Set in post-holocaust America, Wasteland is the most absorbing RPG I have played this year. The plot goes roughly as follows: it's 1998 and America have a giant space citadel in operation. Worried by America's new space missile capabilities many of the non-aligned countries (like South America) declare their allegiance to America. Most of the remaining neutral countries then take Russia's side, leaving only Ireland, Switzerland and Sweden neutral.

Two weeks before the Citadel is due for full operations its crew transmit a distress signal. Shortly after the signal is received nearly all the satellites orbiting Earth get wiped away. In pure panic the Soviet Union and United States use up nearly 90% of their arsenals in all-out nuclear war.

Now all that's left in America are a few struggling pockets of civilisation, the most successful being the rangers - ex US army engineers who were in the desert building bridges at the time of the war - who joined with small bands of survivalists to form a thriving community.

Your party is a group of these ranges, sent out to investigate a series of disturbances throughout the local regions. A good task since you are not limited in what you have to do, and you can go anywhere within the boundaries of the wasteland.

You can create up to four of your own characters in a party with anything up to three Non-Playing Characters (NPC's) also joining the group. The name of the game is violence, and lots of it. Unlike most RPGs there are no swords, spells or magic items: in Wasteland you survive with crowbars, Uzi's, LAW rockets, grenades and various other weapons. You can also earn promotions based on the number of experience points you gain by blasting people.

Actually, small communities aren't the only ones to survive: some cities have made it too, most notably Las Vegas (the house betted against any missiles hitting, and as we all know the house always wins). Now the fair city of Las Vegas is inhabited by gangs of killer robots, heavily armed but with rich pickings when destroyed.

Out and about in the desert can be more deadly than the cities. Run out of water and you'll die of thirst. Fail to take a Geiger counter and you're liable to glow so much you won't need a torch. Mutants and snakes are a constant hazard, so you need to be well armed; being able to fire a gun straight is more important than walking and breathing (so it says in the instructions).

What came as a complete surprise to me was a strange little feature whereby when something interesting happens the computer rattles you off a paragraph number which you have to read from the special book supplied. This helps to give the game more of a storylike atmosphere, but it also enables the dishonest planet to look up any passwords needed in the game rather than find the out for him or herself. So well subplotted is Wasteland that you could well find yourself jumping straight out of one mission and into another.

The graphics are a meld of traditional overhead views with the combat sequences produced in the style that made Bard's Tale a winner.

This is an immensely playable game but with one fault, you need four blank disks to play it as you are required to make backups of all four game sides. Disks aside, this has to be one of the ultimate RPGs. Slick gameplay, slick graphics (no sound but who cares?). Get it while it's hot.