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The unusually quiet Birmingham-based Novagen have broken their software silence to release the first game from new software house Quantum Design.

Set in deep space, the game takes you on a mission to destroy a nest of alien Bio-morphs, which have infested and destroyed most of the humanoid colonies throughout the inhabited Galaxy.

You play Jald Ray, a man with a silly name and rookie member of an elite band of space commandos, called the X-Terminators, who is sent into the complex which has been singled out as the source of the xenomorph menace. Rav the rookie is controlled by walking left and right. Pushing up on the joystick initiates his jetpack, while pulling down halts his ascent, causes him to kneel, or gets him to lie down, depending on the current situation.

The complex interior is set over fifteen levels, each of which takes up six screens, and these scroll past in eight directions as Rav moves around. The immediate aim is to negotiate the level, which involves the destruction of energy barriers using grenades. Collect the remaining colonists who are attached to the walls and floor by alien secretions (bleah!), and then head for the elevator shaft which allows access to the next level. All this has to be done while avoiding or blasting the hovering aliens which metamorphose into their increasingly more powerful forms if left alone.

At the end of each level, you have the option to improve your current armoury by having extra equipment or ammunition beamed down to you. The available weaponry includes more powerful ammo, different firearms, and shields of varying strengths. The more powerful (and hence generally useful) items require more energy to beam them down. Hence the more energy you have left at the end of the level, the better the equipment available. Also, the correct selection of arms helps progress: choosing the most devastating weapon isn't necessarily the best tool for the job.

As soon as I heard the name Novagen, my interest was aroused. Their previous releases have always been something special. Unfortunately, I can only admit to disappointment over their latest acquisition. It has no technical advances (not even multiplexed sprites), the graphics are bland (they don't change drastically until level fifteen!) and the gameplay is staid and uninteresting. I found the 'strategic' weapon selection to be a shallow but necessary chore. X-Terminator is a very average game. Coming from Novagen - and at ten quid - I expect something a little more than that. It's also a level multi-load - God knows why: there are only about 80 screens in total, none of which vary that much from the previous ones.