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Following their success with Starglider - one of the first serious 16-bit games - Jez Sans and his Argonaut software team have since been busy with its sequel, not surprisingly entitled Starglider 2.

This latest mission takes place within the confines of a neighbouring star system - a collection of five planets and their moons, circling the star Solice.

The Egrons have invaded the nearby Solice system, captured all of its planets and are currently engaged in the construction of a giant plasma beam weapon in orbit around Q-Beta, the lone moon of the fifth planet, Aldos.

To protect this giant construction, the Egrons are also building a series of smaller beam weapons on each of the seven moons of Millway - gas giant and fourth planet of the system.

Jaysan, Katra and the slightly deranged Argo set forth to Solice in the Icarus (so named because whenever you fly too near to the star Solice, the ship melts and the control panel drips down the screen in a very realistic manner!).

The remaining Solician forces have taken refuge in the labyrinth of tunnels that dissect several of the planets and moons of the system. Several underground research establishments are still in existence and the intrepid threesome must make contact with the Solicians, help them to build a Neutron Bomb and blow the beam weapon to atoms before it does the same to Novenia.

What at first appears to be quite a complex scenario soon boils down to little more than a scavenger hunt of interplanetary proportions: the necessary components must be found and ferried to the research depot on Apogee, where the bomb is to be built. These include such strange requests as a flat diamond, an Egron mini-rocket and a case of Vistan wine!

Due to weight restrictions, the Icarus is defenceless save for a pair of forward-firing gas plasma lasers. However, the ship contains specially designed armament slots which allow the ship's hardware to be increased at will. A range of extra equipment can be added, including homing missiles, bouncing bombs (which are used to destroy the protective beam weapons on Millway's moons) and Projected Time-Warp Cuboids, which send enemy craft back in time about a second, causing them to collide with themselves! All these defence systems are available from technical depots on the moons of Millway, but, as always, you don't get something for nothing: the Solicians won't cough up a bouncing bomb until you provide them with a mechanical whale, and so on.

The craft is also self-sufficient as regards re-fuelling: additional energy may be obtained from a variety of sources, including arcing powerlines, gaseous volcanic emissions, methane asteroids and even from the plasma discharges of Solice itself. In practice, all these methods are as tricky as they sound, but once mastered are more or less the key to success: immediate danger is only provided by a dwindling energy supply and failing shields. Oh yes, I forgot to mention: in amongst all this you have to run the gauntlet of bloodthirsty space pirates and about a million Egron combat craft...

The accompanying novella is a humorous and vital read, containing information necessary to complete the mission.

Whatever the strengths or shortcomings of the gameplay, though, the real star of the show has to be the filled-in 3D vector graphics. The static pictures included here look impressive but do little to convey the speed and smoothness at which they move; at times they can be quite breath-taking. My favourite is the Icarus' death sequence: as the ship explodes into an expanding ball of debris, your viewpoint constantly pans around, creating an amazing feeling of depth and realism.

Sound too is used to great effect: many craft can be identified simply by the noise they make, which fades in and out as you move toward and away from them. Also, the sampled whale sounds used when near to the Egron's mechanical mammals is wonderfully eerie and incredibly effective.

Starglider 2 may not be the perfect game, but it's certainly an experience to be savoured at length.