Afterlife

PC CD-ROM minimum system requirements:

PC CD-ROM minimum system requirements:

486DX/66mhz;

8MB RAM; 2MB hard disk space; DOS 6.0 or

Windows 95; Dual speed

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CD-ROM drive; SVGA.

£34.99

WOULDN'T it be nice to act God for a day. How about taking on the role of the Devil as well? In Afterlife that's exactly what's on offer. You control what happens in both Heaven and Hell - In technical terms you are the regional spiritual director.

The pay is not too good but someone has to do it and with the involvement of one of the makers of Sam And Max behind it, Afterlife has, as one would expect, a rather keen and quirky sense of humour. To put the game in perspective, if the people responsible for Sim City and Sim Ant had a say in the naming of this game, they probably would have christened it Sim Dead.

In Afterlife players must set up zones to house the souls, keep overcrowding to a minimum, punish the damned, reward the blessed and ensure those who wish to be reincarnated have the possibility to have another go at life. Fail to do this and you'll get a visit from the Four Surfers of the Apocalypse.

Unnatural disasters can also happen - the Disco Demon hoogies across the landscape smashing buildings; Heaven Nose happens when a giant nose flies over Hell snorting up real estate, depositing it randomly on the equivalent tiles in Heaven.

According to Lucas Arts, Afterlife has the most sophisticated game engine of any sim beginning with the letter A. This may, or may not, be true but it is certainly out of this world. If you are a sim fanatic and are looking for something with an oddball touch, but still serious enough to hold true to the sim genre, Afterlife is a dead cert.

Graphics: 87%

Sound: 88%

Gameplay: 90%