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Declining an invitation to attend the Mars peace summit, the insidious Varg Empire has instead chosen this time of quiet to infiltrate the Deathscape arena and take control of the vital grid network.

Previously used to settle political differences by pitting individual combatants against one another, the majority of the arena is now in the hands of the Vargs, and the task of liberating this important region is left to you.

Strapped into the cockpit of your 'Zarquon CAM III' multi-role fighter, you enter the grid system in an attempt to track down and defeat the Varg Fleet, Battle Stations and Mothership.

The grid consists of interlinking tunnels, displayed through the main view screen as a series of moving concentric squares, giving a first-person view of the proceedings. As an aid to navigation and defence, an overlay map shows your current position and that of the main Varg vessels.

As well as the myraid of small attack craft, there are three large vessels to be dealt with. The fuel dumps and generators that regularly float into view are blown up by firing missiles at them. Upon destruction they respectively release energy, used to replenish your fuel and shield stores.

Destruction of Varg fortresses provide not only extra missiles, but also a section of the code to the Varg's mothership's cloaking device. Collecting all ten pieces of code allows you to leave the arena for the final confrontation with the mothership itself. Destroying this leviathan is no easy task however, with four direct hits necessary to put it out of action.

Your ship has a main control vessel parked outside the Deathscape, which controls the major functions of your ship. If this control vessel is attacked, you have the option to teleport outside the arena to protect the ship, at which point your viewpoint changes to that from the control vessel. Attacking aliens are then blasted as normal.

There are ten increasingly tortuous levels within the arena, and the player has the option of starting on any one, depending on personal preference.

Deathscape is impressive to look at, but on playing it doesn't take long to realise that the playability and general game structure is very poor.

There's no feeling of getting anywhere, and shooting the objects as they approach is a pretty dull and pointless exercise. It's sad that the content doesn't match the graphics and presentation - Starlight almost had a stunning game on their hands.

If the size of the game was directly related to the length of the instructions then Deathscape would be a immense game - but it's not.

It contains little more than a very basic 3D shoot-'em-up action, with a few enemies emanating from the middle of the screen. Putting different backgrounds behind the main action area doesn't create variety - all it does is show how shallow the content really is.

Deathscape is very boring and repetitive, and is only helped along by a decent tune.

Once again Starlight have released a technically polished program, which is let down by repetitive and unrewarding gameplay. The movement is neat and convincing, but the game descends to the level of a rather shallow shoot-'em-up with little to hold the interest.

The instructions are also lacking, explaining all the different ships' functions, but omitting to actually tell you what they look like! If Starlight put as much work into the gameplay as they did their long-winded scenarios, I'm sure they would have a hit on their hands.

Presentation 81%
Smart on-screen appearance and plenty of options, but instructions are lacking in some details.

Graphics 82%
Effective 3D tunnel effect and beautiful alien ships.

Sound 59%
Fairly bland soundtrack and spot effects.

Hookability 70%
Initially attractive and almost enthralling blasting action.

Lastability 45%
The repetitive nature of the gameplay fails to the attention for very long.

Value For Money 46%
Not enough variety to warrant the price.

Overall 55%
Another mediocre release from Starlight, which should have been a lot more than just another 3D shoot-'em-up.