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Vortex Software got some very good reviews for their earlier games, which featured three dimensional graphics of helicopters and jets flying over various landscapes. Now however, they've improved upon the quality of their graphics to the extent that they rival the quality of my all-time mega-favourite game, Knightlore.

The game itself is relatively simple - a shoot-'em-up between your force of Vortons and the alien beings that try to stop you from reaching their stronghold beyond Zone Zero, at the end of the highway.

Your five Vortons travel together in a sort of conga line, heading in a straight line along the road, and stopping only if an obstacle bars their way. As they go along, your Vortons push in front of them your secret weapon, the Lasertron. This is only activated when it reaches Zone Zero.

One of the Vortons (the auto-Vorton) is under independent control (that's you) and can move freely throughout the three dimensional roadway, zapping aliens and removing obstacles from the path of the other Vortons.

Though the quality of the graphics invite comparison with Knight Lore, they are very different types of games. Knight Lore, with all its rooms to explore and objects to collect, was an arcade/adventure, but Highway Encounter is pure arcade and is faster and much more frantic than Knight Lore. The three dimensional graphics put it in the front rank of shoot-'em-ups. The animation is very smooth, and all the moving figures finely detailed. Like Ultimate, Vortex have wisely chosen to keep the use of colour quite simple to avoid attribute problems.

I found joystick control a bit confusing, so I opted for keyboard control instead, and though I got used to that fairly quickly I do think that there should have been a facility to allow the player to define his/her own choice of keys (some of us are left-handed you know, and the fixed keys used by this game are in a right-handed arrangement).

My only doubt is that as the highway is always the same, it might eventually get a bit boring going through the early stages of the game over and over each time you play (at least Knight Lore allowed you to start in different places and take different routes). Mind you though, this is £2 cheaper than the recent Ultimate games, which makes it very good value.