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If you played the original Inheritance: Panic In Las Vegas, you'll know the inheritance in question is the fortune left you by your Aunt. In case you're completely in the dark on this, here's a recap on the story so far.

Before your Aunt pegged it, the silly woman said you had to win a million dollars in Las Vegas in one night before you could get your sticky mitts on her money. This involved you breaking out of a hotel, dashing to the airport to catch the Vegas flight and finally putting your shirt on the prospect of a big win.

You won't be surprised that you did, in fact, win the million. But you're now faced with the problem of proving you're the rightful nephew before you can book that Monte Carlo villa. Managing to lose your birth certificate does you no favour. Neither does the fact that your family records are located out in the wilds of Scotland.

So you trek up there to regain your identity. On top of that, various fake nephews appear to try and grab the promised good life for themselves.

Unlike the original Inheritance with its many locations, this episode is set entirely inside a stately home whose rooms you have to explore. Despite this restricted location, there are quite a lot of them to roam through, ranging from bedrooms to sitting rooms, the garden, kitchen, lumber room, laundry etc. The joystick-driven format persists. And since there's absolutely no text to type in, the game becomes more a strategy than an adventure.

As before, you will meet various characters as you wander round the house. Sometimes they will speak to you, in the usual speech-bubble form. They seem to be babbling on most of the time. But don't relegate them to fruitcake status, they're actually giving you clues as to what to do next. And you won't get any information out of them unless you have an appropriate object to give them.

Thus, various objects are to be picked up; they're found hidden away in cupboards and drawers, but you can carry only four at a time. If, for example, the lady of the house points out that it's time for tea, being able to thrust a teacup into her hand will do you no end of good.

But there's a time limit in all this, in the form of an energy percentage which decreases as you explore the rooms. Energy can be replaced by sneaking into the kitchen and grabbing food out of the fridge.

Simply exploring the rooms and finding out what objects are there to be had takes up considerable time. And there are quite a few traps to fall into. Open one door and you break your neck falling down the stairs - end of game.

Enter the bathroom without the appropriate item to get you out and you're locked in - end of game.

The linen cupboard in the kitchen is another no-exit trap if you haven't picked up the means of getting out - end of game.

It's possible to map the house to avoid these dead-end rooms but the process becomes trickier since you're facing the other way when you leave. Mapping is also slightly hindered by the fact that all the doors are identical. And you really can't afford to avoid traps like the bathroom, not for the obvious reason but because there's an object in there which will make one of the characters speak to you.

Generally the information gained is useful. But occasionally the effort needed doesn't pay off. For example, you need to find a bag of sweets to give to the little girl to make her talk. When she does, all you get is: "My father was a racing driver" - little brat.

There's the occasional unexpected trap, too, like being seduced by a naked woman in her bedroom. "Are you coming?" she quips saucily. Before you can grab your scout badge she's whipped her clothes off. An unmentionable interlude follows which leaves your energy strangely depleted. Trust the French to come up with unsavoury smut like this - brilliant stuff.

True to form, the graphics in this game are of Infogrames' high quality. The scenery in the rooms if bright and bold, although a few of the objects take a bit of identifying. The characters are large and well drawn, and their mouths move when they speak. I particularly liked the cook. Give her a meat cleaver and she'd be a dead ringer for a mass murderer.

There's also a strong logic to the game that gives you confidence in objects doing what they're supposed to do if you've thought it out right. Turn on the TV and you simply get a flickering picture. Collecting the TV aerial from the lumber room should solve your problem. It doesn't and it takes some brain bashing to suss out that you may not be tuned to the right channel.

Just a few criticisms. Like the original, there is no music and hardly any sound effects. A good soundtrack would have been nice - provided you could turn it off. Also, the characters tend to say the same stock phrases over and over again, which gets up your nose after a while.

Chaos In Scotland is a big and difficult game. It's going to be some time before I find out where my birth certificate is and how to get it. But it's fun to play, and there's never a shortage of the unexpected. This is well up to Infogrames' standard.