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Star Force Seven is a military strategy game set in a futuristic space context. You take the part of the space fleet commander, battling for 25 planets and trying to prevent the marauding Zurgs from invading Earth. Your first task is to decide how many of the various types of spacecraft you require. You have a limited number of points and must choose carefully between cruisers, transporters, spy ships and so on. Having made your decision, you decide which star to visit first.

There are 26 stars and, to make life easy, each starts with a different letter. When you reach a star, your main options begin. You can get intelligence reports on the size and population of the various planets. You may move into orbit around a planet and assault it or bombard it. If there are any enemy space fleets around you can attack them either in a random way or by picking off individual craft. If the pressure gets too much for you, you can do a star jump and hope to find somewhere safer and quieter.

This is not an arcade type of game so there is no graphic action which you control. You make general decisions and the computer then carries out the action.

When you are battling to win a planet the display consists of the numbers of troops remaining, both your own and those of the enemy. I found this game rather dull to play. It looks like the kind of game that we had five or six years ago when computers had limited graphics capabilities. It does not offer a real chance to use your own skills and relies too much on random happenings.

Another factor I disliked was that on being destroyed, I had to reload data to be able to play again. I'm afraid I even found the rather limited sound an irritant. Thankfully this can be switched out.

There are five difficulty levels ranging from easy to difficult, but even level one was too hard for me. If you like this kind of strategy game no doubt you would be pleased to add this to your collection. I'd prefer to invest my money elsewhere.

Rog Frost