Action/puzzle game Sentinel Returns has been released for the PC and PlayStation platforms, Psygnosis announced Tuesday. The sequel to Geoff Crammond's Sentinel, a 1980s strategy game, was produced by No Name Games and developed by UK-based Hookstone.

　　The companies describe the game this way: "Rather than being an object in the game universe, the player is a presence that moves through the landscapes by transferring to different bodies. Alternately absorbing and expending energy, the player seeks to gain control of each level by rising to its highest point in an effort to reach to the final, ultimate battle against the nightmare that is the Sentinel (robotic creatures that guard the summit at the end of each level - in other words, the boss). At each level, the player must also avoid the invisible yet deadly energy-draining beams of the opposition." The game features more than 650 levels and the PC version of the game includes multiplayer compatibility.

　　Players operate under some interesting constraints - for instance, their ability to survey the landscape is limited. "Scrolling is slow and deliberate," Psygnosis says, "engendering a sense of sweating paranoia as players, feeling their energy being drained, struggle to look around in order to escape the deadly beams."

　　Director John Carpenter (known to provide the music for his own movies, Halloween, Escape from New York, and the like) provides the score for the game.