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Thalion have spent more than a year working on this adventure RPG and it's already paid off by topping the game charts in Germany. Cast in the Dungeon Master/Ultima mould, Dragonflight is a hybrid combination of adventure styles.

You can leap straight into the action or plod through the 104-page scene-setting novella which tells the story of how magic and dragons, once bountiful, have all but vanished from the world. Now they are both needed to save humans, dwarfs and elves from evil powers.

You control four characters: two humans (a fighter and a wizard), a dwarf fighter and an elven all-rounder. They each begin the game with a little food and money, and one of the four Rings of Stasis - into which they retreat when mortally wounded.

The wizard also has a piece of a map which can be examined to show a large-scale plan of the game world. Unfortunately, the other eleven pieces of this cartographical opus are scattered across various landmasses. The piece you possess only proves the game world is bloody enormous.

Exploration takes place over an Ultima-like display: overhead graphic screen, character status window and action menu. You can chat to city inhabitants, wander into shops and inns, and visit residents in their homes. Once kitted out you can leave Pagana, the city from which your quest begins, and seek out the dungeons that were once the "schools" of white and black magicians and which still contain much that's useful to you.

The dungeons are brilliantly designed; you travel through the corridors in first person perspective and as your torch burns low visibility decreases.

Features are limited to doors, chests and magical mouths built into walls: doors may be locked and lead either into rooms or stairwells, chests usually contain something of worth, but are often booby-trapped, and the magical mouths work on a riddle mechanism. If you closely examine one of these features, it asks a question and you must provide the answer to proceed.

Monsters only inhabit rooms, so at least you're safe in the corridors. When you enter a room, the perspective changes from first-person to profile. Combat proceeds in turns and each character's move is individually controlled. A plan grid incorporated into the display adds an extra tactical element enabling you to accurately gauge when monsters are in the line of sight of a spell caster.

The graphics are colourful and atmospheric, and impressive animation sequences crown a well-presented game. Combat sequences are nothing like the usual joystick blast but are instead tactical exercises showing fireballs and spells as they're hurled from character to character. A wonderful attention to detail means the magic mouths in the dungeon poke their tongues out at you when you get answers wrong.

Music is passable, but won't have you rushing down to the shops to get the twelve-inch. More sound effects, which are limited in the dungeon and combat areas, wouldn't have gone amiss.

The scenario may be old hat, but your quest is long term and open-ended enough to give you complete adventuring freedom. For those who like their role-playing on an epic Dungeon Master scale, Dragonflight is an absorbing addition to any adventurer's collection. On the negative side, the documentation is awful, despite the obvious work that went into it, and wonderful in-game presentation is let down by counter-intuitive execution. Unfortunately, the price, at least a tenner more than the game is worth, is likely to banish this otherwise enjoyable game to the distant realm of legend.