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The problem with being a ship's Captain is the terrible loneliness of command - especially in Advanced Destroyer Simulator, because you don't actually have anyone to command. This WWII warship sim puts you totally in charge, so you have no-one to blame but yourself as you end up on the ocean floor for the umpteenth time.

Having a crew of one does have its problems - like keeping your eye on all the weaponry. It can be a bit of a handful to keep everything going.

The action takes place in three geographical areas: the Mediterranean has the easiest scenarios, the English Channel and the North Sea more difficult campaigns. Five of the six missions in each area have specific targets to destroy. The sixth is a Delta mission, where you must patrol a sector and repel anyone who strays into your waters.

One thing about accurately simulating war at sea is the time it takes to get anywhere: half an hour to reach the target does make travelling a bit tedious. Lucky then that ADS has a speed-up option, available whenever you're in map mode, which makes the game progress at a fair old rate of knots.

Probably just as luckily, you're brought out of this mode automatically if you meet any other vessel. If it's an enemy, you have a choice of weapons: torpedoes cause more damage and sink an enemy much faster, but they're difficult to aim: you have to take into account how far the target is likely to have moved by the time they hit home. Firing the cannons is easier: find the correct elevation and you can keep up a constant bombardment on the enemy. The drawback here, however, is that far more direct hits are needed.

As well as the ship, you're out to destroy, there are plenty of other ocean-going vessels. These have to be identified if you want to avoid sinking a friendly. Should you happen to meet a plane then your only hope is to shoot it out of the sky - not an easy task with 120mm cannons.

The 3D bitmapped graphics work well. Because of the speed of sea-going vessels, there are no jerkiness problems of the type that sometimes occur in flight sims. The horizon bobs very credibly up and down with the waves, adding realism - and possibly a dose of sea-sickness!

There are a couple of niggly points concerning the controls - there's just too much to look after when in the thick of battle, for instance - but despite this, Advanced Destroyer Simulator is brilliantly atmospheric. It's very easy to become totally absorbed by the game and find yourself obsessively determined to carry out your mission - whatever the cost!