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This is an odd one. Not just in the details, though some of these are odd - what other game has a gore on/gore off option, allowing you to decide whether the fight sequences are to be blood-spattered affairs or not? - but in the basic concept. Part fantasy role-playing game, part Barbarian-style hack-'em-up, it threatens from the minute you pick it up to fall with unerring accuracy right between two stools - just like all those other 'odd' American PC games which never quite look right on the Amiga. Still, let's see how it does, shall we?

The game, originally to have been called Quest For The Moonstone, but now subtitled (ahem) "A Hard Day's Knight", puts you (surprisingly enough) on a quest for well, the moonstone. Once in a thousand years does Danu, the moon god, bless the earth with his attention apparently, and a quick glance at the night sky tells you the time is now - word spreads quickly, and the bravest knights of the land join in the quest. You're one of them, of course - the prize is Ultimate Power (for the rest of eternity, no less), which will be granted you once you've located the stone and offered it to Danu at his sacred site of Stonehenge. As you might imagine, though, it's not going to be easy - every knight in the country has been lured to the same goal, and with four huge territories to explore, a weaker soul could well rate his chances so pathetically low that the whole thing's not worth bothering with at all really.

Of course, you are made of sterner stuff. So after deciding which of the four knights you'll represent (merely a choice of colours really - red, blue, yellow or green - all characters starting with the same basic stats) and seeing if you can round up any pals to take the other three roles, it's time for the off. You start off with a map screen, icons dotted around it representing the four knights. One 'move' is allowed per day, and so using your joystick you shunt your man to wherever it is you fancy having a little explore of. The other three knights also move and (assuming two or more of you don't end up in the same place at the same time) the day's events unfold.

There are lots of 'places of interest' dotted around the map, and visiting different locations will throw you into a whole variety of situations. In fact, deciding which place to visit is a bit like picking an envelope at the end of Blind Date (the TV show) - there's always the chance that you might return better off than you arrived, but there's no telling what you'll have to endure in the process. Continuing the same analogy, you may also find yourself mortifyingly incompatible with the person you find there. And such personality clashes invariably result in a level of violence that would make Cilla shudder.

Make no mistake - there's a very high chance that you'll have to fight for whatever treasure (or anything else really) you find at any of the locations, which brings us to the game's main set-piece, the gory beat-'em-up scenes. Other knights, monsters (foul orc-like creatures that come in countless hideous shapes and sizes, just like in Blind Date) and even the odd flying dragon - each will do his (or in some unhappy situations, their) dastardly best to halt your progress. And in many cases they'll do pretty well at it too.

At a knight, you come complete with a basic set of weapons: a sword, a canteen of throwing-knives, some armour, and eight different combat moves. The hardware can all be upgraded if you manage to find a merchant, but only if you've collected enough money along the way to pay him. It's a vicious circle really - you can only cut a manly swathe through the swarming hordes with the right weapons, and you can only earn money to buy these weapons by killing loads of baddies. Oh dear...

It doesn't end there though. Forget the number of pints of lager you can drink without falling over - it's a combination of Strength and Constitution that determines your 'ardness in a ruck, and these only come with time. Your Strength determines how hard you hit your foe. Constitution determines how much physical punishment you can take without ending up as a kebab yourself, while another rating - Endurance - determines how far you can travel every day.

All three of these factors can be enhanced through collecting magical items, receiving gifts from the Mystic or wizard and - most effectively - through gaining 'experience' points. If the usual routine - kill a few baddies, collect a few objects, wander about a bit and before too long you'll find that your ratings have risen a couple of notches. These increases are largely irrelevant however, because - in the time-honoured tradition of the genre - as you get tougher, so do the baddies.

Finally, if things are all starting to go horribly wrong, and your energies are almost spent, you can always go home for a bit of R and R. Villages are designated to each knight - return to your home village (none of the other knights are let in) and the local druid will restore some of your energy for free. You can do this three times in every game, so whatever you do - don't forget which village is yours!

Which all, in a roundabout sort of a way, brings us back to the central question of the game - where is this moonstone, this magical pebble of earth-shattering importance, anyway? In the Valley Of The Gods, you are safely informed. But where, exactly, remains a secret. To gain access to the Valley Of The Gods requires the four sacred keys, and there's one key to be found in each of the four territorites. The task is simple - collect the keys, put on your grooviest pair of fighting pants and enter the valley for your final challenge. Emerge victorious, and you've won.

And that, my brave warrior, is your lot. Almost. There's a sting in the tale, you see. There isn't just one moonstone, but several. And each moonstone needs to be presented at Stonehenge at a time related to the cycle of the moon. And if you find yourself as the right person, at the right place, with the right onject but at the wrong time - well, tough luck matey. You'll have to sit and wait. Except that, by this time of couse, word's out and everything that moves is after you - you'll have to fight off all-comers until each passing day nudges the moon cycle towards partly with the stone. When the time is right - and if

Uppers: Atmospheric visuals and sound effects combine to create a believable(ish) and spooky game world, while the four-player option adds a sense of urgency and potentially great fun. The two modes of gameplay gel together well too, requiring both subtle strategy and quick reflexes.

Downers: There's not enough of anything - not enough detail or sophistication is present in the hack-'n-slash sequences, and there's not enough depth to the RPG element. Awkward disk accessing breaks the flow of the game too.

A simple, arguably mediocre, game hidden beneath glossy presentation. Moonstone will initially capture you within its spell, but the effect soon wears off, leaving you desperate for rather more depth. Not bad, but it could have been so much better.