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Intergalactic kidnapping is suddenly big business, but there seems to be no rhyme or reason for it, except to populate the ominous Matrix prisons owned by the Cratons.

The latest victims are harmless mechanical race called the Bioptons who, despite their request that they be left alone to rust in peace, are not about to scrap their buddies. Fiendish security systems make a rescue attempt impossible by anything other than a lone Biopton.

Nimrod is chosen by the Biopton Government, given a space ship and told to land on each section of the Matrix planetary network, overcome the security devices and rescue hostages. There are a seemingly infinite number of matrix prisons on which to land and a limited amount of time - 99 minutes - before the hostages are executed.

You're first given the opportunity to select a matrix level by scanning a cursor across a star map on your space ship's viewer. Pressing fire when you are over one of these levels takes you down to a landing sight to which you'll return with your hostages or if you want to get back to your ship for any other reason, such as your energy running low.

Nimrod is lightly armed when he enters a complex but he'll need to find other weaponry, such as the Lazatron, Megabolt and Megatron if he's to deal with the monsters and traps the Cratons have left for intruders. The guards are the most obvious of his worries and, if his firepower is low, it's best to be out of any situation which involves them.

The ground is laden with energy disruptors, spikey mines, floor pad operated doors, black ice, rebound and energy loss squares. Rebound squares are particularly dangerous if arranged in a semi-square. Once you're in its arms, it takes a lot of force to break free of the magnetic push and pull. As for the black ice, I'm not sure whether you fall through into the depths of the prison or into a black hole.

Cratons are unusual captors; they've included elements in their prisons which'll help potential rescuers. You can leap up onto walls stepping on blue arrow squares and read your position off a map displayed when you step on a square marked 100 - or Loo, I'm again not sure. There are also crates, labelled like alphabet bricks, scattered around which you can push onto the floor pads for the pressure-activated doors.

A final word of warning - which is more than Nimrod got from his government. Be careful when you jump onto the wall tops of the prison. Each level is split into several large sections with black space in between. If you fall into the space, it drains your enery and you lose the only life you've got.

The Final Matrix is a combination of game concepts put to good use. It's Knight Lore, Nexor, Terror Of The Deep, and Star Raiders rolled into one and even Nimrod looks similar to the robot in Martianoids. The 3D display is similar to Ultimate, but it's slightly off perspective and scrolls slowly both on the Spectrum and Amstrad versions.

It's still an action-packed and frustrating game despite the technical criticism, although I still can't work out why the Bioptons were kidnapped in the first place. Gremlin never tell you but then, I expect they were too busy thinking about the features to worry about gaps in the storyline.