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Puzzle games - we've seen a lot of them recently, haven't we? What's happened to action and adventure? How's a reviewer supposed to satisfy his craving for blood, gore and violence? Games like Square Scape are as likely to corrupt the nation's youth about as much as Countdown (though Richard Wilson does make we want to throw things at the TV, it has to be admitted).

Apart from the squares, the other main characteristic of the 'scape is that it's icy. Very icy. Icier than a deep freeze compartment in a shared student house. Once anything starts moving in this place it can't stop or change direction until it hits something.

You take control of a souped-up hot rod of a square block, which can slide in four directions. The problem is that you only have a limited number of moves to get your block-mobile to the exit (a door). Add a few blocks and one teleport (which moves the exit rather than you) and you've got the game. The skill comes in trying to navigate your way around the blocks, using them to stop you sliding hopelessly back and forward from one side of the screen to the other.

It's at this point that I have to say that Square Scape is disappointing - the gameplay varies so little that once you've worked out a method for the first ten levels, you won't have to think about the next forty. It's obvious the programmer has realised this and has attempted to combat the situation, but none of his solutions quite work:

1. Rivers - crossing a river doesn't hinder you in the slightest, which does prompt me to ask why they bothered including them in the first place, really.
2. Wreckages - these look like burnt-out blocks, and act exactly like walls.
3. Force-fields - these look like odd wavy blocks, and act exactly like walls.
4. Invisible blocks - these are blatantly unfair. The idea is that no-one minds ending a game because they lost their last life bumping into an invisible obstacle that they couldn't possibly have planned for.

As you can see, there isn't really much to capture the imagination, is there? This is where the review really hits problems. First, you have to remember that this game costs £3.50 - not exactly a bank-breaking figure at the worst of times. Considering you're looking at very much the same price for a copy of Commodore Format and a PD collection though, does this mean the game should get a higher mark? Can I recommend something purely on the basis that it's cheap? Would you thank me for it?

No. Though graphically pleasing and generally well presented, not enough attention has been given to the gameplay to make this anything other than a good PD release or a relatively unimpressive budget title. It's not a patch on the similar, but much better, Stone Age (reviewed in CF32) which strangely and sadly, never got a release in the UK.

1. All all-right but not very inspiring puzzler.
2. All all-right but not very inspiring puzzler.
3. I told you it wasn't very inspiring.