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Wizardry is Steven Chapman's long-awaited follow-up to Quo Vadis. It's another arcade-adventure of absolutely massive proportions, guaranteed to blow some people's minds, while boring others to death. I think I belong in the former category.

The first thing that strikes you about the game is that the graphics look mighty familiar - not so much like Quo Vadis as Ultimate's Staff Of Karnath. Mind you, these were well worth copying. The endless paving-stoned floors and bricked walls punctuated by the occasional flickering torch or carved pattern, lend a suitably eerie atmosphere.

More unusual is the use made of background music. This changes each time you enter a new room according to the monster contained in it. Frankly, it got on my nerves after a bit, but it's a good idea. There are no other sound effects.

You take the part of the rather boring-looking apprentice wizard Drinn who has been despatched to the Castle of Illusions to try to seek out something called the Prime Elemental and wipe it out with a spell.

However, numerous puzzles need to be solved en route. For example, you have to discover a spell to use on a skull, to open a secret passage, to give access to a magic door, to find a map, to lead to another spell, to destroy a guardian, to open a new section of the game and so on ad infinitum. The spells (sample tiles: knock, needle's eye, maze) are found in the chests present in most rooms, but many of them can only be used once.

Meanwhile your every step is dogged by a series of suitably evil-looking enemies such as spiders, witches and deadly flying skulls. These can be despatched using one of the limited number of 'fireball' spells. Alternatively, you can waggle a sword at it Decathlon-style and hope it dies before you do. Depleted energy can be restored using a 'heal' spell.

The playing area is vast. Apparently there are no less than 70 different stages to be tackled in turn, each protected by its own guardian. Since solving just one stage requires moving back and forth through several different rooms, a successful trip through the entire castle must take many hours.

For people who like mapping, and fancy the prospect of a Herculean challenge, this game is a dream come true.