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Eons ago, the mighty Sleeper sent his faithful servant Fragor to bring life to a new world, the planet Unreal. Taking with him life-giving eggs, the four elements of earth, air, fire and water and two powerful guardians, Fragor travelled to the lifeless world, but upon landing, his ship was destroyed when it collided with a massive comet.

The resulting explosion scattered his cargo across the face of the planet, and the guardians, without Fragor's supervision, began fighting for control. Before long, they were soon powerful enough to transform themselves into the very elements Fragor had brought with him.

However, one of the eggs, having escaped the attentions of the guardians, came to rest in a peaceful valley and hatched into a copper dragon.

Years later, the dragon came across a young couple, Artaban and Isolde, who befriended him. The dragon visited them on many occasions, but one day, he failed to arrive. Isolde, in her anxiety, called for the dragon from the highest hill, so loudly as to catch the attention of a servant of the Supreme Guardian, who captured her and took her to the Lord of Darkness. The evil one, captivated by her beauty, offered her a choice; marry him, or he would destroy the valley. Isolde agreed to the marriage, if only to save her people.

The copper dragon came to hear of this, and at once told Artaban. The dragon, feeling responsible, swore to help defeat the dark lord, so Artaban and the dragon set out to destroy the four elements giving evil its power, and find the 'changing blade', a magical sword that recharged with crystals from the comet, and rescue Isolde from a fate worse than death...

Unreal is another of those games along the lines of Shadow Of The Beat, with pretty graphics and atmospheric sound, but which is rather lacking in the gameplay department.

The "flying around on your dragon" 3D section is very impressive, and the screen update is quick, but the overall effect is spoilted by text messages, such as the inane "You hit something".

The main combat sections in which you control Artaban are the real (unreal?) let-down in the game, just walking or jumping from left to right and prodding monsters with your sword gets pretty boring after a while.

Being able to dip your sword in fire for a temporary fire-blade is nice, but it doesn't seem to have much effect, and the levels (dragon, Artaban, dragon etc) become repetitious after several plays. Overall, to coin a phrase, it's good, but not that good.