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War is hell, apparently. But not for software houses - they love it. It provides an endless source of inspiration for various shoot-first-don't-bother-with-the-questions-at-all games - perfect for all those TA-type armchair commandos who play at war at the weekends.

Special Forces is one of those games, featuring four butch characters known only as Shark, Cobra, Tiger and Eagle. (Iguana apparently couldn't make it.) These desperate characters embark on a series of dangerous missions into unknown territory to restore order and keep the [insert nation here] way of life. Missions can range from rescuing a POW to blowing up an arms store, to marking various sites for a later air strike. Your chappies are chosen from a group of eight, each of whom has special training in an area like sniping or explosives. The people you choose for each mission should vary depending on its objectives.

How you carry out the mission is up to you. Your men can be controlled in a group or individually. So, if your job is to blow up an arms store, say, you could create a diversion in one corner of the map with two men by destroying a bridge, and send the other two off on the real mission. Each mission begins and ends at specified drop points, and it's only in these areas that you can successfully be picked up by the chopper (oo very er) to end a mission.

Special Forces' graphics definitely grow on you. At first, they seem flat and Gauntlet-like, but, as you scroll about, you notice the little details, like everything having a shadow - there are even individual flowers on the ground. Sadly, the sound is predictably average - white noises and blips, you know the sort of thing. There's a great intro, too.

Microprose say Special Forces is aimed at a younger market than their other games, so it's not quite so complicated. For all that, there's still a fair bit to get used to before you can begin to put your game strategies into play, and a lot of "hidden" gameplay to discover once you find your feet (they're on mission three). It's not particularly easy either, and with sixteen increasingly difficult missions to tackle, you shouldn't get bored for a while.

Unfortunately the manual isn't really up to explaining the complexities of the game, because it presents the game as a series of sections rather than as a coherent whole. As a result you find yourself flicking about among its pages desperately trying to see what F2 does.

While not up to the likes of Microprose Golf or Railroad Tycoon, Special Forces has a lot going for it. It manages to combine strategy and shooting in equal measures as well as make both fun. War is hell, but then - hey! There are worse things than hell around - look at Star Trek, for instance.

1. Overhead view might remind you of Gauntlet but it's a far cry from the manic blasting of that game.
2. Sometimes not unlike a more cerebral version of Commando. You'll spend longer playing this though.