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"Once upon a time, the inhabitants of this land lived in peace and harmony under the wise government of the elves. Then there came a dark warrior whose name was whispered in dread. That name was Kevin, and he did steal all the chocolate biscuits and insist that every day be called Tuesday." Chris Lloyd sets out on a quest to rid the land of the remaining Hobnobs...

You have to admit that the plot is complete and utter drivel. Another piece of middle earth Tolkienesque adventuring wibble about ridding the land of a nasty piece of work who's gone around ruining everybody else's day. As usual, there's no great army of warriors in delightful shiny armour to help. It's down to you, one lone hero armed with a length of steel, a small bag of gold and nothing else - not even a smart shirt for best, apparently.

Ishar is another bash at the classic Dungeons & Dragons formula: plenty of mighty warriors, mythical wizards and ravening princesses. The initial plot may be uninspiring, but who cares about a minor thing like that? It's just an excuse for a good jaunt around the land clobbering things and collecting the goodies. Along the way you can recruit up to four other homicidal loonies to join you. You all then get to tackle a different selection of homicidal loonies, traitors and invisible things, disguise yourself, fall in and out of love generally having a thoroughly groovy time of it all.

Ishar can be played entirely with the mouse or a combination of keyboard and mouse. Once you get used to the keyboard shortcuts, using them is much faster There are the full complement of role-playing game bits - magic spells, potions, strange runes and weird monsters.

Each character has a full set of statistics and skills which improve as you gain experience. Dotted around the gaff are villages and cities where you find friendly shops, training centres and wise old men handing out advice on the state of the world. Standing in the way of the final confrontation with Krogh is the inevitable array of baddies. As any good adventurer would, you react in the standard way - you kill them and steal all their money - and all in the cause of freedom, of course. There are a few puzzles to figure out and quests that you've got to complete before the final assault.

God pops in early on - well, one of his messengers anyway - to hand out three quests, all of which involve great personal danger. Funny, isn't it? They never let you do anything easy in the middle earth, do they? Like just popping down to the shops for a spot of grocery shopping or doing the washing-up or anything simple like that. No, you've always got to tackle some great hairy brute or other.

The gameplay is well thought out and well implemented. The only drawback is the speed - switching screens and travelling about is slow, so there's a slight delay when you do anything. It takes a while to get used to the slightly sluggish feel of things, but this is made up for by the brilliant graphics - everything looks gorgeous. There are 32 colours on-screen and they've been well used.

It sounds good, too. There's a constant soundtrack of sampled effects - whistling wings and chirping birds in the forest, lapping water and frogs by the sea and eerie moans and wails underground. Each monster has its own brand of screech and yelp, too. Ishar looks and sounds stunning.

When you see the lush introduction, you know you're in for a treat. If you are an aficionado of the orc 'n' elves genre, this is for you. It's not the most complex of plots or the most interactive of games - everything is hackneyed and a little simplistic - but it adds up to a belter of an adventure. If you've avoided this genre of game before, you've missed out on lots of classic games. While there's nothing radically new in Ishar, it's a highly polished state-of-the-art version of an old favourite. Highly recommended.

1. Better sound and graphics that any RPG you care to mention.
2. Slower than Dungeon Master, which can get a bit frustrating.
3. Once you're hooked, you're going to be in for a good few late nights.
4. Adds nothing new to the genre - just does it all better.