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There's a crim on board the orbital space station Pegasus - what's more, a crim with a penchant for murder. Someone tries to knock off the station commander and he isn't too chuffed about it. He makes a secret transmission to earth, and as a result you are sent to sort out the mess, under the cover of Dick Anderson. However, you've got only 24 hours to find out who the murderer is before your shuttle returns to earth. Can you catch the villain or is there going to be a severe bout of stiffs in space?

Murders In Space is a graphic adventure cum whodunnit. Your objective: to catch the prospective murderer. To achieve this, you must explore the space station and interact with the other astronauts. You can question all of them, although their answers may prove to be less than useful.

There are four main sub-sections to the game - a telescope, a manipulating arm, a cryogenic module and an MMU (Mobile Manned Unit) which enables you to travel outside the space station. Most of the objects in - each module of the station can be examined or operated.

Talking to someone is easy. You simply click on the particular person and a blow-up of his face appears on the left side of the screen. You then click on your (Dick's) face and a speech bubble appears. Subsequent clicks then change the question. When the right question appears you click on the speech bubble and the person's response pops up next to his picture.

To operate a piece of machinery you click on it and a blow-up appears on-screen. Then you click on Dick's forehead and a think bubble appears, through which you enter a sub-game for the machine in question.

The clock counts down relentlessly. Every hour an alarm goes off and you return to the central module. This is an opportunity for some fresh questioning of the personnel. What's more, set events occur on the hour - sleeping or eating, for example.

The graphics in Murders In Space are excellent. They are all very bright and the attention to detail is superb. The animation of Dick is smooth and seamless, but then he's the only one you ever see moving so it's not such a great feat. Sound is well up to Infogrames' high standard. The title music and in-game sampled effects are clear and functional.

The acid test of any graphic adventure is whether you want to solve it or not. The answer in Murders In Space is yes. The simple organisation of icons and instruments makes deducing clues a cinch, but there's still enough depth here to keep even the most avid adventurer busy for a couple of weeks. The screen layout is pleasing to the eyes and instinctive to use, and all this makes playing the game the pleasure it should be rather than an effort.