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It's official! The Esmeralda, the legendary gold ship that sank 70 years ago, has been discovered. Now it's up to you to dive 300 feet and recover the lost bullion. Using the very latest technology (this is 1927, remember - not the dark ages!) the challenge is to raid Davy Jones' Locker itself.

The Treasure Trap is a strange, dangerous place and the diver's task a far from simple one. Each room and corridor has to be individually searched for the gold scattered when the ship sank. The cabins are displayed in isometric 3D, allowing a would-be Jacques Cousteau a sporting chance of finding every single bar of the world's second favourite obsession.

Wreck diving is one hazardous occupation. For starters, there's the very real chance of running out of air. Never a pleasant experience, but 100 metres down inside a steel box a constant air supply is essential. Compound this problem with the vast number of dangerous creatures who've made the Esmeralda their home and you can just tell it's going to be a rough ride. What's worse, some ship's doors are locked. Most push open, but some require kets, which must be located too.

That initially off-putting 3D display, with everything on the diagonal, allows the necessary depth of detail needed for a thorough search of the ship. Undersea explorers can move the furniture to help them climb on or jump over objects. Being neutrally buoyant, divers can leap vast distances in a single bound. They can even stand on floating flotsam and be washed on the tide, to reach gold bars in the most ridiculous places.

The purpose of the game is personal gain and picking up gold couldn't be simpler. Stand on it and the bar's in the bag. The real art is finding the bullion in the first place. Due to the tremendous blast which sank the ship, there are bars in almost every room, and you can bet your weight belt that they aren't just lying in the middle of the deck. Oh no missus, they've all found themselves nice little nooks and crannies. Some are hardly visible, let alone retrievable.

There are two game mechanisms - as well as avarice - to push divers deeper into the wreck. Firstly, the game can only be saved every time 50 bars are collected. Secondly, every 80 bars the submersible scavenger collects earns him a "Friendly Fish" (get serious, guy!).

The Esmeralda is teeming with marine life, fish, crustaceans, editors and countless other monsters [I heard that, pardon - Ed], and touching one kills a diver. The only sensible course of action is to wait. The fish move predictably so it's possible to cross beast-filled rooms with only a few panic attacks. Eventually, though, you'll have to call in the "Friendly Fish", beautiful creatures adore which divers but hate everything else. Call them in and they swim into the room devouring everything in a piranha frenzy.

Pockets of air have been scattered throughout the wreck to help divers who are short of breath, and keys are left lying on the floor where the crew dropped them as the ship sank. Their lcoations never change, so it's worth keeping a map on your underwater slate so you know where everything is for future, more profitable, raids.

Each step the diver takes is accompanied by the authentic sound of leaden boots hitting rusting metal. The doors slide open with a grating metallic scrape, suggesting they're none too keen on the idea of working again after nearly a century off.

The 3D itself allows real detail to pervade both scenery and the ship's inhabitants. Everything's easily recognisable and has enough comic charm to carry this visual adventure. Even the annoying aspects of the 3D work to the game's advantage. Sometimes the diver and/or object is partially obscured, and while this is irritating, it creates the scenario where the diver has to enter small dark corners trusting to luck. Was that a glint of gold - or the tail of a stringray? There's one way to find out: a leap boldly into the unknown.

Treasure Trap is a game that echoes some early 8-bit legends in its design - anyone remember Head Over Heels or the first Batman? - but now it's more refined and polished. Even the environment itself makes a refreshing change. Everybody, but everybody, has explored oodles of space stations and "Goth" castles galore, but how many have risked their lives in the deeps of the ocean?

The puzzles are often elementary and do not lend the game lasting interest, but the sheer size of the ship counters this. The game designers have also thrown down a challenge to players, for Treasure Trap can only be finished if played through from beginning to end in one go - and saved adventures don't count. Going one step further, they've even had the audacity to try and goad you into speedy completion with the enigmatic line "escape a final surprise"! Well now, wonder what that might be? By the way, has anyone seen Return To Poseidon Adventure recently?