"2039. The last scarred sites of the alien war of 30 years ago are healing and, for all intents and purposes, the threat to the Earth might never have happened. Humans sleep easier in their beds knowing that the evil has gone...

But in the oceans long-silent forces have been aroused by the conflicts. Forces that have from time to time made themselves known to man, but for the most part have remained hidden. Separated from their stellar cousins for millennia, these aliens are now aware of their brethren's former battles culminating in the final conflict on Mars.

Under the ocean lies the remains of a vast interstellar colonization ship; 400 billion tons of metal that plummeted to the Earth some 65 million years ago. Now, the waiting is at an end, the powerful computers begin to stir, the ancient technology readies itself for the coming storm. When the alien base on Mars shuddered in its death throes, a powerful Tachyon beam darted out to a long dormant receptor.

Thirty years ago, awakened by the cosmic emissions of their brothers, the vast chambers of innumerable species began their re-animation cycle.

X-COM must now face a new terror, an army of aliens that is already here, but in an environment more deadly than deep space. The aliens of the depths are well prepared to take on man in all the oceans, even bringing the war onto land.

X-COM: Terror From The Deep lets you enter into combat in a strange and alien world, use new technology to enable the war to be taken under the seas, arm your troops for an encounter the likes of which man has only dreamed of in his worst nightmares..."

The much more difficult sequel the Enemy Unknown sports slightly improved graphics using the same game engine. Rather than fighting the alien menace in the skies and on land, this time the threat emerges from teh depths of Earth's oceans and those aliens seem a lot harder to kill!

Below, in Mythos Games' (former company of Julian Gollop - creator of the X-COM series) own words is the reason why TFTD appeared from the depths at all... But first, take a look at the Profile Of Jake Gaston if you never got the original version or the Collector's Edition of the game, and you want to do a bit more in-depth background, eerie reading into the life and mind of an X-COM Commander!

Taken directly from the Mythos website when it was still active:

"After completing UFO, MicroProse wanted to do a quick follow up within six months. We said that this was not feasible, and if it were possible it would be little more than the same game with different graphics. Instead we started work on X-COM: Apocalypse, which was much more ambitious. Once UFO/X-COM was clearly known to be a success, MicroProse suggested that we license the code for them to develop their own sequel. The rest is history."