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Deep in space a Federation cargo ship has come under heavy attack from alien fighters. Survivors of the doomed freighter are attempting to reach safety by using the ship's escape pods, but these are also being fired upon by the unscrupulous aliens.

As the pilot of the nearest Federation vessel capable of dealing with the alien threat, the job of protecting the escapees fails to you and your vessel - Force One.

The screen takes a side view of the proceedings with your ship flying from left to right, across a scrolling backdrop of twinkling stars. Waves of alien fighters attack in an attempt to end your mission of mercy - these are either avoided or blown to bits.

An on-screen message warns of the approach of each escape pod so that you can avoid blasting it by mistake. Allowing the pod to safely leave the screen awards you with a bonus score, and the Force One changes colour - a signal that you have reached the next level.

Contact with alien vessels or the pods themselves results in the destruction of your ship, with your mission continuing until your three lives have been used up.

Although a complete rip-off of every horizontally scrolling shoot-'em-up known to man (and a pretty bland one at that), Force One is in fact quite playable. The attacking alien ships are quite smart, and some of the wave formations are pretty devious as well.

One major gripe is the fact that once an alien vessel has bit the dust, the remaining dust can bite back: running into a cloud of vapour proves fatal. This is annoying at first but soon becomes part of the game and is easily overcome by some nifty flying.

Force One isn't exactly the state of the art in C64 programming, but it kept me amused - for a while, anyway.

Shoot-'em-ups don't come any simpler than this, as Force One is vasically a variant on the first level of Sanxion. Alien ships whizz in from the right, you shoot them... and that's it!

There aren't any extra weapons to pick up, or motherships, or bonus screens - just waves and waves of alien ships which keep on coming until you die. The graphics are quite pretty... but there's little else of note.

Presentation 72%
Smart on-screen look, with a pause and restart for good measure.

Graphics 51%
Basic sprites and a pretty starfield, but little else.

Sound 23%
No music and a simple 'swish' on the destruction of a ship.

Hookability 58%
Incredibly simplistic shooting action which is easy to pick up and play.

Lastability 43%
Though slightly tedious, it's challenging enough to keep a fan of mindless shoot-'em-ups amused for a short while.

Overall 48%
The shoot-'em-up reduced to its simplest form.