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This is another project from the prolific Trevor Storey, designer of the gameplay and the graphics. It draws heavily on classic sci-fi films and games.

During a routine supply mission to the Damecles station, something has gone horribly wrong on the United Transport shipping vehicle, Heracles. As the last crew member to be woken from hypersleep by an alarm, the player must investigate what is going on [I get the sense that I have seen this movie before - Ed]. And it can all be traced back to a storage pod that was opened.

Wearing a spacesuit and carrying a weapon, the player explores the isometric decks of the ship. Lifts allow the player to move between decks, with some decks having multiple lifts. The side-on view of the ship when using the lifts is very reminiscent of the classic Paradroid. On each deck, there are three key objectives. The first is to track down the other crew members and the data logs they have left behind. The second is to find the computer disk needed to access the terminal on each level. And finally something must be done about the alien organisms that now patrol the decks. There are two main types, the small spider-like "huggers" and the larger fully-grown aliens. Deeper in the ship there are more of the walking aliens, making those levels much trickier. The huggers come from eggs, and in some rooms there are multiple eggs to be destroyed before they hatch. Should an enemy get close, the joystick can be waggled left and right to shake them off. There are also many locked doors, which can only be accessed using passcards that must be discovered.

The bottom of the screen holds some vital information. To the left is the crewman's heartbeat, shown as a moving graph. It gets more rapid as he takes damage, which can be healed by finding first aid kits. In the middle is the radar display, which switches between showing where crew-members are (with a C) and where the terminal is (with a T). It shows the approximate direction to the nearest crew-member or terminal relative to the player. To the right are the statistics, showing the crew-members found, the data logs found, the passcards being carried and the disks found (one disk is needed per terminal). When the player has a disk and tries to log into the terminal, a small puzzle must be completed. A series of coloured chips must be paired using wires, but the wires cannot overlap. The puzzle can be reset by holding down fire, but the hacking must be done before time elapses.

The isometric graphics are very well drawn, using the C64's hi-res mode for plenty of detail. Clever shading and choice of colours really creates a dark atmosphere. The player's character and the enemies are well animated and also drawn in hi-res. There is a superb introductory animation telling the story and giving the credits, before the title screen. Saul Cross has excelled with a moody and dark soundtrack, which can be listened to through a separate program on the disk version. Download versions come with a graphic image of the map, which shows the general layout of the Heracles without spoiling the challenge. Psytronik have once again put a lot into the Collector's Box version to add value. A choice of difficulty levels on the title screen affects how much damage the player takes from aliens and how many enemies there are around. The download files include a disk image designed for use with the C64 Mini.

Unless you are playing in emulation, there is no way to save progress - and there are many tricky decks to conquer. More suspense could have been added by having more than one outcome when a crew-member is found, but that is a minor niggle.

In the build-up to its release, many comparisons were made to Project Firestart, an early example of the survival horror genre. That was misleading, as this game is less about the story and lacks that title's cut-scenes. What it does have is plenty of exploring to do, and plenty of aliens to kill. The atmosphere is excellent and the challenge deep, so expect to be searching the corridors of the UTS Heracles for some time.