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While US Gold may not have liked Garrison enough to buy the company, they certainly recognised a winner in the Digital Dreams program. That, and the fact that Garrison was just a little too much like Gauntlet, caused US Gold to make the German company an offer they couldn't afford to refuse.

Doubtless bolstered by this success, the programmers went away and spent the next file or so months working on the sequel called, with a singular lack of inspiration, Garrison II.

This time the Princess Angelique has suddenly fallen ill and only the magic herb which can be found at the very top of a dark magician's castle can save her. The same five characters who slogged it out in the original get to do it all over again through another 128 energy-sapping levels.

So much for the plot, the question of whether the herb actually exists is rather incidental as I can't honestly see anyone completing this game. If you played and loved the original Garrison you are either going to love the sequel, or be very disappointed, both for the same reason. Yes, what Ultimate did with Knight Lore and Alien 8, and got so roundly criticised for, Digital has done here. Garrison II is the same game as the original but with new floorplans and a couple of new monsters.

When I say the same game, I really mean this is the same game program. The lazy Germans have kept the same excellent sampled music on the title page and high score tables, the annoying factor of all the characters looking the same unless you have a one meg Amiga, and the character names and statistics. You can even use disc two, the scenery disc, of Garrison II with disc 1 of Garrison 1, or vice versa.

If you already have the original then further reading is not required, rush out and treat yourself to more of the same quality arcade action. If not, read on.

Garrison is not so much a Gauntlet variant, but rather a straight clone. Up to five different characters can enter the castle, although only two can be in play at once, each having their own good and bad points. These stats can be altered, for better or worse, through quaffing one of the many potions lying around the place.

However, nothing short of a miracle is going to do the elf any good, who while being very nimble-footed, is a complete wimp and rapidly ends up as monster fodder.

Locked doors, secret doors and breakable doors help bar the way, while keys and teleports aid in circumnavigating them. And all the while the largest and meanest collection of unfriendly sprites ever to occupy a dungeon (or tower) or lining up to belt you.

The play screen is not only large, but scrolls fairly quickly and smoothly, even when weighed down by the massed hordes of monsters out to toast you. Some of the swines are particularly nasty, just like the programmer's sense of humour with levels entitled "Deluxe Pain II", "Summer Games III" and "Dinner For One".

Death is, as ever, an everyday problem. Not just dying, but the bloke in the black outfit wielding the scythe, ready to chop any regular hero down to size. In your defence, there's the smart bomb style scroll, and chicken legs, chunks of meat and first aid kits to repair some of the damage afterwards.

And so it continues, problems and puzzles, oodles of hacking and slaying and magic, sampled effects punctuating the dull ringing noise that permeates the game, and the excellent music when it's all finally over and the quest has come to an end.

If you have already bought Garrison 1, then the question is... do you want to pay a hefty £25 for an extra set of levels? If you've haven't, then the choice is much easier.