"Wow!" we thought as the disc went into the machine and booted up. Starting with a nice, if somewhat flat, opening intro about Haven - a slave, prophesised to hear "the voice", a calling to arms against the evil Lord Vetch and his tyrannous reign, we're into some fairly standard low-key platforming action. Haven enters a tunnel that just happens to start caving in while on his way to a friend's house. It's a simple run towards the camera, as the roof comes down, with Haven jumping chasms, avoiding exploding barrels and holes leading down to pools of molten lava.

From here on in, it's a mostly formulaic platform-action affair. Our hero embarks on a varied if linear quest, missions consisting of 'ticking the boxes' as he progresses through the various tasks he has to complete. Unfortunately there is little time or room for exploring at your own leisure, with the current task requiring completion before you are able to progress.

The environments are quite impressive and richly detailed, but there are few objects that Haven can actually interact with. The characters are also well modelled, and easily on a par with recent releases of this type. In saying that though, we have previously mentioned that developers will have to come up with something special if they want to keep ahead of the pack.

Haven: Call of the King tries, but just doesn't quite get there. Why? Well, it spreads itself too thin. It's trying awfully hard to be good at everything, but excelling at nothing in particular. It's a shame really, but it is nevertheless an above average platform game with some small yet rather innovative sub-games.

And there are definitely some nice touches and very good ideas. For instance, racing a high powered water-speeder (which is over all too quickly), and the use of a jetpack and water cannon to help villagers put out the flames of their fire stricken homes (which is more frustration at the controls rather than enjoyment in using the jetpack).