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Drifting aimlessly in the depths of space lie huge, mysterious landscapes inhabited by hordes of aliens intent upon your destruction. Your aim, quite simply, is their total annihilation.

The landscapes scroll diagonally across a static star-field with your fighter appearing on-screen in perspective to the background. The ship can roll left and right, loop and spin to face in the opposite direction, and rise and descend with respect to the landscape.

Your fighter comes equipped with forward-firing lasers and three smart bombs. Points are scored by destroying alien craft and specific ground features, many of which return your fire as you fly past. Elimination of all enemy ships in any zone earns the player the option to either increase the skill level or transfer to the next zone.

Large tracts of open space lie between the sections of landscape and are well defended by alien attack craft. Refuelling is possible during this flight, and is accomplished by shooting fuel-cubes which spin towards you.

A panel below the main screen shows your height above the landscape, the time left in which to complete the level, smart bombs remaining, direction of alien attack waves, and your current score.

There are three separate landscape zones - a moonscape, which is loaded as part of the main program, a cityscape and a 'Greekscape', containing Grecian columns and statues. The latter two sections are loaded separately and may be called up at any time, giving you a choice of backdrops.

Leviathan looks very impressive, but when you start playing it the illusions of grandeur are shattered. The control method must be one of the worst ever used on a shoot-'em-up.

It's so bad that it makes the ship completely unwieldy, and renders the game virtually unplayable. More time is spent concentrating on which joystick directions to use to avoid the rapidly approaching aliens than shooting them.

The game structure is nothing special either - all you have to do is shoot a defined number of aliens to progress to the next, very similar level. And this merely adds boredom to the frustration...

These days, shoot-'em-ups usually have some original features to compensate for the tired gameplay. Leviathan does, but in attempting to be innovative with a control method, English have destroyed the playability.

The fighter is far too awkward to control - it wobbles to and fro so much that I was more often than not left puzzled as to which direction I was travelling in. This, combined with the annoying use of shadow, lets the whole game down.

The only part that really appeals to me is the attract mode on the title screen - apart from that, this is another run-of-the-mill shoot-'em-up.

Leviathan is far from the best scrolling shoot-'em-up available. The control method is awful, allowing no fine adjustment of course, and leaving no room for error.

Using the fire button to access further movement commands only leads to further confusion. It's also possible to shoot at a ground target, apparently miss, and then run straight into it *without changing course*!

The backdrops are of a reasonable standard, but in many cases the passing of the ship behind ground objects is rather messy and looks very transparent. Leviathan, I'm afraid, is neither huge nor indeed very awesome.

Presentation 68% Adequate on-screen, but somewhat pointless multi-load system and poor use of joystick.

Graphics 80% Superbly drawn backdrops and sprites.

Sound 53% Bland title tune and unsuitable spot effects.

Hookability 54% Awkward and incredibly frustrating, mainly due to the needlessly over-complicated controls.

Value For Money 31% Expensive for a glorified, and in many ways inferior, version of Zaxxon.

Overall 41% A sadly uninspiring variant of an ageing shoot-'em-up. Temptingly attractive, but bitterly disappointing.