they couldn't actually sink the Bismarck, they could at least cause enough damage to keep her in port for a long time.

The Bismarck's maiden voyage was actually her last. British Intelligence had picked up and decoded messages concerning her mission so the hunt was on. The Bismarck's plan was to sail from the Baltic up round Greenland and then down into the Atlantic. The British had to eep tabs on her while amassing sufficient forces to cause her real damage.

Bismarck made good her escape from port under cover of fog and was not picked up again until she was just off the Greenland coast. Guided by two cruisers, the British battleships, Hood and the Prince of Wales, honed in on their target, but in a short battle, the Hood was sunk and the Prince of Wales withdrew, although not before it had inflicted damage on the Bismarck. Further damage was then caused to the German ship by a torpedo attack from a Swordfish torpedo squadron launched from the carrier, Ark Royal. There was no escape for the Bismarck now, and a circle of ships waited for dawn in order to finish off the crippled battleship.

In the game, Bismarck, you can choose to play either side. The objectives are similar to those set out above. The British forces try to sink or hinder the Bismarck, the German forces try to make good their escape. The game is a mixture of strategy and action and is controlled by a series of menus and icons.

Apart from choosing which side you play, you can also select different levels of difficulty and whether you want to play the whole game or just one of the set encounters. This latter option gives you the chance to practise the action screens without the strategy element and is ideal for brushing up your technique of, for example, flying torpedo planes.

The strategy element takes place on the map screen. Your first job is to actually find the Bismarck. This requires the use of your radar, although you may be able to use spotter planes as well. There are also messages from the admiralty giving the Bismarck's position which has been found from intercepted radio messages. You must also check on the weather as it is a fair bet that the Bismarck will try to escape under a band of heavy cloud at night. You can manoeuvre your forces as you see fit with the objective of getting them close enough to force an encounter.

A battle switches the scene and takes you to the heart of the ship. Here you must control guns, movement and damage control or, if you are a destroyer rather than a battleship, torpedoes.

A useful tactic when manoeuvring your vessel is to aim for the place where the enemy's last shots landed - assuming they missed! The theory behind this is that the enemy will have noted the miss and corrected his sights. Damage must be repaired quickly. Explosions in a magazine, shell-room or boiler are not very healthy for your or your crew. The action screens are icon-controlled and you will find that you need to think and react very quickly to the varying challenge.

If you are flying a Swordfish, you must fly your plane at the right speed and height before releasing your torpedo. This is hard enough to do if you are flying in a straight line but almost impossible if you are corkscrewing round the sky trying to avoid a barrage of anti-aircraft fire.

Bismarck is just about the best game PSS has released to date. Reminiscent of Destroyer from US Gold/Epyx on the C64, the combination of strategy and action works very well and the result is a challenging and entertaining game. Highly recommended.