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The recent spate of SSI games, bar the AD&D licences have been a little samey, so it was with some trepidation that I loaded Star Command, the game that promised to be everything I've been looking for. I can honestly say that, after a dozen or so hours of constant play that it is not only one of the best games SSI have ever programmed, it's also one of the best I have ever played.

You, as Commander of eight sturdy young men and women must take on the known universe and most of the unknown one as you battle to save The Triangle. The Triangle, by the way, is the new homan home. The old one, originally known as the Earth, was blown away by marauding pirates out looking for some fun.

The Triangle is so called because of its three protective starbases. Within the Triangle is the only known place in the galaxy where any form of law and order exists. Outside pirates roam wild in small groups. They've never really formed much of a threat. Until now.

A particularly nasty pirate by the name of Blackbeard, has rounded together as many pirtes as he can get his hands on and is now planning the first ever major assault on The Triangle. You must win the massive war that threatens to erupt at any moment.

But not yet. For now you must be satisfied with more menial tasks, yet even the simplest of jobs is fraught with danger. Take the first job for example. It seemed simple enough, just collect a shipment of ore from a mining colony on one planet, and drop the shipment off at another. Simple, only I didn't reckon on being set upon by a gang of pirates while approaching the starbase. I got a couple of shots in before they completely obliterated me.

And that's what this game is all about. Action, adventure and more battles than you could possibly imagine. Of course, it's just as full of options and different weapons as you'd expect an SSI product to be, and more besides. There are sixteen types of human armour, 54 different weapons, nine different types of starships, dozens of different weapons for your ship and loads more besides. It represents total heaven for an unbalanced lunatic like Mark Patterson. Sadly, the graphics aren't brilliant. They're restricted to small single colour sprites and lots of text windows. However, what's lost in aesthetics is more than made up for by the wealth of information at your fingertips. All controls are single keypresses picked from an on-screen menu. The sound is pretty limited too, the game's chief effect being a very clever impersonation of a digital alarm clock. Nevertheless, there's already a degree of disk swapping involved. The inclusion of graphic and sonic frills would have meant at least a third disk.

The Triangle may not push the Amiga to its limits, but it has a level of gameplay and depth most conversions and licences can only dream of.