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Eee, it's grim in the 21st century. Let me explain. Narco Police is set in a possible future when drugs manufacturers have great power at their disposal, so they can protect themselves while they continue to manufacture and distribute narcotics to populations across the globe. In fact, the idea in Narco Police is that you must lead a team of said Narco Cops in an assault on an island used by a drug manufacturing operation.

You equip three squads of five men each, deploy them at strategic points on the perimeter of the enemy's defences and then guide the squad leaders through the network of defences, into the core of the drug factory. Finally, all you have to do is plant some factory-crippling explosives and you can kiss the place goodbye.

At the start of the game you have three options. You can go straight in and play, in which case the computer will use default setting for your troops' starting positions and weapons, or you can re-select weapons and re-select starting positions. When you check out the weapons screen, a full range of combat kit is laid out before you, from flak jackets to personal teleport systems and fragmentation rockets. It's worth experimenting with as many devices as possible in your first couple of games and making sure that you know how to use them. Also, at least one squad should carry a transporter pack and activate it soon into the mission. You have back up troops but cannot summon them unless a squad has a teleporter.

The deployment screen shows the whole of the factory island. The idea is that the druggies' base is an underground network of tunnels much as you'd find in a mine. There are five points from which this network can be entered and you must choose three of them.

Once you're happy with the kit and deployment orders issued to each of your squads, it's time to start the game proper. Your view is that of someone standing directly behind the leader of the squad currently selected. You control the squad leader with the joystick, moving him left or right or pushing him deeper into the tunnel. A display at the top of the screen tells you which squad is currently selected, indicates your direction on a compass and displays other useful data such as ammo counts, kit being used and damage.

As you make your way through a tunnel, guards jump down from rafters or appear from niches in the rock walls and open fire. Because of your viewing angle, its a little difficult to see where your leader's gun is aimed but a tunnel-wide spread of bullets or the launch of a fragmentation rocket (if you're heavily outnumbered) should have the foe falling to the ground in no time.

Occasionally, you come up against armoured doors. These can be penetrated by missile fire. If you come up to a junction, sliding the character left or right allows him to take a different exit. If your squad leader becomes a casualty, he's automatically replaced by the next member of the squad. A squad is lost for good when its last trooper dies.

You can switch control between the groups at any time. You can also call for an update on how your whole team is doing. However, the enemy base is split up into sectors and zones and you should try to synchronise the progress of your three squads so that they all proceed into a new section at the same time. If you let one group get too far ahead, the other two will never be able to catch up with it.

The tunnels are also fitted with automatic defence systems and cameras. If one of your squad leaders comes across a computer terminal (and several of these are dotted around the complex) he can access the controls of these cameras and systems and switch them off. It's an added bonus to the game which should appeal to cyberpunk fans.

That's about it. How does it play? Hmm, hard. It plays hard but well. For a start, you won't find a fame that looks anything like Narco Police (big plus). The way squad leaders shuffle along the tunnel walls makes the action tense and convincing and the size of the sprites alone is impressive. Your opponents roll across the floor to dodge your fire, find cover when possible and generally behave as though they're intelligent (another big plus). But it does have its problems.

The graphics are so complex that the joystick is slow to respond. Fortunately, it doesn't feel as though you've been cheated if you bite a bullet while you were trying to find cover, but if only it could have been a bit faster... Another problem I've already latched on to is that of aiming your weapon. Some kind of floating crosshair would have helped. My other complaint is that functions like firing missiles or changing squads are selected from a fiddly menu freezes the action.

Nevertheless Narco Police is a very different kind of game and it's more-ish, despite the fact that you keep getting blasted off the screen at first. The graphics are unusual but terrific and moody sound effects accompany tunnel exploration. Machine gun and rocket fire sounds are suitably chunky too. I'd say that the Narco Police should expect a few more recruits when it hits the streets.

1. An original game idea well programmed.
2. Colourful graphics.
3. Clever animation on troopers and bad guys. See 'em roll, dive and fall.
4. Tension building sound effects and armour piercing machine gun sounds.
5. Optional mission set-ups guarantee lasting appeal.
6. Challenging gameplay.
7. Features like logging on to the terminals add depth!

1. Some loss of clarity due to spite size makes aiming difficult
2. A bit on the slow side, again due to the massive sprites
3. Single game type throughout