Oh to be a first person shooter in 2007 - not an enviable genre to attempt to break into when you consider what people have to look forward to over the next twelve months. The continuing adventures of Gordon Freeman in the Half-Life Episodes, the stupendously gorgeous looking Crysis oh and some game called Halo 3 - I suppose that might be worth a mention too. So you get the point - it's going to be fairly crowded, which means it's going to be difficult for anyone else to shift their own lower budgeted FPS game and gain recognition in the face of such strong competition. Unless you try and do something a little different with it.

Enter Red Ocean, which looks like your typical generic FPS in which you play a diving instructor who occasionally masquerades as a treasure hunter called, wait for it, Jack Hard (pause for a moment to engage giggling) who is out on a routine diving expedition when he accidentally stumbles onto an old Soviet cold war facility deep under the ocean that is now under the possession of various unsavoury terrorist types. Needless to say, lots of shooty carnage ensues.

So far, so familiar - there is little that Red Ocean does in terms of general gameplay that hasn't been done a million times already. You still wander around dark, dimly lit industrial looking corridors and the action throughout is once again non-stop relentless action as you battle through groups of slightly simpleton wrongdoers before moving onto the next group. It's nothing new or innovative, but this isn't a game that's fresh out of its own ideas, thanks to Mr. Hard's abilities or rather his usage of his environment - specifically water. You get to control water in three specific stages, turning it into ice so that enemies can slip comically to their demise or hot steam for a more direct result - you can even use it to drown your foes in some of the underwater sections. There's plenty of reason for you to utilise the environment to your advantage, plus it helps that there are some quite superb looking water effects thrown on top. Add in a dedicated physics engine and a few weapons designed to make full use of it and the action is now looking a lot more interesting.

Whether or not Red Ocean's other key features will be enough to keep it as a blip on the radar for most gamers will rely heavily on how well those features are implemented. Last year's Prey showed just how easy it was for a good idea to get run into the ground through constant unimaginative use, so there's a challenge for Collision Studios to be creative enough to prevent the game being labelled as just another gimmicky shooter. Whatever the outcome, it's nice to see some developers attempting something new, something that many of this year's big releases probably won't be remembered for.

Previewed by Kieron Giacopazzi for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).