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Kayleth is something of a surprise. It appeared in my hands wearing nothing but a blue cassette insert which read US Gold pre-production sample and turned out to be one of the best new adventures I've seen for ages.

For a start the plot is really effective, taken from an Asimov short story.

As far as I can work out, you are some sort of inter-stellar secret agent, sent by mind transfer to a far planet. Having arrived, you wake to find yourself in the body of an android (not in itself unusual - you are in a factory making them). Judging from what I've seen so far, your objective is to sort out Kayleth, who seems to be the big shot around here and an all-round bad guy.

There is a great option at the beginning of the game - you can get a sneak preview of about a dozen of the scenes and locations in the game. This would seem to indicate that there are a substantial number of places you can go. It also shows the program's graphics off to their best.

And are they good! The graphics window is about a third of the screen, but the pictures are detailed and well drawn. Many of them have some moving component. All of them are very much complements to the text.

The text itself is impressive, too. The parser seems to be fairly comprehensive, with a good vocab and you can also string together a number of instructions, using the comma.

There may also be other features of the game which I have not yet discovered - I'm working without any sort of instructions whatsoever. But I've seen enough to know that Kayleth is going to be a big hit with the adventure playing public.

Just to start you off, a couple of hints. Right at the beginning, try flexing your muscles a bit to get off the belt. To escape the guard android, which will smear you across the landscape rapidamento, go Up and pull what you find there. Examine every location - and have a look in the mirror. Maybe you can find something to fill the empty gap in your head...

Label: US Gold Author: Adventuresoft Price: £9.95 Memory: 48K/128K Reviewer: Gary Rook

*****

Excellent - great feel to the plot, good responses from the program and fine graphics. The best new adventure for ages.