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Last time I woke up on a beach I may have been dreaming of racing down endless corridors, desperately searching for an elusive goal as faces loomed out of the mist. Such things are the substance of nightmares, but to Nexus Productions they are the basis for a truly excellent game.

The action is set in the South American country of Colombia where a drugs ring has kidnapped your friend Tayo. As a journalist for The Clarion, your dual aims are to rescue your friend and expose the ring, aided and abetted by Nexus.

The editor has passed you a file which contains 32 rumours which must be confirmed by penetrating their HQ's defences, assisted by friendly undercover agents known collectively as the Nexus group.

The start of the mission finds you receiving your briefing as you speed through a subterranean cavern beneath the HQ complex. Arriving on terra firma once more, you pass out on the beach. When you awake, you are met by a Nexus agent. Here my observations put me at odds with the instructions. I was expecting to meet Tony but I actually met Wendy according to the digitised indentipicture. Ushered to use the lift to go down a floor, I was then met by Clive who showed me one of the blue terminals which can be used to locate a particular agent wherever they might be in the complex.

Each floor of the building requires a pass of a different colour to allow access without attracting too much attention from the guards. The only way to get a pass is by finding one of the agents with forging abilities who will happily allow you to choose one of any colour. This often leads to a problem. To reach the floor of your chosen pass means running the gauntlet across other passageways which are forbidden to you and a fight is in the offing.

Control of the character on the screen is via a series of joystick-selectable menus. This allows your character to have two basic modes, passive and active. In the passive mode, you can check how you're getting on, greet a member of Nexus or arm yourself for combat. Active mode allows you to move around the complex or to fight the enemy.

Knowing who your enemies are is half the problem, and it isn't entirely solved by the indentification system. When an agent walks onto your screen the digitised picture of a real person appears in one of the two character windows. If you do not greet them immediately and your pass is the wrong colour, an attack can be expected. Another way to annoy your friends is to try to kill them. For some reason this seems to upset them slightly.

The complex is peppered with doorways leading to rooms which may be searched for clues to the rumours. When I say that there are 128 of these to collect and that not all of the rooms contain clues, you can get a good impression of the size of the complex. Each floor is linked by a lift system but each lift only connects with certain other levels. Part of the skill of the game is to arrive on a particular floor with a suitably coloured pass.

Occasionally a room will contain something really useful. A stun gun or a cache of grenades adds a bit of extra muscle to your formidable karate skills. Neither of these weapons will kill but they can knock the enemy senseless and buy the necessary time to effect your escape.

Other rooms contain the blue terminals but, more importantly, you must find the editing suite and the communications room. With the aid of an editing computer you can sort out the rumours into a phrase which can then be transmitted back to your newspaper.

If you get weakened by attacks you're liable to be captured and thrown into a cell. Most times you will be released by a friendly agent but you may find that your rescue cannot be attempted and the mission has failed.

Three of the agents have special talents apart from forging passes. One is a gunnery expert, another specialises in grenades and the third is an informer.

Paul, the informer, wanders knowledgeably around the building. He knows the location of each and every clue but his help is of more use towards the end of the search when the rooms containing the missing clues are few and far between. He has to be told the clue number and which row of letters is missing. All he will tell you is that the location has been placed in your locator. This is a diamond of four arrows which light up to give a bearing on the object or person you wish to find. Although the indicator points straight at your objective, the path you must take is often circuitous and dangerous.

The other weapons experts will similarly load your device with the location of the nearest weapons arsenal relating to their specialist training.

When playing the game I soon found that the best floor to explore was the one you are guided to by the Nexus team. On this floor, anything goes, unless you attack one of the guards. It is one of the few floors where pass colour has no bearing.

The next most useful location is the sixth floor which is the only one to run the full length of the building. You definitely need the correct passes for this floor if the guards reaction is going to be a friendly 'Hi' or 'Good luck'. Otherwise, you will be told 'Halt', 'You're dead meat' or some other delicately threatening phrase.

If the going gets tough, the options are few. Stand and fight if you want to risk a trip to hospital, use a weapon, or hide in one of the rooms. The latter is preferable when the word 'Exhausted' appears on your screen. Resting in a hideaway will allow you to catch your breath and re-enter the fray.

I found the grenades to be a most effective device when the battle gets really rough and you find yourself outnumbered. The grenade stuns everyone in sight giving you a chance to escape before they all regain consciousness.

If you're not prepared to throw a grenade, the chances are you'll wake up in ail. If you're mission is not terminated, the other cells can harbour clues and there is often a Nexus agent at hand to change your pass. The only problem is that each time you are captured, you lose all of your weapons and any clues which have not been entered into the editing terminal. Consequently, it's best to return to the terminal as soon as possible after raiding a floor.

The terminal is used to sort the letters into an answer to one of the 32 questions listed in the instructions. Each solution is ranged across four rows of letters which form every fourth letter of the phrase. When sorted correctly the colour of the background changes as an indicator.

Occasionally you may meet Tayo but don't expect a warm welcome. He is guarded by the best guards and even he will try to attack you unless you're quick to greet him. If you want to complete the full mission then run away to find him another day. The alternative is to rescue him and make for the underground beach as fast as possible.

The screen is split into several action areas. The tops quarter shows your reporter in his current location and underneath is a 'Defender' style radar view of the rest of a wider area showing only the location of enemies (white squares) and doorways (grey squares). Sandwiched between the radar and the animated play area is a screen for displaying communications from the other characters in the adventure.

The animation is very lifelike and I especially enjoyed the battle scenes (Exploding Fist in miniature). It's a pity that more thought was not given to masking out characters who seem to be practising levitation beyond the end walls of a corridor. Very disconcerting.

This is one of the most intriguing games since Impossible Mission. It has more excitement than 'V' and challenges the brain much more than the more pedestrian martial arts games. Even the packaging is different. A pale grey plastic case marked Nexus fastened by a black clip makes it look like a document case suitable for a high level spying mission.

What does Nexus stand for? Your guess is as good as mine but it certainly means hours of enjoyment on your Commodore 64.