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Not content with the success of the original Repton, Superior Software has come up with a sequel which fairly bursts from the screen in a riot of skill, colour and excitement.

In style it is very similar. The change only becomes apparent when you play.

You are stunned right from the start by the astounding "voice" which talks to you as the game is loading - real sci-fi horror stuff! It's just about understandable if you don't look at the words as they are reproduced on the screen, and turns out to be not the bogeyman about to leap out at you from your computer, but a preview of a forthcoming speech package from Superior.

The sound continues to impress all the way through the game, with distinctly above-average, even tuneful, music. It's a fitting accompaniment to the quality of the game itself.

You are in a maze, hunting for diamonds as big as yourself. There are 1,634 of them, and you must get them all before you can complete the game. You also have to collect earth, 4,744 pieces of it, kill all 18 monsters lurking in the maze, use all the 64 transporters which whisk you off to different parts of the maze and collect 42 jigsaw puzzle pieces.

Apart from monsters, there are other hazards - falling meteors and boulders, spirits and evil-looking skulls which kill at a touch. One of the many problems of Repton is that you can't kill monsters directly - you must arrange for boulders to fall on them; not an easy matter.

Great cunning and deviousness is required. The only way to get rid of the spirits is to trick them into cages, where they turn into diamonds.

Some diamonds are hidden in safes, and to open them you must find the combination key. Trickier still, you have to plan your route most carefully, ensuring that you don't get cut off by falling rocks, or block off a section containing a vital diamond, transporter, key or jigsaw piece.

If you allow a boulder to seal off a passage containing so much as one diamond, you cannot complete the game.

The graphics are smooth and very colourful, and the game as a whole is demanding and absorbing.