Treasures of the Deep

• Developer — Black Ops Entertainment • Director — Jose Villeta • Producer — John Bowegti • Designer — Jose Villeta • Programmer — Jose Villeta Matthew Whiting Derrick Yim Rudi Kammerer • Artist — Shannon Studstill Alexander Stein Jon Bailey Dave Goodrich • Composer — Tommy Tallarico Studios • Genre — Action-adventure • Modes — Single-player • Platforms — PlayStation • Title — Treasures of the Deep

The gameplay in Treasures of the Deep focuses on underwater exploration in a variety of wetsuits and gradually more powerful one-man submersibles, in order to fulfill objectives such as capping underwater oil leaks, exploring shipwrecks, recovering plane crash victims and destroying hostile installations. Finding treasure is a secondary objective. Ancient gems from a sunken ship can be put towards upgrading weapons, equipment, and subs. Various wildlife populate the levels, including sharks that attack the player and bleeding divers and animals. The player is fined for killing harmless and endangered species. The game takes place in 14 diverse underwater locations, ranging from the Bermuda Triangle to Antarctica. The levels are designed to evoke a claustrophobic and moody environment. There is an unlockable 'bonus' level, Atlantis. When the player earns a high score, another bonus level is temporarily unlocked, 'Shark Attack', where the player controls a shark and aims to eat as many sea creatures and divers as possible before the time runs out.

The game manual identifies the player character as Jack Runyan, a retired Navy SEAL and Gulf War veteran, now under hire of the Undersea Mercenary Agency (UMA), operating in an undersea base near the island of Vieques. The early missions comprise raids on sunken Spanish galleon Concepcion in Puerto Rico trench, Nazi gold lost among Ionian Sea, Aztec treasures in underwater tombs near Yucatan Peninsula, and Hormuz Strait break raid. The game's antagonist is Simon Black, the head of Seismic Corp, an organization that has been conducting illicit activities. In response to UMA's involvement, Black commits a wave of terrorism across the world's oceans, such as bombarding coral reefs with radiation, provoking seismic activity, and downing the Space Shuttle Atlantis to prevent the deployment of a spy satellite. At the climax of the game, Black's secret headquarters are discovered within ice caverns in Antarctica, where the player faces off and destroys Black along with his personal underwater combat vehicle.

The programmers used 16 levels of distance fog to clarify the approach of objects and creatures.