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Take a pinch of heroism, add a dash of courage, throw in some stealth and what do you have? It's either a nasty stain that can only be removed with Fairy Liquid and warm water or a Hunter. Ed Ricketts opts for the former...

It's dark. You've got four hours of your mission left, you still haven't found the General and your lumbargo is playing up again. Do you give up and go back home for tea and toast, or act like a real "hunter", rip off all your clothes, smear your body in mud and run bellowing into the night?

The plot of Activision's newie might sound vaguely familiar to anyone who's played Carrier Command. As the Hunter (no names, no bag of crisps) it's your job to single-handedly sabotage the enemy's installations scattered around an archipelago of islands. These islands are full of buildings, vehicles, enemy soldiers, defences and seagulls.

There are three different sorts of game you can tackle, depending on your strategic leaning. The "Missions" section gives you many different separate missions to carry out within a specified time. You might have to destroy three fuel dumps by 1300 hours, for instance, before returning to HQ for the next mission.

The "Hunter" section gives you one main objective to be carried out, but there are many different smaller tasks involved in achieving that goal, such as finding medicine to heal a wounded prisoner who then tells you the location of the General, and so on. Finally, "War" plunges you into the thick of things by giving you many timed objectives - including the destruction of the enemy HQ - with the full might of the opposition against you.

There's plenty of kit around to help you, if you can find it. Items like sub-machine guns, flares, a map and timed explosives are vital for your mission, and with an inventory capacity of thirty items you've more than enough space.

The 3D view you get of the islands is excellent. The hills, buildings and vechiles are all portrayed with fairly simplistic shapes, as is normal with 3D games, but the smoothness with which they move is exceptional. In addition, when you enter a vehicle the "camera" zooms out slightly, giving you a real impression of depth as you buzz about behind the buildings.

There are lots of nice little touches too: seagulls swoop overhead (you can shoot them too); rabbits scamper about and run away if you try to catch them; and occasionally even fish jump onto dry land. Go to the edge of the map area in the landscape and what do you find? A huge white line enclosing everything, just as it appears on the plan map. It's touches like this that make the game a joy to play.

The only disappointing effects are the Hunter's movements - when he walks it looks as though his arms have been nailed to his body - and the explosions, which look like huge flowers. Audio effects are sound chip only, and are restricted to spot effects such as seagull cries, the swish of the sea and explosions, but on the whole they're very effective.

There are many different ways to get about in Hunter - anything from good old-fashioned Shank's Mare through sailboards and bicycles to choppers. Naturally, the faster vehicles are your best bet if you're thinking of visiting any enemy territory - if you're really clever you can even outrun the enemy missiles with some natty manoeuvring.

1. The helicopter is your quickest way of getting just about anywhere, but it's also the trickiest of vehicles to control. Taking off on a slope isn't recommended - dip the nose forward to lift off and you may just crash into the ground. Result? A surprised Hunter minus one very useful chopper.
2. These boats are probably the commonest sort of vehicle, being liberally scattered round the islands, and very nippy they are too - plus they come with a handy gun attachment. The jeeps are useful on land, but strangely enough aren't much cop in the water.
3. You might not expect the bicycle to be very nippy, but actually you can whip about quite smartish. Plus there's the added attraction of not needing to refuel it every ten minutes.
4. The simplest way to get between islands is just to swim. But this has several nasty disadvantages - even Duncan Goodhew couldn't outswim a missile, and you get tired very quickly. Indeed, attempting to swim when you're completely knackered can easily do you in.
5. Although the small sailboard is a pretty bizarre (and somewhat nancy) way for a macho Hunter to get about, it's not the weirdest. There's a rowing boat for the taking, which has roughly the same advantages as the bicycle but tends to tire you out more.

Hunter is really very enjoyable to play. You can have enormous fun just wandering around, searching the buildings and zooming about in jeeps and the like, but when you want to get serious you find some hefty challenges awaiting. Luckily there's a save game option that can be accessed at any time, and you're often going to need it.

There's a real atmosphere to the game too - it's possible to get genuinely tense when you're gingerly traversing a minefield in the middle of the night with just the sighing of the sea in the background. There's a marvellous feeling of freedom, of being able to do almost anything you like - such as jumping out of vehicles before stopping them and watching them go whizzing off into the distance. Overall, Hunter offers everything you could want from a game: huge amounts of gameplay, fantastic graphics and those insignificant but pleasing details that give games a real polished look. You don't need to be a hunter to know that this is a real find.