Robin Hood The Legend of Sherwood ( PC G)

By PETER ELEY

(Herald Rating: * * * * )

Most generations have had a version of Robin Hood, now we have the game, and the story, be it fact or fiction, is fertile ground for this role-playing action adventure game.

This game deserves to be a hit. It is well thought out, excellent value, lots of fun and faithful to the legend. Young Robin Locksley returns from the Crusades to find the family estates have been taken over by the Sheriff of Nottingham.

Worse, the dastardly coward has designs on Maid Marian, Robin's childhood sweetheart.

And to top it all, Prince John Lackland has taken over the entire kingdom while his noble brother, King Richard Lionheart, is off fighting the infidels somewhere in the Middle East.

Robin Hood The Legend of Sherwood manages to combine the essence of the plot into a tightly scripted game, with excellent graphics considering the quite low hardware specs — no 3D card and just a 233MHz processor.

Robin has to recruit his band of merry men and make his way through a series of quite different missions. The highlights visually are the quite spectacular castles and forest settings. They are beautifully rendered and have a real medieval feel.

The animations aren't up to that standard, but the characters are recognisable and move quite realistically. A zoom feature lets you hone in on the action quickly, while allowing an overview, which is great if you have a mouse with a wheel.

The gameplay is quite simple. Robin, or whoever of another eight characters you choose to play, moves to where you click the mouse and the cursor changes to let you know if he can climb something, jump, or open a door.

He also needs to talk to other characters, bribe them, knock out guards and, as a last resort, fight. The combat is low-level stuff and won't offend too many parents.

* Email Peter Eley