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Topical or tasteless? Hijacking is a fact of modern life, though the activities of the Department of Hijacks have more to do with the silver screen than the real world.

You have to keep the lid on the sizzling situation as the pressure builds. Carry the can and co-ordinate the efforts of the government departments, handling each crisis with tact, discretion... and some military might will also help!

Run around the offices - no-one seems to know what the phones are for - giving orders to operatives and searching for codes to access various databases. You decide how many soldiers to send out, how many diplomats to deploy, and how to keep President Rod happy before you negotiate a peaceful settlement, surrender to demands or go for Reaganite cowboy heroics, hoping your boys shoot first and fast.

Success means another, more difficult hijack - failure means anything from the big E to jail! And you don't even get a coffee break between crises!

It's all very different in appearance from the traditional text management-resource game, though the strategies remain the same, even when they're adorned with animated figures enjoying the frustrations of a 22 room office building. Mind you, this action element creates an added degree of involvement.

At first you may find yourself doing little more than waiting for lifts. Eventually though, you'll build up a picture of what to do first and when to approach staff with certain demands. Remember, just as in real life, hell hath no fury like a bureaucrat who's been asked to do a job he doesn't want to!

The Fourth Protocol was the game that stopped strategy being a dirty word and while this is nowhere near so involved, nor quite so involving in the long run, it is undeniably accessible. As the seconds tick away and the only place you've not looked for the President is his private toilet, your palms will start to sweat as you realise the fate of 18 innocent school kids hangs on how long Rod remains in the loo!