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The year is 2166. During a desperate mission to find a new source of energy to replenish Earth's dwindling supplies, the Fuel Hunter Ship SS Delta accidentally stumbles upon a large colony of previously undiscovered islands in the South Pacific, each with at least one extremely powerful volcano situated on it. Scientists decide that these islands could be used to provide a form of volcanic energy and so a plan is devised to colonise these islands for the purpose of tapping their energy. In addition, two huge aircraft carriers, ACC Epsilon and ACC Omega are built to maintain and defend the islands.

However, shortly after the program begins, ACC Omega is 'hijacked' by a terrorist organisation who threaten to use it to methodically destroy the islands unless a huge ransom is paid. The only way the terrorists can be stopped is to use the other carrier, ACC Epsilon to gain control of all the islands and defeat Omega. You have control of that carrier.

The entire complex of the 64 islands, and all that goes on about them is portrayed using filled 3D graphics. For the most part, you view the world about you through the viewing tower of your carrier, which is moored off the coast of the home island, Vulcan, the only friendly island. By glancing at your region map, you'll see that you are based in the bottom left hand corner, with Omega and all its occupied islands at top right, and a number of neutral (green) islands in between, and it is there islands that you must colonise with your own forces before you can set about tackling Omega.

To capture an unoccupied island, simply set your carrier's course for it, set sail, and when it arrives, plant a Command Centre Builder (ACCB) on it. To do this, a Walrus AAV, a kind of amphibious tank craft must be loaded with an ACCB and then sent onto the island when it drops it, causing a Command Centre to be built before your very eyes. There are three kinds of Command Centre: Factory, which produces equipment for the carrier; Resource, which mines raw materials for the Factories to use; and Defence, used for protecting the rest of your island network. In this manner of colonising islands, you can expand your supply network to support your carrier and become more of a fighting force.

Remember that all the time you are expanding your network, the Omega is expanding too, and it's when your two networks meet in the middle that the action starts. Now your Walrus craft must be used for battle purposes in conjunction with your airborne Manta fighters both to defend your network and take over hostile ones for your own use. Capturing an enemy island is no mean feat, and involves sending your precious Mantas on seek and destroy missions on hostile Command centres, so be sure to arm your ships with the correct weaponry while in dock before launching. Even then they won't last long if they're not supported by Epsilon's onboard laser and missile defences. Only by whittling away at the enemies' network bit by bit and then taking on the Omega head to head can you hope to succeed. There's so much more about Carrier Command that I could tell you about, Air Traffic Control, repairing damaged systems, decoy drones, Virus bombs and so on, but I just don't have the space to do so.

Carrier Command is the breakthrough in 16-bit gaming that we've been waiting for. It heralds a whole new era of interactive strategy/action gaming. As for the graphics, the term "state of the art" is just not strong enough. Everything has been drawn and animated so exquisitely it's hard to believe that there would be room in the memory for anything else, but a superb digitised title tune has been included as well as atmospheric effects. The whole thing is so user-friendly that the at first bewildering array of icons through which the entire game is controlled will become second nature within an hour. There's even an 'action game' option for shoot-'em-up freaks and an extended mix of the theme tune on an accompanying audio cassette.

All in all, Carrier Command is one of the best games ever to appear on the Amiga and sets standards that other companies will take some time to match. It's the closest thing yet to the perfect game.