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Come with me, little pointy-eared-elven-like person, as we travel once more into the strange enchanted world of the Forgotten Realms, home to Dragonlance, and Dungeons And Dragons itself.

Hillsfar follows on the tradition of all the other AD&D games in two ways. They all have been of a very high quality and they have all approached the subject matter from a fresh perspective. Pools Of Radiance was a straight RPG/tactical game. Heroes Of The Lance was an arcade adventure. DM's Assistant was nothing more than an application for generation encounters, but a top class and very complete one at that. Hillsfar, a small town somewhere in the south of the Forgotten Realms around which the game is set.

Rather than control a group of characters as in previous titles, you now control only one, though you still have to generate the character, for what reason I can't really make out. Maybe it's just to keep in with the spirit of the series. Maybe it has some effect on your prowess in the action sequences, or perhaps it affects people's reactions should you get talking to somebody in a pub, etc. Not that I could notice any difference in gameplay between a character that has very high statistics and a character that has very low ones.

Almost every aspect of the game has been covered as an arcade sequence, and very nicely too. You begin the game near a campfire, north of Hillsfar town. You have to ride by horse to Hillsfar (arcade sequence #1), from which you must go whichever guild your race belongs to. Fighters go to the fighters' guild where they must become proficient archers (arcade sequence #2) and combateers (arcade sequence #3). Experience and treasure can be gleaned by ransacking some of the houses and building that line the streets (arcade sequence #4) where, if you are lucky, you will get to pick a lock or two (arcade sequence #5).

The horse riding is shown as a left to right, smoothly scrolling equestrian event, where you have to jump all over the obstacles in the road while at the same time ducking under any missiles that care to be thrown in your direction.

Archery is very similar to the Archery event in The Games: Summer Edition, whereby you have a crosshair which you have to point in the general direction of the targets at the other end of a field making allowance for wind. Small members of the animal kingdom sometimes cross your path, and shooting them, however barbaric, results in many bonus points.

Combat is a Punch Out rear view. Stand behind yourself in an out-of-body experience and your opponent muttering things like "Oi, don't wanna kill ya Hoighwaiy" The number of moves you have are limited, the reaction time is bad, and the overall speed is slow. This is the down point of the entire game.

Ransacking the houses is a one-level Gauntlet type affair insofar as you are in a maze. The place is swarming with guards and you have to try and open all the chests, grab all the goodies there are, and then get out of there before your time runs out. Scrolling is poor, but the graphics are fab. The sprites have been overlaid, which makes them really hi-res, and there are enough frames of animation to keep even Mark Heley 'sweet'.

Finally, picking locks, provided you are a thief or have a thief with you, is simple. You have a dozen double-sided keys. Each key will open one tumbler in the lock displayed which can have up to eight tumblers. You have to try and open all the tumblers and get the goodies out before your time runs out. Fun, huh?

There is a role-playing quest in there somewhere, but it's too deeply buried inside all the arcady bits. This of course means that the game will last a little longer than most arcade titles: as soon as you get bored with the arcade side of the game, you can get into the quest. Even so, I can see this appealing much more to players who would much rather just pick a joystick and go. Not the best in the series, but darn good all the same.