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Time to save the world again as a planet-sized U.F.O. is on collision course with Earth

Everyone dreaded ever receiving a Priority One order from Star Fleet Command. It was the regular nightmare of a certain Captain Allen. Thankfully though, Captain Allen didn't control a big fighter, or a space carrier, so he wouldn't get a Priority, would he?

So his mission had been a failure, even Star Fleet Command wouldn't execute a captain of a mining ship, would they? Surely not. Flying back from the outer reaches of space, all these thoughts, together with many more, were skipping about Captain Allen's mind.

How could he be expected to know that, at that very minute, an unidentified flying object, roughly the size of Earth's moon, was rushing at 99.9% the speed of light, towards his home, Earth. He could also hardly have guessed that at a general council meeting, the Ambassador for the Ukraine had just passed a resolution stating that a small ship called The Windwraith should examine the object before it was blown apart by missiles.

One thing Captain Allen did know was that his ship was called The Windwraith, and he had just received a Priority One order.

This is where you take control of the mission, now called Omega after the U.F.O. Having selected whether you wish to use joystick or keyboard, you are then ready to take on this challenge. You have one hour - in total, to make the Omega inactive, by shutting down all four reactors.

As if this were not enough, you must then escape, with all your crew. If you succeed, you will probably be heralded as a hero, given a Knighthood, two million pounds, etc. If you fail, well it could be worse, but not much.

Mission Omega is Argus Press' latest attempt to have a hit, and they may just have cracked it. Unlike many games, it cannot be fairly categorised, as it combines arcade adventure, with strategy and shooting. And all this is icon-driven. Most of these are pretty obvious, with a bin halting any intended moves, and the rest being labelled.

At the top of the first screen are four icon headings, and to start with you must choose to build some robots with which to map the Omega, and accomplish your increasingly difficult task. Once you have chosen to build a robot, you are given various different options. Firstly, you must choose the robot you wish to use as a base unit. Some are fast, but can only carry a little weight. Consequently there are others that can carry anything but are very slow.

Having chosen the robot, you must choose a weapon, a navigatinal device, and a power pack. Again, there are different choices in each category, with weight being the vital factor. However much you would like a fast robot with infra-red sensors, missiles and a nuclear battery, this is just not possible!

Having decided on the first robot, you must name him. If you wish to start playing, you may however, build more than one robot. As you find out when you first embark into the spaceship, having a few robots is a very necessary precaution.

Controlling the robots is a matter of choice, and position. The three options are automatic, program, or manual. Using automatic is good very early on, but to get anywhere it is necessary to either program a previously used route, or to do it all manually. Getting lost is a very real problem, so sticking together and using the map is essential for the first few minutes.

As the game is played, so the screen is updated depending on which robot you are currently controlling. At any time, you can swap from one robot to another, and indeed this is essential to allow each robot's batteries to recharge. Also displayed on screen is the ever-decreasing amount of time, you have to finish the mission, or die (mostly the latter).

Most of the U.F.O. is made up of separate rooms and corridors, with the odd computer, and even some baddies, who range from very easy to dispose of, to pretty impossible. Both the graphics and the sound are good, especially animation of the robots, which enables them to be distinguished at first glance.

Mission Omega is one of the best games to come from the Argus stable of companies, in this case Mind Games. It combines neat graphics with some excellent basic ideas, and comes up with a game that should appeal to everyone willing to spend more than ten minutes trying to save the world from imminent destruction.