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The much heralded Starglider was launched in late 1986 and was arguable one of the first truly 16-bit games. An excellent version did appear on the Spectrum (courtesy of the talented Realtime programming team who recently produced Carrier Command) but it was the Atari ST and Amiga versions with their fast, colourful vector graphics and sampled sound effects that really shone.

Although Starglider II looks complicated, it's basically a shoot-'em-up with the player completing a series of objectives in a strict order. Games never vary. The sequel, on the other hand, looks complicated. And it is. It's more like Paul Woakes' classic Mercenary than anything else. However, it has much more depth. Much, much more...

The biggest change is the graphics. The vectors have been replaced by technicolour filled 3D graphics which move smoothly and very quickly. The 3D effect is truly outstanding - if you think Interceptor looks impressive, just wait until you see these! The sheer variety of shapes, the Pac-Worm and Pulsating Pyramids, are amazing, the fluid animation and movement, and the feeling of depth is absolutely incredible, and sets new standards for others to aspire to.

Not only are the visuals impressive, sound has been used exceptionally well. Each craft and piece of machinery makes its own distinctive noise, which gets louder and softer as the player approaches and moves away. The Atari ST sound effects are very good, but are eclipsed by the Amiga version which sounds absolutely incredible. There's also a brilliant Amiga soundtrack, which also works on Atari STs with a double-sided drive.

One thing that mustn't go unmentioned is the fact that the disk is specially formatted to work on either an ST or Amiga - you can stick the same disk in both machines! There are few noticeable differences between the two, apart from the Amiga's superior sound effects and the fact that it moves just a little more smoothly.

The plot follows on from Starglider. The Egron forces that the player battled in the AGAV two years ago have become even more powerful. They've conquered and occupied the resource-enriched Solice System, and are currently consolidating their position and building mighty war vehicles in readiness to conquer the galaxy.

They must be stopped at all costs.

As Jaysan, hero of Starglider, it's the player's task to pilot a small, state-of-the-art Icarus craft behind enemy lines and single handedly bring the entire Egron military machine to its knees, thus saving the galaxy. Now this might sound a tall order, but using cunning and stealth rather than gung-ho suicide tactics, it is just possible that the Egron forces could be thwarted...

The odds sound a little more favourable when the Icarus is examined. Originally designed as a Police patrolcraft, it's equipped with a Plasma Drive power unit and Stardrive (designed on the planet Cosworth), a 250-round gas-plasma laser and has a Valium Dynamics energy absroption hull protected by Hi-Lev shield. Although the shield is the best of its type, it's diminished when the Icarus sustains hits, collides with other craft or buildings or flies too near the sun. Fortunately, it's possible to replenish shield energy in a variety of ways.

A very useful feature is the five-channel expansion bus, which allows up to five enhancement modules to be bolted onto the Icarus. These include Time-Warp Cuboids, Fire and Flee Missiles, Bouncing Bombs and a Neutron Bomb.

Finally, the Icarus has a large cargo deck which holds three items, including reserve enhancement modules. Items may be brought aboard using the tractor beam, which envelopes a selected object so that it can be examined, and drawn into the cargo bay if necessary.

The Solice System consists of five planets, some of which are orbited by moons, and a hazardous asteroid belt. Now, incredible though it may seem, the entire system, asteroids and all, has been programmed into the game so that a player may take off from one planet, cross the spaceways and land on another planet or moon. Each planet revolves, so that there are days and nights - you can actually see the sun rise and set. The shadows and colour of the sky changes as the sun moves across the sky, until night falls. On some planets there's even thunder and lightning.

Every planet has its own distinctive environment. Dante, a small red planet nearest the sun is inhabited by a small Ergon task force and a very strange collection of animals, grossly mutated into strange forms by the intense radiation. It's an undesirable place to land, scattered with volcanoes and gas eruptions.

Vista is a blue planet, second nearest the sun, covered in marshlands and populated by weird creatures.

The grey planet of Apogee is next. Here the Ergons have their base, so military and industrial presence are very high. Apogee has two moons, Enos and Castron, both of which are Ergon-dominated.

Millway is huge, red planet which cannot be approached too closely due to the very high atmosphere pressure. However, there is a high-altitude presence of both Egron military forces and strange creatures, including a robot duck! Millway has seven moons, Broadway, Apex, Esprit, Questa, Westmere, Synapse and Wackfunk, all heavily industrialised.

Finally there's Aldos, another planet heavily populated by the Egrons, and apparently the construction sight of a huge space station, which will be the flagship of the Egron invasion fleet. Aldos' moon, Q-Beta, has itself a small, yellow moon, although radio telescopes can get no reading of its presence. A mystery that should no doubt be investigated?

Travelling from planet to planet is made possible with the Stardrive, which kicks in at the press of a key and speeds up the Icarus by a factor of eight. Fortunately, the planets are quite close together, so a journey never takes more than a couple of minutes - anyway, there are always pirate spaceships to watch out for, as well as asteroids. When the destination is reached, the drive is switched off and the ship goes into planetfall, where it can either be guided downwards through the atmosphere to the surface, or flown back up into space again.

The mission actually starts on the surface of Apogee, right in the thick of things! Stompers walk about, ground and flying craft zoom around, and all manner of strange, alien buildings are scattered across the chequered plain. After a few minutes exploration, what looks like a large red crater can be found. Flying the ship slowly over the lip reveals a tunnel, down which the Icarus may be flown - yes, some planets also have huge underground chambers to explore!

The tunnel winds its way down into the planet, with other passages branching off in different directions.

This subterranean system is quite extensive and is the key to the game. When the Ergons invaded, the original peaceful inhabitants of the Solice System fled below ground. Finding them is of paramount importance, since it's only with their help that the Ergon threat can be neutralised. Any interaction with the underground people is displayed via on-screen text messages. Prompts and questions are answered by typing yes or no.

Once contact has been made, the mission really begins, I'm not going to tell you what exactly you have to do (it would spoil half the fun) but completing the mission involves collecting, amongst other things, a crate of sweets, a flat diamond, an asteroid and a Professor who's currently leading a research team on Broadway.

It's certainly a tough task, and fortunately the programmers have included a load/save game option - without it, the mission would be virtually impossible.

One of the many appealing factors of Starglider II is that it can be played either as an adventure (as it should be played) or as a shoot-'em-up like its forerunner (in that respect I found it far more varied and enjoyable than Starglider ever was).

The presentation is without flaw. Just about every aspect of the control method can be adjusted, and the on-screen presentation is superb. During a game, the viewpoint can be altered in a variety of ways so the proceedings can be viewed from inside or outside the Icarus. There are also options to look in all directions, which is useful just in case something tries to sneak up from behind.

If you get bored with playing, there's the 'painting with Rolf' option which allows the user to look at all the objects in the game, cycle through their animations, rotate them in any way at a variety of speeds and even paint with them!

Starglider II is an incredible program that pushes computer gaming to new heights. I can quite honestly say that I've never been so enthralled and addicted by any other game - the urge to explore is incredible. I've already spent many, many hours travelling the spaceways instead of sleeping and I'm sure that the weeks ahead will see much burning of the midnight oil!

Buy it, and prepare to be amazed!