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I hoped Martech's new adventure would come up to a high standard because I had criticised their last offering on a false premise. I had claimed the instructions were inaccurate when, in fact, I had read them incorrectly.

For Odyssey Of Hope, Martech has turned from Commodore to Spectrum and they sent me the game with a letter expressing their hope that I did no tfind the print on the inlay too small. All too often the inlay on a standard cassette has almost microscopic printing to squeeze it all in - have you noticed?

Anyway - no grounds for complaint this time - the inlay was clear, precise and uncluttered. Additional instructions were supplied on one side of the tape itself - to be loaded only if required.

On to the game proper, and here we come to the nitty gritty. What's in the pudding, I wondered?

Odyssey Of Hope sets the player the task of returning Hope to the top of Mount Olympus. Hope was man's only gift following the escape of everything nasty when Pandora's box was opened. The player starts in the Temple and progresses as he may!

The game has graphics at every location and I have never seen such fast displaying graphics before on the Spectrum.

There is an unusual text-screen format, whereby the visible objects are always displayed and updated just below the right-hand side of the picture. The prompting BEEP actually sounds some few seconds before the prompt appears.

The response time varies considerably, depending upon the command entered, and things therefore tend to become confused, with the eager player starting to type his next command before the computer is ready to receive it.

Taking an object gives by far the longest delay - an incredible eight-second wait! Admittedly, the way the screen displays the replies gives one the impression that the time is far less, but that was the actual time and hence the confusion!

The game has a score feature based on problems solved and these seem to be banded in lumps of 4%. Unfortunately, there are many of those "You are dead" locations, at which, without any warning whatsoever, you find yourself kaput, with no way of anticipating the danger.

It's been said before - anyone, but anyone, can devise an adventure so based. Luckily there is a save routine and I certainly had to use it to play the game enough to be able to write this review!

I wandered into a wooden hut which was apparently a workshop. Within were a number of items of possible use, so I collected the lot, then turned around to make my way back.

"The door won't open," came the reply. "Why on earth not?" I thought. No logic whatsoever - merely a plot to put the player in a position where he has to try every possible trick to escape a trap which he had no way of anticipating.

So, to while away the time, I ate the fish I found on the table and got fishbones. I tried picking the lock with them and eventually found I could cut the door using the bones - despite the fact that I had a perfectly good sword with me which helped not one bit!

As I said - illogical - so I make no apologies for telling you how!

On I plodded, coming to the conclusion that here was one of those games that could be described as "competent", its saving grace being the spectacular speed of its graphics.

Odyssey Of Hope is from Martech for 48K Spectrum.