[Fidd]

I don't know about "the ultimate", as I've only ever played the SH series, but it's bloody good, especially played at the organised game level, with up to 4 boats and 5 or more crew. In terms of the behaviour and lethality of escorts, I'd have to say the AI SH3 ones were much better, but we hope eventually the devs will add playable escorts so that human decision-making drives the escorts use, rather than the rather beef-witted AI. Movement into 1942 and onwards, would also serve to increase difficulty, perhaps with hedgehogs, radar and the like.

But as a pre-release beta, it is pretty outstanding even in it's current form. Presently new functioning engine and e-motor compartments are being added, and it's reasonable to assume I think that eventually reloading of the torpedoes and manual control-based flooding/firing of torpedoes on command, rather than via the commander's electric firing circuit may also be possible. So there's a lot to look forward to. In the meantime, where it excels is in the teamwork and regular crews of specialists who need to work together to achieve hits, whilst also permitting solo-play augmented by "bots" who can achieve evolutions at the direction of the player.

There are lots of nice touches, such as a working (if a little simplified) Enigma, that can be used to decrypt messages from BDU in custom missions, or between u-boats (although the latter is only very rarely used). Real morse-code is routinely used via a morse-key to communicate between boats on some organised games. I'd highly recommend the game. The game does have a few bugs and idiosynchrasies, for example, if you join a lobby and for some reason leave it, it's best if you completely close WP before rejoining as a client, or if starting a new lobby as a host. Overall, the remaining bugs are generally "slight irritants" rather than "serious". It is a pre-release beta, albeit a very long gestation one, so one should reasonably expect a few such.