Deep Black (Episode 1) is an action third person shooter that takes place mostly underwater developed by Biart (played on the Xbox 360).  This was a difficult one to endure – why?  Because of murky controls but there was some fun to be had deep down if you looked far enough.

Players use an underwater jetpack to venture through most of the environments in Deep Black – Ep. 1, a gimmick that was soon lost on me. No level of jetpack boost was enough to speed up the action, nor was using the harpoon’s sub-weapon to “hack” doors underwater or bring enemies down into the depths while strolling across an overhead catwalk. When you were faced with an underwater enemy or patrolling drone, the best efforts at finding cover were often met with a few stray bullet. More frustrating was the mystery in not knowing how close to death you were.

The storyline takes place in the near future, with forces fighting over possession of bio technology, but no one’s really paying attention to that here. Too much time is spent emptying payloads of bullets into enemies or getting tagged by enemy fire to really care about why you need to slowly get from point A to point B.

Deep Black Ep 1 has a 2-8 player multiplayer mode and will only run you 800 Microsoft points – there’s even a demo to sample the game.  We’re hoping Deep Black Ep 2 will offer a slew of improvements to add to the experience of the game – but don’t be so sure that we’ll be holding our breath!

For more info on Deep Black visit Biart’s website here: http://www.biart7.com/node/9