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Fans of the solid 3D environment Freescape (previous games: Driller, Dark Side, Total Eclipse) are in for a surprise, because here comes the first developed on 16-bit machines. The results have Steve Carey in a fair old lather of excitement...

In the beginning was the word, and the word was Freescape. It wasn't a game, but a style of game and a programming technique that offered a solid 3D environment you could explore: "The nearest thing yet," boasted the blurb. "To being there." But Freescape was developed on 8-bit machines, with all the limitations of memory traded off against speed and screen refreshing that such technology mastered.

Castle Master marks two breaks with tradition, being not only the first Freescape game to be marketed for Incentive by Domark, but the first developed on 16-bit machines. Fans of Driller, Dark Side and Total Eclipse will already be familiar with the look and feel of Freescape - that peculiarly straight-edged world, with suspiciously inviting blocks, handles, Roman numerals and oblong lumps, all seen from the point of view of the explorer - but what they may not be prepared for is the size of this latest world.

For the benefit of those who don't know the earlier games (and it's still not too late), a brief description is in order. A journey into Freescape is a journey into a world, distant either in space (Driller, Dark Side) or in time (Total Eclipse, set in 1930s Egypt). The aim is to explore that world, achieving objectives by collecting or drilling. As such a descripton suggests, these are not frantic shoot-'em-ups or fighting games, but thoughtful, clue-based entertainment. Occasionally something dreadful happens - you take a step and plummet to your death, or find yourself trapped with nowhere to go - but generally it's a game that tests lateral thinking rather than hand-eye coordination. File under mouse, not joystick.

In that respect Castle Master is no different from the others. What is different, however, is the sheer scale of the game. There seem to be hundreds of rooms, miles of corridor and acres of courtyard. Where previously you could be fairly certain that every room held a dark secret and every panel concealed a clue, in Castle Master there are dozens of objects whose purpose is to be, rather than to do.

This greatly aids the illusion that you're exploring a real world. How many games, for instance, can youname that include a toilet? Castle Master does, complete with flushing cistern and unravelling loo-roll. Not that this has any relevance to the plot, or any rightful place in a very medieval-looking building. You're intrigued, of course, to discover the room, go through the motions as it were, and check it out for clues in the loos. Time ticks away but you're none the wiser, except for being pretty certain that you've eliminated another room.

Controls are sensibly designed so you can use joystick, mouse or keyboard, though I recommend a combination of the latter two. You'll need a spare disk to save your game position, something you'd be well advised to do frequently. There's nothing more frustrating than building up a decent score, only to get zapped by a spirit and have to start all over again.

You come to your senses facing an imposing and mysterious castle surrounded by a moat that, oddly, has sharks swimming in it. Stand before the drawbridge and you can't miss the "button" on the wall. Sling a rock at it, down comes the drawbridge and in you go. (If, though, you fancy starting with a bit of a swing, stand on the drawbridge, looking upwards and firing again at the "button". Up goes the drawbridge and up, up and away go you, flying over the castle wall - don't think about it too hard! - and onto the roof.)

Now it's a case of hunting around the castle's halls, rooms and corridors like some medieval combination of Sherlock Holmes, Indiana Jones and Anneka Rice. One innovation that 16-bit development has enabled and which works especially well is the presence of other living beings in the castle. Open a door or a cupboard and you're likely to find yourself face to face with a rat, or worse, some batfaced item that does your strength no favours at all. It's hardly Blood Money, but it comes as a violent shock in such a carefully paced and thoughtful game.

Game players of an excitable nature who judge a game by the hammering it gives the joystick will find little in Castle Master to curb the shoot-'em-up withdrawal symptoms. That's a pity, because they're missing out on a tremendously entertaining and engrossing piece of software. There's so much to explore you're inclined to take the smoothness and sheer speed of scrolling for granted. Controls and options ahve built on experience gained from Freescape, and after ten minutes learning them you'll be playing lke a veteran.

Sound too is rather good, with a variety of sampled sounds of rocks bouncing off hard objects, gates crashing and spirits, er, spiriting. A quibble: at one point the screen tells you "You hear a cry": you don't. Perhaps they ran out of room? Could be, for the whole game is fitted onto a single disk. Not surprisingly it takes a fair while to load, though there's no irritating in-game disk accessing to slow things down.

In some quarters I've no doubt Castle Master will lose out because it's the fourth in the Freescape series and therefore lacking in originality. But that is to miss the point, for fans of Freescape will make a beeline for this latest addition, while those who haven't seen it before will be won over immediately: neither set of customers will be disappointed. Whatever you read, this is not a sequel but simply a new game that uses a style which has been developed over several previous games.

Whether Castle Master has the long term playability to maintain interest over weeks and months is difficult to judge. Certainly there's enough in it to prevent any but the most hard-bitten gamester from complaining that it only took a week to complete.

Though Castle Master lacks the heart-pounding excitement of a first class shoot-'em-up, it has the depth and quality to keep you engrossed. Pound for pound, no game this year will give you more gameplay. Enjoy!