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There you are bobbing along on the beautiful briney blue sea, making like Miami Vice, when what happens...? A submarine decides to take a pot shot at you with a heat-seeking missile! Shaken but not stirred, you check the emergency supplies: a life jacket, flares (you little trendy!), the Observer book of fish spotting and, oh yes, a crate of depth charges. What a stroke of luck!

The only thing to do is start hauling them over the side, and kick some serious sub-rudder! These depth charges can be made to sink faster or slower, to catch out those sneaky ships which have some strange aversion to high explosives and salt water. These, though, are the only weapons you get, and only a limited number at that, so prudence is required when using them. So go get Prudence and off we jolly well go.

You are sailing over what looks like Egypt in the monsoon season, when you see subs starting to sail around beneath you. There are three types; nice bright red ones, camouflaged ones (why?) and big silver ones that look like jelly fish with a weight problem. The first two are no hassle, apart from the fact, that they try to launch mines at you. The Jelly-Fish are really nasty as they chase you, even on the surface!

The nice submariners do their best to help you out of this situation by sending up supply buoys when you send them to Davy Jones's Locker. You have to race along and collect the marker flags, which alerts the coast guard to your predicament and along comes his chopper to give a helping hand. Aid comes in the form of extra weapons; sometimes a smart bomb (no scruffy bombs around here), and sometimes a guided torpedo, or hydrofoil power to help you sail from side to side of the screen much faster.

That's about it really. There's no gameplay to speak of, all there is to do is to use your limited arsenal (sorry, the football special is getting to me!) to waste as many subs as possible. It is however a strangely enjoyable game to play, especially as you develop techniques for catching even the sneakiest subs with your charges.

The graphics are limited, by the subject matter - after all, what can you do with a boat to make it look sexy? (Don't answer that!) But the sprites are detailed and there's good use of colour.

The game itself seems a bit of a throwback to earlier styles, but this doesn't stop it from being fun. Controls are simple to use and objectives clear. Only the guided torpedo is awkward, and what's the point of having a special weapon that makes you more likely to get killed?

If you fancy a life on the ocean (erm, I mean US Gold) wave, and some mindless fun you could do a lot worse than than taking a dip in The Deep.

Looks simple and is simple: The Deep is not a game for 'sims' fans, it's not a game for any fans really. There is just too little here to interest the serious games player for more than five minutes.

A beautiful pea green boat - but just about everything is the same colour too!

Graphics 71%
P. Good little sprites.
N. Not much variety.

Sonics 54%
P. Just explosions and the occasional helicopter sound.

Grab Factor 63%
P. Easily picked up.

Staying Power 55%
P. Easily put down, too.
N. Reasonable blow-'em-up.

Overall 62%
Fun - but limited life expectancy.