SH5: The good, the bad, and the ugly

[Ducimus]

Well, ive been mulling over this for the last week, so here's my "review" of Sh5, off the cuff with no rough draft or other formal writing procedures one would follow to write a genuine article, just Duci shooting straight from the hip!


The Good...
Maestro,

Graphics
Lets get this one out of the way. This game has eye candy in spades, which is no surprise, but it has impressed me.


Campaign
This is one of the biggest strong points of SH5. I like how the campaign missions have continuity and you feel like your contributing to a larger effort.
It's not just "go here, patrol this long, and come home" anymore. I found myself thinking about the larger stategic picture. In the past, it has been said by one (if i remember his words right) that you can have all the technical details right, but if the campaign isn't good, it doesn't really amount to much. SH5 delivers a knock out punch here.

On a side note I was particuarlly impressed when 6 destroyers shows up off the eastern britsh coast when i cut loose with a deck gun on a target that couldn't see me.


Crew Management
This is also one of SH5's stronger points. The developers have definintly learned from their previous games. Crew management in SH3 was a tedious exercise of moving widgets around the boat. in Sh4 it was pretty much a hands off affair and which had the side effect of keeping you at distance. In Sh5, your directly involved in a way that draws you in and creates a situation where you have to make decisions, and plan things out a little, in a way that i did not find tedious. Infact, i felt rather engaged with it.


The Interior
I have to admit, in the past, i didn't see much point in it. I wanted it, but could go without it if i had to. It is well done, and i do find myself feeling like im really on a submarine. I've always felt that feeling immersed, (not at the expense of functionality) is a large portion of a submarine sim, and SH5 has this in spades.



The "minimalist" UI
Say what you want, but i like the minimalist themeof the UI. There is something to be said about a UI that gives you information in a non intrusive way. I find it a welcome departure from the same ole same ole.

Note: I said theme of the UI, i'll take more about the UI further down.


Small improvements sneaking through the cracks
There are small things that are really great, but their minute that most will probably miss. Things like the Travel mode button (this is a godsend!), Rec manual filter (another god send, i hate flipping through umpteen pages), and a leaderboard, which is unfortunatly tied with DRM.

The leaderboard is great because you can see other "captains" at sea and how their doing. Gives me the impression, "hey, im not the only one out here, and look how So and So is doing!" If you recognize some of the names, it kinda develops more community i think.

Another small thing that escapes attention, but got the attention of LukeFF, was that guns, and conning towers, cause drag now. This is sim stuff here!! But its under the vaneer where you can't see it. Other improvements were increased use of compressed air. I love that! In sh3 and Sh4, compressed air may as well not have existed, but it is noticeable in a small degree in SH5. I also like the new captains log in how it keeps track of all occurrences instead of just ships sunk.

One more item is adjustments to the AI settings. Never before have you been able to establish a minmal visual threshold for night time seperate from the day time. It was always a fixed percentage. Now you can adjust it THIS IS HUGE.. Everyones always complained on why you can't just get right in with the convoys at night on the surface and be wtihin the close distances described in firsthand accounts... now you can!


Modablity
It has improved from previous titles. This is undeniable, and has to be mentioned.

The overall concept
The overall concept of this game, isn't a submarine simulation. It's changed from previous games. It is now a submarine captain simulation, as opposed to a strict technical simulation. This is not to say that the tactical, and technical elements are no longer there, they are, and have improved a little in detail under the hood of the game (as mentioned above).

One philopshy ive always had, particuarlly in my moddings, is that the player, as the captain, should be forced to make decisions. Your decisions mean life, or death, failure or victory for your boat and your crew. This game delivers that in a way i really like.


Overall potential
It's huge. Very huge, but it will take alot of time, and a whole new generation of modders. I might be mistaken, but i think alot of the "old guard" is worn out. I know i am.


The bad...
Maestro,

The usual bugs & unfiinished state
I have to say this is no surprise to me. I've set the bar pretty low for Ubisoft, but this bears mentioning anyway. This is bad, but not UGLY because the game is in far better condition then SH4 was when it was launched. Some things should not have to be fixed by mod, but i will degress one point, that in working on a supermod, i have come to understand why some of these bugs get through. The things that bug me the most, are animation related.


World of Subcraft
Crew skills. Some of them are atrociously gamey and placed in the wrong place. A navigator that can increase my crush depth? Thankfully half of them make sense, but the other half deserve negative marks.


Post 43 Type 9
No, that isn't some piece of equipment. I understand that much attention to deliver what was delivered in the level of detail aspired, but the lack of at least a Type9B and Type9C is a negative in my book, and the war did not end in 43. Even though post 43 for the Kreigsmarine was tantamount to pissing in the wind, it should be there. I also put this as a negative, as it's a great "work around" from a developers point of view from having to work out all the technical upgrades and the campaign with a deadline looming large. In other words, I see what you did there ubi!



Game performance

Granted this is variable by end user machines, but im really bummed those shadows slow my machine to a crawl. Very pretty, but the overhead is massive. Other then that, some slowdowns, but nothing major.


The ugly...
Maestro,

Missing functionality, a tale of the runaway deck gun.
While the minamlist theme UI is great, the lack of functionality is one of the.. no. it's THE biggest c**kblocker from enjoying this game. The lack of access to underlying functionality makes the game teeth gnashing obtuse.

So there i was, ghosting in for a night surface attack on a destroyer. Switching between UZO and biinoculars. Meaning to "lock" onto the destroyer, i pressed the space bar. Unfortunatly i did this while looking in the binoculars and not the UZO. The deck gun immediately started opening fire. Try as i might, i could not get them to cease fire by any means available to me except diving. Speeding away at maximum speed, the deck gun crew kept shooting. Eventually i noticed 5 other destroyers coming into the area. Thankfully, the "target" hadn't zeroed in on me yet. I had to shut this deck gun crew up soon, or else i would be spotted very shortly. The only option i had left was to dive. It was the only way to stop this.
Ugly.. pure ugly.


Unresolved base level bugs from SH4
Not gonna get into this too much, except that a couple huge bugs from SH4 that i would think would be the very first thing to do before bulding any new game on top of it didn't get fixed. Such as:

- The soundman not reporting "Depth charges in the water" doesn't appear to be working, (edited for clarity)

- depth keeping is still an issue.

- crew not switching to wet weather gear in high winds regardless of what you put in the cfg files. Rain only, rough seas, no. This also effects being able to man guns in heavy seas. They ALWAYS will because the limiting variable that says "seas too rough" is broken.

Insane, and Draconian Digital Rights Management.

'nuff said. This what is ultimatly dragging this game into the toilet.



I offer no final verdict, only what i see as good, bad, and ugly.