It's 2062 and the world's population has grown to such an extent that both the economy and ecology of our once green and pleasant planet is seriously under threat. The colonisation of Mars, to ease the pressure, is progressing too slowly. A rocket-building complex constructed on the moon, capable of building rockets to fly people and resources to the red planet, may be too late to prevent earth's destruction.

These global concerns are pushed to the back of your mind as your shuttle comes in to land at MoonBase. You've no idea why you've been summoned to the Mars rocket factory: your only instructions are to report for work at clerical office five, and who are you to argue?

On arrival in the ClericDome, your first objective is to find your accommodation block before the 10:00pm curfew takes effect - being caught walking the Plasti-pavement after this hour could get you arrested.

Small but perfectly formed, your accommodation features a huge Vid-Screen, shower, bed and pet parrot. Pressing the flashing green pad under the Vid-Screen plays a message from Security Guard Thompson who requests a meeting with you in one of the Dome's many parks tomorrow. Perhaps he can shed some light on your being here.

Written using STAC, A Dark Sky Over Paradise is an odd adventure. Even though it's set in the future it has an air of antiquity about it. Moon bases, hovering security cameras, Vid-Screens and Plastipavements all have a whiff of 1930's Flash Gordon about them.

Messages, people pushing past you as they rush to work and PA announcements of curfews and other goings on (such as the arrest of terrorists) help create an intense atmosphere, but the repetitive location descriptions kill it.

One technical annoyance: although the parser recognises IT, it doesn't acknowledge HIM/HER, so whenever you need to ask something of a character (a regular occurrence) you're required to type their name with every question.

You need a good imagination to get into A Dark Sky Over Paradise. And don't expect too many pretty pictures to help you visualise the MoonBase, there are only two in the whole game.

The true adventurer will find Dark Sky interesting enough, though even the most easily pleased will regret the lack of graphics. In this day and age, it's hardly going to win awards.