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CRL started out on a slippery path when it launched Dracula with a blaze of publicity for its 15 certificate. Many would say that the reason was purely to increase publicity rather than a responsible attitude to what should or should not be seen on our screens.

Even assuming the best intentions, very little in the way of 'orrible 'orrors that were a necessary part of the adventure, so it is easy to see why it came under fire.

CRL has added two more 15 rated games to its lists, Frankenstein and Wolfman. Hopefully we will look at Wolfman next month. All I can say at the moment is that I hope it is more friendly than Frankenstein.

Written by Rod Pike and with a scattering of the now expected digitised pictures, Frankenstein is a poorer product than Dracula, and in my opinion not up to the usual CRL standards.

It is a three part adventure with the first two parts featuring the hunt for and destruction of the monster. The third part puts you in the monster's shoes where you learn what turned him into the killer he has become.

The aim of this section is to increase the monster's IQ so that he can begin to understand what is going on around him and what will help him to survive.

In the first two parts you play Dr Frankenstein. It is four years after his creation of the spare part monster and the doctor's sister has been one of the victims of this horrific being.

In his grief, he swears vengeance and is determined to rid the world of the creature he brought to life. The parser is fairly limited, multiple commands are understood but there is no ramsave/load, oops or all/everything. The vocabulary does not appear to be very large and communicating with the program can sometimes be frustrating.

Text presentation is poor with a lack of spaces between some words and additional full stops inserted on some occasions. Within the first few scenes a picture seen on the chimney could be taken and yet was still visible if the chimney was examined.

Other examples of the program's inconsistency can be found fairly easily and although this does not necessarily mean that the adventure itself is poor, it is certainly evidence of sloppy programming that may well affect the player's confidence in the game.

You start in your the doctor's bedroom in your parent's house up in the mountains. A storm is raging and unless you move very quickly the game will end there. It is impossible to leave the house before your father arrives, and this will not happen until you have sat down and waited. Once you have left the house make sure that you have money, the picture and the knife. You will need these to map the mountain path maze, which is the next puzzle.

The instructions ivery briefl will tell you that you may LOOK, LOOK AROUND, SEARCH, EXPLORE as well as our old friend, EXAMINE. Some of these may appear to be synonyms for each other - not so, LOOK AROUND and LOOK may well give you a different insight to your surroundings.

Also, if you have to jump anywhere, ensure you specify where you want to jump to.

Having reached the village at the foot of the mountains, you must travel across the lake to reach the range of mountains where the creature has been sighted.

Now into the second part, where you will come across people to whom you can talk. Choose your questions with care, only a very limited number are understood.

Having outfitted yourself for the gruesome task ahead, you can at last take direct action to achieve your aims. Part three is clever in concept, but suffers from some of the poor programming found before. The idea of using all your senses to increase perception and understanding are well thought out.

Although the adventure is not that difficult, I would not recommend it for the novice. The path you tread is fairly well defined from puzzle to puzzle, but there is not much to see or do if you are unable to solve that section.