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One of last year's more unusual games, which built up a deserved cult following (or should that be Celt following?) was Tir Na Nog by Gargoyle Games. Dun Darach is the second game to star Cuchulainn, but as the story is set earlier than Tir Na Nog, it can best be described as a prequel.

By a nasty bit of trickery, the Sorceress Skar has kidnapped your charioteer Leog, and taken him off to the city of Dun Darach. You instantly vow to get him back and your quest begins with you inside the secret city.

The mechanisms of the game are the same as Tir Na Nog. You can only walk left or right on the screen, if you want to turn a corner, you do so by changing the camera angle by ninety degrees. There are, however, several major differences between Tir Na Nog and Dun Darach.

The first is that there are many more characters for you to meet and do business with, and this necessitates the second major change which is the introduction of currency in the form of small multi-coloured coins called iridi. Throughout the course of the game, you will have to buy and sell different articles such as books, wine, hemlock, gold bars, etc.

You will also have your money stolen or be conned but you may gain it back through working or gambling, or even investing it in the bank. The purpose of all this wheeling and dealing is to buy sufficient information to find the location of your friend.

Being set in a city, the game is easier to map than Tir Na Nog. All the streets are named and the houses numbered, just as in a real city. The city is approximately divided into a series of quarters, each with a different function - for example, Argot (the "money" quarter), The Soke (the dispossessed), Iomain (the pleasure quarter) and Ratha-De (the Streets of the Gods). The houses are usually occupied by various traders very willing to do business with you whilst you tend to meet the other main characters out in the streets.

Dun Darach is a worthy successor to Tir Na Nog and appears to have much greater complexity than its predecessor due to its excellent character interaction. Fans of Tir Na Nog will be sure to love this one but newcomers may prefer to get to grips with the original.