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Once upon a time there was a druid. He was a particularly magical druid and had spent no little time in the hire of Firebird cleaning out a maze with the aid of his fizzling forefinger and helpful cohorts.

Alas, those days had long passed, and now he was reduced to the usual Druidic mistletoe gathering and rune-casting when one day a deep voice spoke to him out of the sky.

"Lol The Time of Sequels is upon us, as was forecast in the Book of Marketing. Get thee hence to a cassette or disc, where thou shalt partake of Druid II or, as I shall decree to make the game sell better, Enlightenment.

And mark well that your finger is in tip-top zombie zapping form; likewise ensure the old pins are up to prolonged scurrying. For many will be the mazes, numerous the flashes and multifarious the monsters. As it was before, so shall it be again. Especially the sales figures."

And with a swirl of music (was that the theme from Star Trek?) the voice faded to silence. The druid chewed his beard, and made for the game.

He found himself in familiar territory. The gamesfield occupied the top two-thirds or so of his monitor screen seven druids have CPCs), and he could move fairly freely anywhere where there were not trees or more actively nasty objects. The lower portion of the screen displayed many things.

Perhaps the most important things were the personal strength and zapping power meters. If either of these two got too low, the druid was in dead trouble. Also, as he wandered around the place, he could pick up spells. These were displayed in windows, and by pressing the appropriate button on his druidic keyboard he could select and make use of such magic as he deemed necessary,

And deeming correctly was the very essence of success. While he searched each level for the key to the next, he was under constant attack from the Forces of Utter Unpleasantness.

To give an example, while he could cut a swathe through the hoards of Undead with a firestorm, perhaps he should keep that up his mystic sleeve for a more worthy foe and just dispose of the minions with the standard-issue gigavolt pinky powerdriver. For greater evil awaited him at every stage.

But there were allies, or as Holmes would say "elementals, my dear Watson". Elementals are creatures of pure element, where the elements are the ancient Greek set of fire, earth, air and lager, sorry, water. By selecting the Commodore logo (erm, look guys, perhaps you could have changed this for the Amstrad version), the druid (or a druidic pal) could fearlessly send an elemental into combat. Fearless, because while the elly soaked up the punishment the druid could be safely hiding.

The most powerful spells must be kept for a very special purpose. There are classes of monster which are immune to anything but the strongest magic; these demon princes laugh at firestorms and sneer at water elementals, they even thumb their noses at HM Inspectorate of Taxes.

And the final spell, to be cast in the presence of the Grand Bit of Nasty Work Himself, is the White Orb. Do this and the land is free from the curse once more and you have won enlightenment. For you, yes, even you, are the druid

Let's not beat around the burning bush, if you enjoyed Druid/Gauntlet with its mixture of maze and magic then you'll enjoy Enlightenment even more.

The graphics are as good as Mode 0 get, the action suitably frantic, and the various levels sumptuously equipped with enough mystic machinations to keep the would-be Druid (and friend - there is a two-player option as in the original) well and truly enmeshed.

If, on the other wand, you didn't, then Enlightenment is unlikely to snare your soul. Instead you can wonder why the hero's name changes from page to page in the slightly sus handbook.

Yes, well, I suppose if you enjoyed Druid, you'll enjoy Enlightenment.

You can't fault the game - it's very fast, the graphics are excellent, it's difficult, it's absorbing, two people can play at it... Why then am I not suitably impressed?

I don't know. Perhaps I'm getting fed up with sequels that look a little too much like the originals. Perhaps it's because I expected too much after reading the manual. Or perhaps it's because of that Commodore logo. Yeah, that must be it.

Druid was an unbelievably playable game. Not surprisingly, so is Druid II. The plot has changed, and so has the scenery, but the gameplay remains basically the same. And there's nothing wrong with that.

In many eyes Druid has already gone down as a classic on the CPC. The same fate is surely in store for Enlightenment because, if anything, I think it's a touch better than the original.

I'm still struggling as an Earth Lord, and I bet Druid III appears before get anywhere near being an Overlord. But that won't stop me trying.

What more could any normal person want than the chance to fight off the undead with crucifix, zappy lingers and a sackful of hoopy spells? Enlightenment is a worthy sequel to Druid.