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Lordy, lordy! No sooner do I cry out for adventures written using the Graphic Adventure Creator+ when Tony Rome (Wasn't he a Frank Sinatra detective character?) drops The Argon Factor on my desk, says "Hah!" with smug satisfaction and waltzes out of the door with a job well-done!

Hmmm. So let's take a look-see. The game comes on one disk plus a nicely presented six-page manual detailing the game and a competition with £1,000 worth of sponsored prizes, including an Amiga and a colour printer.

The science fiction plot involves you as Captain Cord, holder of the Space Medal of Honour and all-round cool dude who's in a pickle. It's like this. Valdira has wiped out your starships during the Zorvian war. Never mind that, though, it was the capture of Lieutenant Anikra, a woman (whoops, love interest warning, love interest warning, lov...) who had selflessly (foolishly?) aided your escape only to be captured herself. But, there's more. An incriminating piece of evidence, forged of course, landed on Earth. Valdira had impersonated you, sending your fleet to its doom. You were left responsible, therefore. All you have in the world is dear ol' Lap, a robot who's not much help in his current battered state. So you are in pursuit of a video tape to prove your innocence. Three years later and you receive a faint coded message from the Velusian Belt. It could only be from Anikra!!!

So what in the Sam Hill do we have here? Well, a very average text/graphic adventure I'm afraid - and there was I getting all excited. The plot is very linear. You are dragged by the scruff of the neck around every location and woe behind you if you show signs of having a mind of your own! Why? Well, sudden deaths proliferate, propagate and procreate. In other words - there's too many of 'em! In addition, some aspects of the gameplay are just plain unfair. For example, there I was holding a crystal that 'emitted a powerful light'. I drop the thing in the same location and am immediately thrown into total darkness; I stumble and die. Why? That's all, just tell me why? What happened to the light? No-one said that it was only triggered by human touch or anything!

On a design front I could have, at times, done without the "time" screens. They were a bit frustrating at times because they tended to zip past without me reading them. I like a leisurely read, y'see and if something attracts my attention or if I decide to get some paper to do a bit of mapping I want the screen to stay where it is in the meantime! The parser is also a bit on the old-fashioned side. For example, 'all' and 'and' are not recognised, input response can be a pain too as it can be very slow at times.

However, after all that, The Argon Factor is still playable, especially to any text/graphic fans out there. It is not a dreadful adventure, just very disappointing. Please give it another try Tony, but let's see some improvement next time, huh?