I have a weakness for underwater 3D games.  Perhaps it’s a desire to be submerged in a foreign world or an urge to return to the womb.  Mission: Deep Sea by Hiccup Studios and Chillingo is the latest undersea adventure to wet my appetite and it creates a convincing underwater world for you to explore on your Iphone.

  

You play as a giant sea turtle named Buddy who carries out ecologically themed underwater missions while under human control.  The undersea environment is beautifully drawn and totally immersive both visually and in its underwater physics as you search for lost missiles, tag manta rays, mark toxic barrels and perform a search and rescue.  You’ll get to swim through lost ruins, explore a sunken ship and search through an underwater lab.  There are fish scattered here and there but the main sea life you’ll encounter are edible jellyfish.  You need to stay within the human signal range or you’ll lose Buddy.  Deep Sea gives you a nice underwater swimming experience.

  

The default controls for Buddy are intended to simulate flipper strokes as you swipe right and left to control each flipper while swiping with two fingers up gives you a forward stroke and two fingers down makes you dive.  The response on these controls is terrible as you turn slowly and receive very little glide from a forward stroke.  In a mission where you have to tag a Manta Ray you’ll be swiping like mad trying to catch the graceful ray while Buddy flops around like a fish out of water.  Thankfully, an option for tilt control has been added that makes swimming easier.

  

The major disappointment with Mission: Deep Sea is that it’s shockingly short!  While sea turtles are known to live over 100 years, Buddy’s life consists of 5 short missions making it feel more like a demo or preview than a complete game.  Even though it says “to be continued” at the end, I’d wait until it sinks to $.99 or receives an update before diving into these shallow waters.  The menu music is nice but the story is forgettable.

 

It’s too bad they chose to toss Buddy into the shark-infested waters of the App store before he was fully formed as he has the makings of an absorbing and unique underwater adventure.  As it is, I fear Buddy’s survival will be brief and he’ll sink to the App depths long before any new missions surface.  So long, Buddy.


Final score 2 ½ stars - The graphics and atmosphere are great but it lasts about as long as you can hold your breath.