If you're not familiar with names like Orks, Gretchins, Dreadnoughts, Blips and Genestealers, then chances are you haven't been living for the past few years.
As any decent role-laying games fan will know, these names are all to do with Games Workshop Ltd. Now if you cast your minds back a year or so ago, you will remember that Gremlin converted Heroquest - The Board Game into Heroquest - The Computer Game (fanfare please).
This obviously delighted thousands of RPG fans who owned Amigas. Now they've converted Space Crusade - a much loved RPG - to our computer screens too (hurrah!)

Anyone who's not a fan of RPGs will probably think that they're a little boring and involve lots of old, hairy heavy metal fans who move painted metal figures all around a board while throwing a 75-sided dice.
Well you're wrong! I've played a few RPGs in my time, I can tell you, and they are actually quite fun. The only thing tha bothered me were the hundreds and hundreds of rules that came with the game as standard.
You know the sort: "You can only kill an Ork if its kill points are below seven and its defence factor is above two, but if you own a Heavy Bolter you must throw three times to see if any shrimps have eaten your fridge".
Well it's sort of like that. Whatever it was, it was very confusing. So if you didn't know all the rules you consequently got beaten to a pulp by all your chums.

Well, now Space Crusade is on your home computer and things are a little easier. I'll tell you why shortly - first it's time for a bit of a story.
More than 25 milennia ago, mankind took his first tentative steps to the stars. The discovery of the warp drive was a major advancement for space travel. What was once a journey of several centuries became a journey of several days.
Warp space is the parallel universe through which starships may jump, but unfortunately it's also the domain of Chaos. In warp space nothing may be taken for granted. It is a universe with all manner of evil powers.

Ships have disappeared without reason and emerged from the warp centuries after they entered it, millions of light years from their destinations. These derelict starships, distorted beyond all recognition are known as space hulks.

By entering warp space, man had awoken an ancient evil - the minions of Chaos had escaped from warp. The first great war, known as the Age of Strife, had begun.
For over five thousand years, warfare wrecked mankind - nation battle nation, planet battle planet, race destroyed race. Colonies died out, while aliens plundered and few fat on the wreck of humanity.

Then came a saviour, the man who would be known as the Emperor of Human Space. A shrewd diplomat, he gathered what was left of human society and formed it into the Empire.

A brilliant soldier, he conquered and reclaimed the planets lost to Chaos. For this task he crested the Space Marines, the greatest warriors of all.

Its members are acknowledged as the most powerful and feared fighting men in the Imperium. Space Marines are organised into chapters, each with its own fleet. The fleets roam through the galaxy in pursuit of Chaos. End of story.
Now this is where you come in. You get to control a squad of space marines - one commander and four marines - and you have to rid the space hulks of Chaos. The computer version allows for three players, each commanding one marine chapter - either the Blood Angels, the Imperial Fists or the Ultramarines. Chaos is played by the computer.

At the start of a game, the marine players choose the marine chapter they wish to represent. They then choose weapons for their marine teams. There are plenty to choose from - assault cannons, missile launchers, plasma guns and heavy bolters are just some of those available.

The marines must then choose which missions they wish to undertake. This can range from blowing a hole in the side of a space hulk to taking on one of the deadly dreadnoughts. There are 12 missions to choose from, so it'll keep you busy for a while, plus there will be mission disks on the way soon. Once you've done all this, it's time to start the game. The marine players take their turn first. After the marine team(s) have had their turns), it's time for the computer to strike back.

The marine players must attempt to accomplish the mission they have selected from the mission list. During their turn the marines may move, fire or fight using hand-to-hand combat.

As the marines explore the game map they will encounter loads of the deadly members of Chaos. Marine players score points for eliminating their opponents and the player who scores the most points wins the game.
That's basically how you play Space Crusade - move in, kill the aliens, achieve mission objectives, move out and be home in time for tea.

Space Crusade is one of those games where the reviewer tells you to buy the game and read the manual because there are so many little things to talk about that he/she hasn't got enough space to write them all down.
Guess what? "What?" I hear you all cry. "Go and buy the game and read the manual because there isn't enough space to explain all the twiddly bits."

There you have it. I've hardly space to tell you about the fantastic graphics and how you can switch views from 2D to 3D, or about the fab sound FX and how, errr, fab it sounds.
See, there just isn't enough space to tell you about the playability and how it's easy to play because it uses a really good icon system and there are no hard rules to learn.

I can't believe I won't be able to tell you about how you'll be addicted to it for months and months on end. I don't know, computer game mags these days. Tut tut.
Space Crusade is one hell of a game. RPG fan or not, you'll love it to bits. Go out and buy it today. You will not regret it, I promise.

Space eh? Dontcha love it? There's the space time curve to play with, strange new worlds to visit and weird phenomena to investigate. Most of all there are aliens oozing from the chaos zone for you to splatter. Cue the space marines, the meanest and moodiest bunch ever to don armour and pose in front of the mirror with their weapons.

Space Crusade is based on the board-game of the same name. It's a war-game based on bug-eyed monster bashing and male bonding. Up to three players control small bands of marines as they clump around spaceships trying not to get too killed as they follow mission orders.

Mission highly unlikely
Your first step is to choose one of three marine chapters and assign weapons. The most important bloke is your commander, who is so tough he leaves his helmet at home. He gets the praise and career progression at the end of it all, so look after him. Luckily he's got more life points than anyone else. Along with him you get five grunts

After picking up your shooters and extra's it's time for the main event. There are over 20 missions, each has a main objective, some object to recover or an extra big alien to deal with. There's one thing they do all have in common though - lots of shooting. In the first few games you're likely to get embarrassingly massacred; you'll find even the easiest mission is no push-over.

Taking turns
The main screen is an overhead view of the playing area divided into squares and everything is mouse and icon controlled. The game is split into turns. You can move and fire the marines under your control in any order you like, until they've all had a bash. Then click on the next player icon and control switches to the other marine chapter or the alien scum.

Nothing is in real time so you can ponder moves as long as you like. You need to make good use or ranged weapons and position your men carefully to make it. If one of your men buys the farm then all that's left is left is a pair of over-size boots gently smoking.

All your favourite aliens are here - space orcs, soul suckers and the lumbering metal dreadnoughts. After selecting a target some LEDs do a spot of dice rolling to decide whether it's a hit or a miss. The enemy also gets to play 'alien events' - these range from trivial things like double attacks to devastating booby traps that wipe out half your men. No amount of planning can deal with these and they add an often infuriating random element to the game.
Complete a mission and its home for tea and medals and the chance to do it all again. The missions take a while to complete and there are plenty of them. Unfortunately they all tend to blur into similar shoot-outs.

It's fun, not fast-paced, joystick-bashing fun, but more your thoughtful, war-gamey, tactical move-type, with some mindless blasting thrown in. Issuing orders to each marine in turn can get tedious, and the tide of play can change suddenly due to a lucky or unlucky roll of the LEDs. What holds it back is the simplistic origins of the boardgame. Adrenaline addicts will have to look elsewhere as will fuddy-duddy war-game rule junkies. If you like to take your aliens at a more thoughtful and simple pace it's a good outing all round.

Xenophobes of the world unite! We've a hot spot of off-world alien activity to counter, this time brought to use by Gremlin Graphics. Space Crusade, based on the popular Milton Bradley board game of the same name, offers humankind the challenge of blowing various shades out of those despicable, non-specific creatures we've never even met, but suspect are lurking somewhere out in the vacuum of space.

Given half the chance they'd be down here - taking our women, taking our jobs, running amok with reverse-phase Plasmoquod Gigablasters™ and generally acting like they do on telly. 'We come in peace'? Hah! Blow 'em to pieces on their home turf - that's your task here, as you control a marine chapter commander and his men, all armed to the teeth with some damn heavy-duty weaponry and intent on alien annihilation.

Based on similar lines to Gremlin's fantasy board-game conversion Hero Quest, the computerised Space Crusade sets itself quite a task in trying to improve on the thrills and strategic depth of its physical forebear. That game system's popularity stems from its dispensing with clutter - the sort found in the more anallyretentive role-playing games - to create a faster-paced adventure. But can the Amiga version match and improve on the Alien-esque suspense created so successfully by the board game?

Up to three players can take part, with the computer looking after the aliens, or you can control up to three chapters of marines by yourself. The missions, should you decide to accept them (a complete waste of £25.99 if you don't), are 12 in number and involve such tasks as wiping out every living creature in an alien craft, rescuing hostages and destroying thoroughly irresponsible devices created to tear apart the space-time continuum and bring chaos to the universe. (Whoever gave those tentacles alien toe-rags the technology to rip up space needs a severe talking too!)

The aim is to collect honour badges to successful missions and to trade the badges for increases in your commander's rank, the more equipment can be carried and the more orders can be given during a mission. So, with all that in mind, let's be off to the barracks, find out what orders we can give and get out three, five-man chapters kitted out.

The arming procedure is fairly simple, if a little tedious, but bounces along to a rather neat, Jan Hammer-like soundtrack which gets those adrenalin glands dribbling as your salivary glands slaver over the weaponry on show. Each commander gets to choose from various close-combat devices and his charges have a choice of one item of such heavy-duty stuff as rocker launchers and plasma cannon- mean-looking bits of kit to match the 'Darth Vader on steroids'-style battle armour in which they're all togged up.

Sadly, there's nothing in the way of statistics to tell you just how efficacious each weapon is, so it's a case of trial, error and hoping you're not going into battle with the techno-warrior equivalent of a fruit knife. It's also wise at this point to check on what extra goodies can be picked up.

A junior commander will have access to one piece of extra equipment - a medical kit or bionic arm or whatever - and one order, such as telling his men to fire twice during one turn in a sortie. As you go up in rank, more extra's become available and can certainly turn the tables in tougher missions.

LET'S KICK SOME ALIEN BUTT
Once armed, it's off to the docking claw, where the main playscreen pops up to show the layout of the spacecraft in which you'll be fighting. The whole scenario is shown in miniature on a sub-screen while a close-up tactical screen gives a top-down view of your immediate surroundings. But beware - aliens lurk round every corner and will only show when they're in visual range or if you scan for them. And there's a whole bunch of nasties to be encountered, each with individual means of attack.

Moving out of the claw, the initial feeling is that the gameplay plods along, and could easily become tedious - each member of each team has to be moved in turn, after all. Cast such thoughts aside though - it soon becomes apparent that this meant to play like a board game, step by step, and will soon have your brain out of blast-'em-up mode and into something more pondering and strategic.

It's now that the relevance of the different weapon types becomes apparent. Each type has different firing characteristics and each member of the chapter has a different range of movement which depends on the weight of equipment he's lugging around. This, combined with the welter of different alien types, adds greatly to the game's strategic depth.

Care must be taken when getting your men into the best attacking position, lets you end up blowing members of your own chapter away by having them stand too near a rocket strike. This really pummels the grey matter, which justifies the slow pace of the gameplay as you'll spend more time racking your brains than charging around willy-nilly.

The controls are intuitive to use - click on 'move' and the movement range of that marine will show up on the screen, all you have to do is click on the destination square - and, like the board game, dice rolls take care of combat when you end up within range of an alien. Three is also an option for hand-to-hand fighting, which takes offensive and defensive dice rolls into account and, on occasion, you can re-roll to try to improve your score.

Where the game really works is with its use of graphics. When fighting an alien, the screen flips to an isometric view in which you can see your marine shoot and, if the dice roll is high enough, the alien explode in a burst of animated flame, accompanied by jolly little 'boosh'.

After scrabbling your way through the mission's objective, with hassle all the way from those heavy alien bozos, the chapter has to return to the dock claw before the number of turns allowed runs out or they'll all die. Panic? You betcha. A cool head is needed if you're going to get your commander back for his de-briefing. It's all too easy to get the marines strung out all over the place, easy prey for the green and slimies.

Once home and safe, you're told how well, or badly, it all went and given honour badges based on the points scored for the mission. Each commander can be saved to disk ready for another mission too. Gremlin says there will be data disks available - adding to the 12 missions already included - which makes this a game what will grow and grow

GAME OVER, MAN, GAME OVER
In all, Space Crusade retains much of the original feel of the board game, but the computer format adds some great touches you'd be hard pressed to imitate physically, short of tipping lighter fluid over the board characters and fighting them as they get blown away. As was the point in the original game system, the emphasis is on simply strategy and on not getting bogged down by a multitude of tedious irrelevancies (roll dice to save against poison gas/tripping up/whatever). Each mission can be approached in a completely different way and you can use just one or two chapters to make things that much more tricky. Also, the prospect of more missions is a great plus.

My only gripe is that you don't get the opportunity to play the aliens, but then, if you can beat 'em, why join 'em?

Upward and onward from Hero Quest, the scenario of Space Crusade is by no means difficult to grasp, particularly if you've played either the original board game or its computerised equivalent. Essentially the game is about some rough, tough, rootin' an' a-tootin' chapters (or groups) of space marines. Instead of being asked to play in the Space Marines Academy Band, they're politely ordered to kill lots of different aliens who inhabit the ship in which all the action takes place.

In the course of carrying out their missions - all of which concern exterminating, destroying, eliminating, purging and generally being very, very unpleasant - these tough marines dispatch their foes with a variety of weapons of the rootin', tootin' kind. You know, the usual sort of thing: plasma guns, missile launchers, bolters, power axes and elastic band catapults with paper clips in them.

At the start of the game, you're required to choose the mission, the guns and stuff, and the brave chaps who will be sent in to do the job within a given number of turns. (I'd go in too, if it wasn't for this damned leg). All of this setting-up is made incredibly easy by simply clicking on the relevant icons. Details of the mission and the orders you will need to follow can also be called up at the mere click of a button.

So, you've selected one of the 12 missions on offer, you've chosen the brave boys who will do battle with the alien foe, you've checked your orders, turned off the gas and made sure your flies aren't undone. So what happens now??

Michael: Space Crusade is a sort of mixture of shoot 'em up, strategy game and computerised board game. What you end up with is well-designed graphics, and an attractive set of screens with which to check out the action, the status and identity of the on-screen characters (and to top-up on orders).

There are some neat twists in the visuals department too. I particularly liked the way a fight between a marine and an alien would shape up on the 2D-style 'gameboard' screen, and then be played out in a separate axonometric, 3D-style animated sequence and you can toggle in and out of the 3D view at will.

Speaking of animation, on the whole it's smooth and adequate - the fight scenes aren't too dramatic, but then again neither is anything else. The whole game plods along at a fairly sedate, board--gameish pace, with a touch of atmosphere courtesy of some synth modulated sound samples.

The graphics are crisp and well thought-out, which makes control a piece of cake. The game fairly bristles with things upon which your cursor can alight. Clicking with the left-button on any of the icons at the bottom of the gameboard screen gives an order, and the right-button cancels. The program uses a system of highlighting and de-highlighting to display the options open to you, For example, which of the orks, soulsuckers or chaos commanders are in range of attack, how far your marines can move when it's their turn, or whether to use your scanner, close doors or deploy special combi weapons, medical kits or melta-bombs.

Given that this game is composed of elements of three different genres, it seems a little unfair to judge it on the basis of one, so I won't. Instead, I think it's fair to say that Space Crusade ploughs a similar furrow to its predecessors in the shape of 'computer game meets board game', so I guess if you enjoy board games, then you'll enjoy Space Crusade too.

Hut, hut, hut, hut, hut, hut, hut, splat. Yep, the lowest form of marine life is back. They do not know what they have been told, 'cos they fell asleep during the briefing, but they remember the motto - ifito movus, blastito peesus. So it is up to you to take command and try to make sure that your team of spaced-out crusaders to shoot the enemy and not each other through 10 new missions.

Space Crusade is not everybody's plastic cup of freeze-dried, machine-vended beverage, it has to be admitted. A blast 'em up where you have to wait 10 minutes between each blast and where life and death decisions are reached with dice (ones with zeros on them, for heaven's sake!) does not have universal appeal. But the strategy and planning elements of the game have some people hooked, and the dice add a sense of, well, hope, when everything looks hopeless. Luck? Nah, it was a calculated risk.

So, if you did blast, grapple and slash your way through the original there is more of the same in The Voyage Beyond. Only it is not quite the same. There are some new weapons to let rip with, some new ranks to aspire to and some new monsters to reduce to green splodgy messes (or to reduce your men to red splodgy messes). You wait till you see the new Mark VII Dreadnought - you might have thought the old ones were mean mothers, but they are just slightly stingy maiden aunts compared to this. But that is not all.

The missions in Voyage are more than just extra levels with monsters and rooms in different places. They are a logical progression from the ones in the original. A lot of them look deceptively simple, but require a great deal of thought (and pointless deaths) before you work out the best way to achieve your objectives. Some levels even have teleport pads just to complicate matters. Even more so than before you cannot just blast your way through and hope the right numbers come up on the dice.

Some of the new levels also look great, especially in the 3D mode. Mission Three (Locate and Launch) has some effectively gooey walls which complement the introduction of one of the new nasties, the Vilous parasites. These live down holes and pop out to trap marines in adjacent squares and suck the life out of them.

Okay, so the new missions are not drastically different, but if you like the original, they offer a worthwhile new set of challenges. But I reckon they just about stretch the concept to its limits. Any more expansions, unless Gremlin come up with something radically different, would be downright yawnsome.