Made by Ubisoft Romania, Silent Hunter 3 fulfills the [WW2 subsim] niche that has begged for a decent title for so long. It does virtually everything right: solid graphics, deep and dynamic strategic gameplay, RPG elements, wealth of built-in educational ressources, interesting missions, etc.
There are few sub sims out there. The last few to come to mind are “Sub Command” and “Dangerous Waters”, both from Sonalysts. Essentially the Tom Clancy’s of the gaming world: more like an anal manual than a work of fiction. They are fun, but the deep but somewhat obscure and convoluted gameplay is bound to irk most players. SH3, on the other hand, is rather simplistic and easy to pick up. The realism setting can be changed to count in additional factors, such as fuel levels etc. The graphics in this game are far superior than that of Dangerous Waters [which was just recently released], which is the saving grace for those that are more interested in Shoot-em-ups.
That said, the texturing within the game is somewhat dissapointingly of low resolution, and there are no options to change any advanced graphical options. The resolution is also fixed at 1024×768. Not too good. Furthermore, nothing is editable once in-mission. You have to exit to the main menu to do anything. The ingame sound is decent, but nothing spectacular. As ships sink to the bottom of the abyss, they emit metal-crushing sounds… which is a nice feature, but one which would of been much more appreciated if it wasn’t the same .wav file(s) all the time.
There are other niggles. The game features a “Naval Academy” to “teach you the basics”. Their idea of teaching you however comes in the form of instructions on the loading screen, leading up to simplistic missions. Once in mission, there’s nothing you can do to back-reference what was instructed. Not too good.
The gameplay is pretty good, though can get very slow at times. The game has two ways of going about: a dynamic campaign, in which you start off with one of two U-Boats, and then go from random mission to mission. This is the brunt of the game, and is well executed. You get points for accomplishments, which can be used to buy a new ship, upgrades, weapons, insignia and/or crew. Sort of the “Need For Speed Underground” of the submarine world with its modding capabilities. Cool. Crews gain experience. Very cool.
The missions are all excellent. Whatever action may lack in the dynamic campaign (and realistically so), the missions more than make up. Before you know it, you’re within a convoy of 20 merchant ships with tons of torpedos. Or, you’re running away from multiple destroyers. The action is absolutely fantastic in these tidbits: you hear the pings of the ships against your hull, depth charges blowing up around you, steam pipes blowing in your ship. It’s pretty awesome.
Details are abound. When you leave the harbour in the beginning of a mission, you notice the city behind you with all its rendered buildings. The periscope blurs up and distorts the view from the water when it is raised from a submerged state. The water effects are great: waves roll about, they reflect accurately the surroundings. The sky shifts on a 24 hour cycle. There are weather effects (rain, so forth). All your men engage in some kind of animation at all times, though I wish they seemed less plastic. The dials are all illuminated in a cool manner. There are bloom effects. The list goes on. It isn’t the prettiest game out there, but it is a very decent-looking one.
There is also a multiplayer mode via ubi.com. I have yet to try it.
Overall, I have but the highest praise for this title. It offers something that the gaming genre has somewhat lacked: deep, dynamic, engaging, strategy games. This title isn’t for the bang bang shoot-em-up types. They’ll just be bored at the very idea. But if you enjoy something a little deeper, a little slower perhaps, something that’s unique every time: go for this game.
Pros: Rewarding. Dynamic. Deep. Fun.
Cons: Tutorials (“Naval Academy”) leave alot to be desired, could use more graphical/audio variety.
Mark: 88%