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Many games are becoming increasingly difficult to categorise. To look at the screenshots on the back of Doctor Creep, you would be forgiven for thinking that this was just another platform game. You could not be more wrong if you tried. Certainly, there are ladders and poles to be climbed, but there is no mad eaping about from block to block. The emphasis of this game is on puzzle solving rather than split-second timing. You are however allowed some assistance if you want it, for two people can play together!

You have obviously upset your boss, for he has had you transferred to the company's Transylvanian branch. Looking for somewhere to live, you call in at the nearest travel agent - your first big mistake. "Certainly sir, we do a lovely line in castles, thirteen we've got on the books at the moment but then Sir isn't superstitious is Sir? Step this way, please." Unfortunately, it appears that once you have started the grand tour, you can't back out. Things get even more suspicious when your host declines to accompany you.

Your suspicions are soon confirmed as you enter the first castle. The rooms all seem to contain typical Transylvanian furnishings such as trapdoors, lightning machines, ray guns, matter transmitters, one-way platforms, force fields, mummies and frankensteins. All you have to do is find your way out, then there are only twelve more castles left. All the rooms contain one or more doors which lead to other parts of the castle. Some require you merely to press a doorbell, others are locked and need the appropriate key. Most of the objects can be manipulated in some way so that you can switch the lightning machines on and off and use the ray guns to shoot the mummies etc (assuming that they don't shoot you first).

Progress through a room requires considerable planning and thought. Various switches will need to be activated whilst monsters mut be killed or trapped. It ought to be possible to get through by yourself, but I had a noticeable lack of success using this method. The game allows for two players though and this gives Doctor Creep an added fascination. Unlike other games where you compete against your opponent, here you need to co-operate with him. This should lead to all sorts of recriminations between players as to who should go where and pull which switch and why did you open the trapdoor underneath me partner? Great fun! A third playable option is to use two joysticks but control them both yourself and this is the method I used when I eventually wored out how to escape from my first castle.

As well as the game, a lot of thought has also gone into the extra little touches. As you load the main program on side one, you get the chance to practise all the different tricks and traps. A menu lets you choose which of the thirteen castles you wish to explore and there is also an infinite lives option - a boon to cack-handed reviewers. You can even save your current position for resumption at a later stage.

This is a highly original game and with over 200 different rooms to explore, enough to keep even the most hardened player quiet for a bit. It makes a most pleasant change to find a highly addictive game that requires strategy rather than reactions in order to succeed. It is also great fun to play, especially when two of you are playing together. Go and buy a copy.