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Ozymandias is tough. He's the sort of guy that laughs at danger, throws caution to the wind and leaps without looking. Yes, that's right, he's a hero. Now he's heard a rumour about this mean lady by the name of Astaroth, called the Angel of Death by her friends, who lives in a hill. Also inside this hill are a lot of her friends who guard the labyrinthine crypt.

Her three best buddies are: Sphinx, Hydra and Marilith the demon. They look after Astaroth's soul and get very cross with anyone who trespasses, Ozymandias for example.

You start the game near the top of hill with nothing to defend yourself with but your hands. The hill is made up of a multitude of interconnected caves which are filled with Astaroth's friends. Coming into contact with any of them is bad for your health, maybe even fatal.

In certain chambers there are objects that you collect when you move over them and they give you mental powers. There are nine powers in all: telekenetics, pyrokenetics, telepathy, shapeshifting, levitation, transmigration, cryokenetics, night vision and meditation. Telekenetics lets you use your mind to collect objects that would normally be out of your reach. Pyro- and cyrokenetics are mentally destructive powers.

The only way to go is down at first, but with the aid of levitation you can travel upwards or shapeshifting can turn you into a bird which achieves the same result. Night vision speaks for itself and transmigration lets you travel without all that tiring walking. You'll need to collect all of the mental powers to stand any chance in the battle of wills with Astaroth at the end of the game.

There's an excellent (if a little underdressed) picture of Astaroth herself on the loading screen. Sprites are smoothly animated, but not particularly big and colour in them is used well. The background scenery is well drawn too and the scantily clad theme of the game is carried on here with statuesque nudes holding up the ceiling. If you want to see more nudes then look no further than the instruction manual where you'll find a topless harpie, water elemental, sphinx and your old friend Marilith the demon.

Hewson are consistent in the quality of the music for their games and thankfully it's consistently good unlike some software houses that I could mention. Sound effects are likewise good.

Your first few games of Astaroth will be short lived and you're better off spending your time finding the right route to the mind powers and generally learning the map of the caverns. After overcoming the initial frustration of being able to do little to defend yourself you'll get into the swing of things and gradually work your way deeper into the labyrinth.

It's another of those games that you'll only ever play to completion once, but you'll get plenty of enjoyment out of it.