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It's 1000 AD and England has fallen foul of some horrid disease. London is full of rats, the crops refuse to grow and the weather simply can't make up its mind. It must be the greenhouse effect. And all because... King Arthur's treasures have been nabbed by a strange chap known as The Shadow. A book, Arthur's shield and helmet, Excalibur and an all-powerful scroll have been taken to the Iberian peninsula. It is your duty - as a knight of the round table - to retrieve these lost treasures. If you fail, the whole of England suffers.

Iberia is part of the Holy Islamic Empire. It's a dangerous land full of mercenaries and Christian and Muslim armies - most of the armies have their loyalties, though some may wish to join you, and, as long as you've got the gold, you can put the mercenaries to good use. Only four knights can go and each has his particular strengths and weaknesses. A knight with a good grasp of magic could come in handy, as could one with plenty of money.

Vengeance Of Excalibur is a kind of medieval strategy game, and you have to keep switching from a large map to a smaller detailed scene to really know what's going on. Chances are that you're never really going to find out exactly what's happening - at best you can a slight inkling. You have to complete seven tasks involving rescuing people, fighting others and recovering part of Arthur's treasure. If you succeed, you're on your way to defeating Mr Shadow and lifting the cloud of disease that hangs over England. You don't have to complete each episode but, since each serves to strengthen you in some way, you might as well. Try and speak to everybody who crosses your path - you may even be able to bribe some of them, it probably won't work, but at least you can try.

Along the way you have to kill someone, but choose your opponent carefully. You always have to remember that you're a noble Christian knight who respects women, children and priests - make sure you only kill the baddies. You wouldn't be anywhere near as bad if the screens were worth it, but they're not. The graphics aren't particularly brilliant and you have to continually adjust the brightness of your monitor if you want to be able to read any of the text - yellow writing on a white background is especially ineffective.

Things don't get much better when you start the game proper. On the large map which shows the entire area, the armies are indicated by a single shield - the whole concept just doesn't work too well. Vengeance would probably have worked better as a straightforward strategy game without any of the dressing up. You start off thinking it's going to be an Arthurian romp through strange lands with plenty of things to examine, spells to cast and a bit of good old fencing. But it isn't - most of your time is spent deploying your army, looking for knights who have got lost and swapping disks. It's an extremely stupid story, too.

1. Extremely dull strategy game with very little to recommend it.
2. Much too complicated for its own good.