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Although Adventuresoft, this game's authors, are not exactly the same as the late Adventure International, the two companies are related, and Kayleth is visually similar to AI's output. What pleasantly surprised me is that Kayleth is much better than AI's games, which were always too close to Scott Adams' poor style for my liking.

The plot is good, being based on a story from Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. The Zyronean were an advanced, peaceful civilisation until the arrival of the awesome being Kayleth and his obsessional craving for Chromazin. Kayleth enslaves the Zyroneans using his android armies. You, a loyal Zyronean, had planned to liberate your planet when you were captured. When you regain consciousness, you're strapped to a conveyor belt, heading slowly but surely towards some menacing steel claws. You remember nothing.

Like many of AI's games, Kayleth sets you right in at the deep end with this predicament. Your method of escape, and other events early on in the game, lead you to discover something rather alarming about yourself. You are a... but I mustn't give the plot away!

The graphics are really high quality; AI's always were the best on the Spectrum - and these carry on the tradition admirably. They are instant, high resolution, colourful and detailed. All of the numerous locations are illustrated, an impressive achievement since the graphics are not notably repetitive (although many are symmetrical, which presumably helps). An added bonus is occasional animation. Yes, the steel claws grab at you while emitting drops of liquid, the Mokki Ray's two heads move up and down, a hover-pad spins and so on. This is novel and quite well done, though sometimes too jerky. It also causes the typing speed to slow down dramatically.

Normally, graphics of this standard mean low quality description and adventure, but I'm glad to say this is not the case in Kayleth. While text is not up to Level 9 standard, it isn't ridiculously brief either. There are pleasing touches like one of four random responses to typing HELP (they all mean no, but the variety is welcome!) Vocabulary is friendly enough, and the praser is multi-word. It has sophisticated features, including use of IT and THEM in sentences, RAM LOAD and SAVE, GET/DROP ALL and, best of all, BOM - Back One Move, a useful feature which even Level 9 didn't include in their last release.

Also notable was the Preview option given at the start of the game, which shows the player some of the locations he will encounter. Helpful if you're not good enough to reach them when playing for real!

There are some fun puzzles and the game is commendably logical so reasonably easy (what I have seen so far, anyway). I was very impressed with Kayleth; it offers a good game for the occasional adventurer due to its graphics and logicality, while the hardened player will appreciate its sophisticated features and enjoyable plot. Very narrowly misses Monster Hit status.