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In The Living Daylights, Domark have produced a game faithful to both the film script and the Bond theme whilst including all the elements that make a game a good one - great graphics, fast action and well thought out ideas. The only thing missing is the sex, but then you can't have everything.

Simple ideas often make the best games and The Living Daylights is based on one of the simplest. The basis of the entire game is the old firing range idea where targets pop up all over the screen and you must target them with a crosshair sight and finish them off with the trusty old Walther PPK or whatever else is handy. Ordinarily I'd slay the living daylights out of such an old and as cliched idea, but here it's used with such imagination it's hard to be critical.

There are eight levels in all, each one closely based on part of the original screenplay. The action kicks off in Gibraltar, where Bond and his SAS pals are having fun shooting each other with paint guns. One of those unsporting KGB types is in on the game and is using live ammunition instead of the non-drop stuff. Bond must make his way through rough terrain picking off the hooded gunmen en route. This kind of thing would fall flat on its face if the animation were not first class. James runs across the screen as the terrain slips smoothly and silently by in the background. The only thing that gives him away in the sound of his footsteps crunching on the gravel under-foot. Suddenly two hooded figures appear from behind a rock and shots ring out from the TV speaker. Pressing on the fire button and with a swift backward pull on the joystick, Bond throws himself into a forward somersault, narrowly avoiding the flying bullets (or was it Dulux matt vinyl emulsion?). Either way he can't afford to take chances, a direct hit takes its toll on his energy meter. If it runs out, you get another four chances (You only live five times?) but it's a long game. Before the attackers have time to get in a second shot, 007 takes aim, the crosshair sight moves swiftly across the screen and pauses over the head of the first gunman long enough for a single shot to ring out. As the lifeless body slumps to the ground the second assailant falls victim to the same fate, the joystick moves far right, the sights disappear from the screen and once again 007 is on his way.

Before the next scene, where Bond must rescue KGB double agent Koskov from music-loving assassins at the Lenin People's Music Conservatory, you get to choose an additional weapon from Q's armoury of cleverly devised and disguised hardware. From here on in, at every stage of the game you get to take along one weapon from a choice of four. It's important to make the right choice. There's nothing more aggravating for a secret agent than discovering you've brought along the bazooka when what you really want is your missile firing pen. For the second level I heartily recommend the infra sight which helps you distinguish the real assassins from the general concert going public.

Going to the concert involves much the same kind of tactics as playing with paint in Gibraltar. The scenery is different and you've got Koskov pretending to be your shadow, but it's still a question of blasting everything with a hood on. First select the infra sight from the status panel at the bottom of the screen, then reselect the PPK - you can't shoot anything with an infra sight.

If you manage to get Koskov past the concert snipers, which is not too difficult, the next job is to smuggle him past the pipe workers so he can be fed into the Trans-Siberian gas pipeline and emerge in the West. This is tricky. Your choice of additional equipment should take into account the debilitating effect that a large piece of pipe can have when thrown at you from above - in other words, take the hard hat. In addition to forward somersaults, 007 can jump, duck and trip over things. If you are to avoid terminal damage on the energy meter a good deal of acrobatics will be necessary.

Having despatched Koskov down the Trans-Siberian pipeline, you next have to stop the Russians stealing him back from his mansion house hide-out. If you've seen the film then you'll know that this is the scene where hard man Necros does his act with the exploding milk bottles. As well as the Molotov milk bottles, you have to disable the helicopter. The bazooka puts it out of action for a while, but not permanently, you could try the mortar but I doubt whether a bomb or dynamite would do the trick.

The next two levels, Tangiers and the Afghan military complex are again quite similar to Gibraltar. The scenery is different and there are a lot more gunmen about which makes any kind of progress difficult for all but the most sharp-shooting and agile of Bonds. The same applies to level eight in which the evil Brad Whittaker, American arms dealer, and loony military historian, hurls what look like bits of Trans-Siberian pipeline at you. The pipeline comes thick and fast and it's one hell of a job to shoot and dodge at the same time.

It's fairly obvious what whoever designed the game was running short of ideas of time towards the end. The blame for that, as well as the credit for the game's good points (and there are lots of those) can probably be put down to the fact it's based not only the film, but on the Arcadia coin-op.

As far as the film itself goes, I have to say that I think it's the worst Bond ever. The Bond in my version of the game was a better actor than Timothy Dalton and in fact playing the game was altogether more enjoyable than watching the film. Having said that, the game follows the film script so closely that if you don't go and see it, you'll definitely be missing out. Full marks to Domark. Better luck next time Albert Brocolli.