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Hero Quest took the board game market by storm, with its innovative mix of standard game techniques and role-playing. It was really only a matter of time before somebody realised it was a formula that'd work just perfectly in a computer game format...

It's been a funny old month for me, y'know. All the games I was expecting to like have turned out to be complete guff, and things I thought I was going to hate have actually been loads of fun.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Hero Quest is the official licence of the fantasy board game of the same name, and features up to four players playing against the computer in a number of quests (the number being fourteen, as it happens) of a fairly standard fantasy-game nature. There are knights to be rescued, goblins to be decapitated, secret passages to be discovered and treasure to be looted, and although the game can be played solo (in which mode it's more akin to a straight adventure), it's loads more fun if you get a few chums round and gang up on the monsters and race to be the first to the treasure.

At least, it probably is (not having any friends I wouldn't really know) but I'm sure it'd be just terrific. Sticking with the one-player game, then, Hero Quest on first impressions looks a lot like a cross between the Bitmap Brothers' Cadaver and the legendary 8-bit classic Knight Lore.

The various rooms and passages are illustrated in isometric 3D graphics, not quite up to the standards of Cadaver, but perfectly respectable all the same. That's more or less where the similarity ends, though, as in Hero Quest the gameplay is more reminiscent of Dungeon Master, with lots of exploring interlaced with bouts of hack-and-slashing. None of the monsters are especially tough, and a lot of the difficulty comes from the restraints placed upon your movements by the throw of the 'dice', and by the actual game rules.

For example, you can't enter a room and then exit by the same door in the same turn, you can't move, perform another action and then move some more, and you can't search a room and attack a monster in the same turn either. This causes serious problems if say, you search a room, walk into another room which turns out to contain four mean monsters, then find you're stick there with no choice other than to let them all attack you until it's your go again (by which time there's a very good chance you'll be dead).

What this all means is that you have to plan your movements very carefully in order to have as many options open to you as possible in any given situation, especially when there are other human players involved, all trying to get to the same goodies as you are (I should imagine). It's not all just hacking and slashing though - certain characters have various magic spells at their disposal too, and there's the extra incentive that all the characters can spend any cash they get their grubby hands on during a quest in the weapons shop, which can be visited between levels. Even heroes have to go shopping.

If there's a problem with Hero Quest, it's that the single-player game can be just a little bit dull. Since there's no element of race against other players, and no time limit, you can play the game very methodically and slowly, and so never have to put yourself in much real danger. A sense of urgency is always a good thing in a game, and unless you make things deliberately difficult for yourself (by rushing around the place utterly recklessly, for instance), that's something that's missing from one-player Hero Quest.

Playing jolly carefully then, I completed several of the more difficult quests on my first attempt, without having to be particularly clever, and this could result in the game having a rather limited span of appeal for many potential fans. That said, I didn't feel I was being cheated at all, as there's a sufficient random element in the fighting scenes that you can never be sure you're going to win. All the same, if you're always going to win. All the same, if you're always going to be playing alone, think carefully before you buy this game. Conversely of course, if you habitually get your chums round for an evening's Amiga-orientated fun, then Hero Quest is one of the most socially enriching experiences available. You'll certainly find out who your real friends are.

I didn't think this was going to be my kind of game, but for the nth time this month I've been proved wrong. Hero Quest is a very enjoyable piece of software indeed, and one of the best multi-player experiences available for the Amiga. If you fancy a different slant on your D&D for once, snap it up.

Uppers: Very easy to play and extremely atmospheric. It follows the board game in that it will appeal to players of all ages.

Downers: One-player mode can be a little bit linear, and a touch easy too.

I don't know if it's any advance on the board game or not, but Amiga Hero Quest is a highly entertaining game in its own right, and especially good for multiple players. Go on, broaden your horizons.