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Red Storm Rising is the latest in a long, long line of wonderfully realistic and amazingly involved simulations from Microprose, and pretty darn good it is too.

As you might have already guessed, I think that Red Storm Rising is terrific. It's got everything a good simulation needs, good graphics, neat game layout: both in terms of the visual side of things and the accessibility side of things. It's got nerve shredding tension and a depth of play that my weekend's superficial playing barele managed to scratch. And it's by Sid Meier, well known for his contributions on other Microprose products such as Stealth Fighter, Gunship, Silent Service (another sub sim) and, so I've been told, the new superfast F19.

As with all the most recent Microprose "games", there are two ways to get maximum enjoyment from the product: you can bung on the key overlay, load the game, put it on easy and learn the game itself, or you can go through the manual and learn the game slowly and carefully. Now I don't know about you, but I'm all one to plunge right in at the deep end, but that's the kind of guy I am. The manual, now that I've got round to it, is great and has 108 pages of very interesting information, full of statistics an enemy vessels, weapons, areas around the globe, full battle analysis, complete step-by-step breakdown of the RSR controls and the capabilities of your sub, plus a large section completely devoted to battle tactics, which came in handy quite a few times during my underwater escapades.

The first thing you should do when loading up is watch the intro sequence. What you get, after a few advertisements for other Microprose sims, is a complete history of the plot of the game, complete with animated films. I especially liked the bit when the Whitehouse is handed over to the commies, signified by the Stars and Stripes coming down and the Hammer and Sickle being raised to the Russian National Anthem.

As with all the Microprose products, you are fed with an almost overwhelming number of options. You've got four skill levels and five subs to choose from, as well as nine different battle situations, ranging from The Dueal, which is an underwater dogfight with a Russian sub, to a Carrier Task Force, which has you on all out assault on an aircraft carrier. Plus two training missions against a knackered boat or an ancient sub that gives out more noise than Gary Whitta.

Select what you're going to do, press all the right buttons, slap on the incredibly useful key overlay (almost every key has a function) and it's away you go. Probably the two most useful keys when you start out are the Pause key, handy for flicking through the manual when you suddenly realise you don't know what you're doing, and a Help key which enables the sub's battle computer to provide you with helpful advice like "I'd launch a Harpoon or Tomahawk attack on that sonar pickup at 049 degrees, and then get out as quick as possible".

Once past all the glitz and glamour of the attract sequence, you get into the working environment of the sim proper. Viewed mainly as a set of readings and a map showing all sonar contacts in relation to you, it's clean, it's effective, and it's very easy to use.

So, you're engaging the enemy and you've got a sonar contact. What do you go? Well, first you have to identify what's out there. This can be done two ways. If it's a ship, then you can just surface and check it out with the periscope. If it's out of visual range, or is an enemy sub, you have to go through the many screens concerned with 'sonar recognition'. The basic principle behind this, as far as I can understand, is that everything has a different sonar 'signature'. Your sub's on-board computer has all the details on anything you might be likely to meet, and it's by matching the signature against signatures held on computer that you identify the enemy. Once you know what it is, you then know what it's likely to have weapons wise, and also what its capabilities are, as well as what weapon to use against it.

The key to the game, however, isn't just mindless "There's a boat, boom, oh no there isn't, oh look, there's another one..." and so on. The key is stealth. Go low and slow, sneak up on them, launch a quick but deadly attack, then get out of sight again. That's the secret.

Attacking is slow, however. You have to remember that some of these weapons travel through the water, and as they are guided, they are designed to double back should the enemy take evasive action. The flight of the missiles/torpedoes is displayed as a trail on the map, so you can look back and see just how hard that particular enemy was to sink. To liven things up, thankfully, you get short animated scenes showing the launching of the weapons, plus when/if they hit, you get to watch the death of your opponent.

Should you ever get bored with the many missions that are provided at the start, and I can't see that happening very quickly, you can always try out the full Red Storm Rising scenario, as based on the book itself.

Red Storm Rising is ace, fab, wicked and totally awesome. Well up to the Microprose standard of quality sims. I can't wait for the next one.