With the news that 3D Construction Kit - which generates Freescape landscapes - has made Domark over a million pounds, it's a logical step for them to release most of the Freescape games in one compilation - as a tutorial aid to show all those 3D Construction Kit owners just what it can do, natch, not as an attempt to cash in, heavens no!

The games featured are Driller, Total Eclipse, Castle Master and the previously unreleased The Crypt (sequel to Castle Master). Driller was the first Freescape game and originally appeared on the 8-bits. The planet Evath is about to bust a gut because of the gas building up inside it. It's your job to traverse each of its eighteen sectors (when you've figured out how to enter them in the first place) and place a drilling rig to release at least 50% of the gas in every sector. You find the correct place either by trial or error or following the subtle clues littered around, such as the bloody great cross on the ground in some sectors. Rigs can be moved once placed, but that costs plenty of energy, something you're not exactly rolling in. However, you can find energy crystals here and there. As if all that weren't enough there are puzzles to confuse you, enemy defences to shoot at you and a time limit.

Driller really is a very good game. For once the plot is an integral part of the gameplay, the game is fun to play (a mixture of arcade and puzzle genres) and the polygonal 3D Freescape display is well suited to the futuristic and blocky objects you come across.

In two hours, the moon will totally eclipse the sun, triggering the curse of Re, causing the moon to explode and shower the earth with meteorites, plunging civilisation into a dark age of starvation and conflict. Which probably isn't a good thing, on the whole. That's the plot of Total Eclipse. What you have to do is to enter a pyramid deep in the heart of Egypt, work your way up to the shrine at its apex and destroy it to stop the curse from taking effect, all within two hours. This involves you in the usual shenanigans: winding your way through the puzzles, locked doors, sliding platforms, red herrings and so on, while keeping an eye on your water level (which equates to energy). Total Eclipse is probably the least well done of the four games featured here; the graphics have the obvious Egyptian slant, but aren't really up to conveying the atmosphere in a convincing way. Gameplay is what you've come to expect from a Freescape program: nothing too taxing but occasionally annoying and limited.

Castle Master is generally reckoned to be the most accomplished of the Freescape collection, in both graphics and gameplay. Simply put, your twin has been imprisoned in one tower of a castle and - well, you can probably guess the rest. Gameplay is much the same as in Total Eclipse - plenty of exploring, object collecting and mapping, though this time there are spirits flitting around which sap your energy if you don't kill them off sharpish. Samples are well used too. Most events of any import are accompanied by the appropriate sound effects, even if some of them are cut off rather abruptly.

The Crypt, unfortunately, is a virtual re-run of Castle Master, using the same graphics, the same presentation and almost the same gameplay. You'd think you were playing the same game. It's a bit of a con, really.

Overally, the collection is sound, though if you play the games one after another you realise just how similar they all are. Just change the style of the graphics, the plot and perhaps the controls a bit and you've got a new Freescape game. Still, there's a lot to keep you busy if you really want to finish each game. Strangely enough, Driller, the oldest title here, comes out best, perhaps because it really does have a plot and a purpose rather than just an excuse to wander around in 3D. And let's face it, they're hardly Virtual Worlds, are they? When was the last time you saw a circular pond with square edges?