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It's 2320 and the Outies have launched an attack on Mankind's far flung space empire. To gain energy they're converting colonies into Black Holes. All that stands in their way are sixteen Scoutships, led by you of course.

Despite the familiar plot, this is certainly not your average alien-bashing shoot-'em-up. It's a complex game, so pay attention! The arcade action occurs in Einstein-Minkowski Four-Space, representing space-time as a rubber sheet which dips around stars and planets to show their gravity wells. What this really means is that there's a rather hilly, multi-directionally scrolling playfield!

There are 128 playfields (or solar systems) to explore. You move between them by entering Black Holes, which automatically take you where your latest orders instruct. There are five types of missions:

1. Exploration 2. Terraforming - colonizing planets 3. Military Action - entering Outie-occupied systems, blasting enemy ships, and turning their Black Holes into suns. 4. Colony Protection - escorting colony ships 5. Route Construction - establishing Black Holes so you can jump to previously unreachable systems.

Control of your scoutship is relatively simple, with keys recommended. However, there are plenty of options, including three types of engine, guns and customized missiles (alter everything from guidance to engine. For defence there are drones (which you can pre-program using flow charts!) and a Black Globe Generator which envelopes baddies in an impenetrable energy field. Even more important are Tools which can turn a Black Hole into a sun, a planet into a colony, evaporate an Outie Black Hole, or make a rocky planet inhabitable. Extra equipment can be bought at colonies by earning cash from hits - damage inflicted on either the enemy or yourself!

You start the game at Star Command (StarCom), which can give between 0% and 99% of the vital strategic orders to all the Scoutships (including your own). Should you want to give an order you can use the Holo Tank to examine the galaxy, set markets on stars then select an order (i.e. Explore, Colonize, Skirmish, Conquer and Convoy). You can assume direct control of any of the ships, and when you die you automatically go to the next ship.

The Outies have three types of ship: Engineer ships (convert suns into Black Holes), Warships (eight types, including Kamikazes and Carriers) and Control/Engineering Platforms (four sizes, which carry the two previous ship types). These vary considerably in size, and can make life very difficult...

After struggling through the scenario you might be a little baffled, it's enough to puzzle even me! But underneath all the jargon, Gravity is essentially a strategic shoot-'em-up with plenty of knobs.

The core arcade game, with your ship rolling around an isometric playfield shooting off missiles, is hardly astonishing although some enemy graphics are great and the range of weaponry is impressive.

The strategy game is very challenging, with plenty of orders and ships to mess about with. An intriguing and innovative game, which some people will love, even though I honestly never got hooked myself.

This strategy/arcade game has more detail crammed into it than almost any other game I can think of. It even gives Midwinter a run for its money on the complexity front, although this does mean a lot of disk accessing when you call up menus.

It's also a pity the strategy area isn't more user-friendly. As for the arcade element, zapping baddies by rotating left/right, thrusting, and pressing fire is a lot like Asteroids - playable but not astonishing. The massive selection of weapons, programmable drones, and some great baddies add some variety but a lot of the action demands close attention to radar due to a very restricted view of surrounding space on the main display. The tactical/strategic element is probably strongest with plenty of ships, planets and missions to deal with.

Presentation 82% Redefinable keys, choose strategy level, save game and drone programming. But the manual isn't as good as it should be.

Graphics 75% Limited, ST-ish palette but some good enemies.

Sound 54% Okay intro tune, in-game FX mediocre with an electric razor engine.

Hookability 61% Initially very baffling, and high difficulty level discouraging.

Lastability 80% Saving Humanity has never been harder... a formidable challenge.

Overall 76% An innovative strategy/arcade game.