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Cloak Of Death was first released about two years ago by Argus. I wish I could say it was worth re-releasing, but I'm afraid the game' more of a mouldy oldie than a golden oldie.

To give you some idea of its pedigree you have to load and run the game with CLOAD and RUN from Basic - now when did you last have to do that with a commercial game?

At the start, you find yourself in a dark hall in an old house which is reputed to be haunted.

The front door has slammed behind you, and there appears to be no way out. Yuo must stay alive long enough to find the exit. Each location is described using both text and an accompanying picture - the graphcis can be turned off though.

The cassette inlay proudly proclaims that Cloak Of Death is a spine-chilling adventure with state-of-the-art, blood-curdling graphics.

However, the truth is that this is a sub-average adventure with sparse textual descriptions and mediocre graphics.

It has more than its fair share of inconsistencies and illogicalities. In a sitting room the text told me that I could see a grandfather clock - but there was no sign of it in the picture!

Looking into a sink I was told there was some water there. When I tried to DRINK WATER, the program didn't understand me.

Further examples: Examining a door revealed that "The latch is broken". My attempt to LIFT LATCH was countered with "I don't recognise that noun".

Dropping a wicker chair, standing on it then typing LOOK revealed items that anyone would expect to see even if they weren't standing on a chair.

But pride of place must go to the library where there were shelves full of books - how surprising. Trying to take or read a book got me nowhere but when I typed EXAMINE SHELF I was told "I see something!"

Typing LOOK revealed a book. I was allowed to take it but only that one. Perhaps the rest were glued to the shelves.

Taking a cue from the program, I switched off Cloak Of Death and went off to read a good book instead.