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Sea Wolf from Optima Software is a new kind of war game, combining logic with action. You set about destroying the enemy fleets in the submarine Seawolf, trying your best not to get wiped out in the process.

You can start off as a rating, where the enemy (bless his sporting heart) gives you a run for your money, and end up as a captain, where the enemy (the swine) will try and squelch you as soon as you poke your nose outside the base.

The second phase is where you line up the target in your sights and let fly with either torpedoes or lasers. An average Seawolf target can absorb about twelve hits from torpedoes and half as many from the lasers before becoming a kill. All the time you're attacking, if the target is a warship, you are sustaining damage from his counterattack. The kills accumulate, and fifteen is a completed mission. Unfortunately, the damage accumulates as well and 100 per cent means curtains.

You can, however, return to base between attacks if you so wish and "zeroise" any excitement. Choosing 'soft' civilian targets is an easy way of ending up with fifteen kills. I did this quite often. (I suppose you could say I'm just a sheep in Seawolf clothing!)

Anyway, Sea Wolf is slightly different, but I thought only just above average. Available graphics are under-utilised, and I would have liked to see more colour used. Also more imagination could have gone into representing the target ship - whether it be a tanker or a battleship, the image is exactly the same.

Having said that, if you want a war game that is out of the ordinary and isn't just zapping aliens then Sea Wolf will fit the bill.

Derek Schofield