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Lands Of Havoc is another of those multi-room arcade adventure games where you have to get this, get that, then take it round the corner and open the box. You know the plot backwards.

It is packaged like an Ultimate game in a simple black box with glossy instructions that read like third-rate Tolkien. Get this: "Another place and another time. A land of plenty. A land healthy and beautiful. A people happy and prosperous. This was the land of Haven... The land had all that anyone could ask for until the Dark Lords came."

Box and instructions apart, there ends any resemblance to an Ultimate game.

As you might expect, the Dark Lords mentioned above have fouled things up in Haven - overthrowing the benevolent High Vanish.

What the nasties didn't count on was that Vanish was not going to (vanish, that is!) quite so soon. The shrewd old wizard left instructions on how to find the Dark Lords in the Book of Change.

You play the part of Sador, a reptile with the heart of a man, sent to save Haven from eternal evil.

First you must find the book hidden in the alchemist's storeroom in the middle of the village. To help you find your way around Havoc you are supplied with nine colourful card maps that you fit together jigsaw fashion. These are laid out according to instructions given on screen that are randomly generated for each new game.

But the maps provide a picture only of the first part of the game. When you complete this part of the game, you will be on your own in the uncharted lands.

As you explore Havoc you will be confronted by all manner of evil creatures that you must ward off as you travel.

There are over 2,000 screens in this complex puzzle including a 'secret warp' that puts you into the heart of the game - if you can find it.

There is not actually anything wrong with this game. The graphics are reasonable - and the game challenge seems to be pretty tough. There is just nothing very special about it either. It looks like an Ultimate game on the shelves - the manufacturers admit that they looked long and hard at the Ultimate games before launching Havoc - but it is nothing like one when you get it up on screen. It lacks originality - and the theme is now far too hackneyed to be convincing.