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Elite with grass, is all that I can say about this game. If you have ever wondered why Atari owners stopped winging about the lack of Elite for their old type 6502 Ataris a couple of months ago, then Commodore 64 owners will soon be able to find out.

Mercenary: Escape From Targ is a 3D vector graphic game of epic proportions. You are cast as a mercenary en route between star systems that has a blow out in his novadrive (heh, heh) then follows a lengthy, but entertaining sequence where you dive towards a planet and end up with your nose stuck in the ground.

From there you must progress to find the only ship on the planet capable of interplanetary travel. To do this, you must beg, borrow and steal your way around the planet - a few jobs of work (remember the title) may appear and there are plenty of other craft and buildings for you to shoot at (or not!).

The 3D imagery is truly brilliant and is up to Elite standards, despite being just a little bit jerky. The game uses text input in an adventure style as well as the more usual graphical sequences and there is a lot of brainwork needed. Your main communication is with your (t)rusty robot friend Benson, who communicates with the outside world on your behalf. So you can buy your first ship through him, work out how to fly the thing, and your exploits continue from there.

The Planet has two warring parties on it so there should be plenty of work for a mercenary like you.

An excellent game with the quality of Elite, but with a totally different theme. Well worth buying, in fact - excellent.