daftspore
04-05-10, 09:05 AM
Firstly some background of where I am at with the SH series. I loved SH3 (with and without GWX) and could not get on with SH4 at its initial release.
I remember SH4 vanilla being a bugfest and the mods\patches making it a playable game but I just did not find any enthusiasm with the campaign when first released. I have recently installed SH4 on my laptop with Trigger Marau and it improves things no end but I still prefer SH3 with GWX.
Moving to SH5, I bought the game on the day of release, was disappointed with the DRM approach but when you only get 1 sub game every few years it was something I could live with (I understand others will not have the same view as me of course). What I don’t understand about the DRM was why it was implemented in the first place in its current form, it would make much more sense if it polled the servers every month or so rather that requiring a constant connection. I feel sorry for people without decent internet connections and need a subsim fix! I travel a fair amount with work so have to revert back to sh3 or sh4 all the time still.
I am using the following mods at the moment so review is based on these being enabled:
Mighty Fine Crew Mod
Capthelms Audio Mod
TDC + Enhanced UI by Dark Wraith
Hesam + Barf
Damage Assement
Graphics 9/10
Easiest area to rate is the graphics. They are simply outstanding out of the box and give the impression of heavy seas and weather. I didn’t notice the quality at first as I was trying to get to grips with the game but now I have taken time to just watch the world go by while heading to the destination and I am impressed.
Sound 8/10
Another easy area to rate, Capthelms Audio Mod makes a difference but the stock sounds are functional and good enough. Diving to evade destroyers and turning to sound up to listen to the various creaking\destroyers going overhead are atmospheric.
Dynamic Campaign 4/10
I personally don’t like this area. I don’t like the sinking 100,000 tonnes in a certain area to progress things and not getting any reknown or points for sinking merchants out of this area makes no sense. I like the fact that you are given a large area to hunt in rather than just a single grid reference but 100,000 tonnes is at least 5 trips back to base given it take on average 3 torps to sink one merchant!
Some of the other missions seem too precise as well, like sinking a carrier on a certain route and 5 troop carriers, I spent ages trying to find the targets and eventually gave up.
I think UBI missed a trick with this as it would have been good to alter the course of the war based on tonnage sunk rather than having to hit 100,000 tonnes in a mission to move things forward.
AI 5/10
I am struggling with this area and not sure if this is too low a score as the recent events I have had means I should give it a higher score.
Firstly planes are a waste of time and never attack but not sure if this changes as the war progresses and just act as a distraction.
DD’s have been a mixed bag but since deployed the mods above seem to have got a great deal tougher. To experiment when I found a huge convoy with over 20 merchants and 5 destroyers I took a save point to test things out. I sunk a merchant and straight after the convoy slowed down and the DD’s started their search pattern. I then tried to evade them in different ways to see how advanced they were in detection. I found that they starting circling in their own patterns to find me.
I ran the same thing a few times and casually tried to evade them and they got me everytime. It was only when I concentrated or used the contact map that I could get away cleanly. The final test was without map contacts and monitoring the hydrophone and with patience and control you can evade them.
So the score of 5/10 is open to discussion as my experienced has been a bit mixed.
Roleplaying 2/10
Walking around the sub is cool, talking to people is a terrible implementation. It is a nice idea but given the only topic of conversation is about the royal navy or wives\etc it seems to be a complete waste. Given a bit more work it might be something worthwhile but in its current state it serves no purpose. The mighty fine crew mod makes a huge difference with crew walking around and I reckon it might be something decent with further mods but at the moment its just not there.
Overall 7/10
With further mods and patches this will definitely get higher and the mods that I am using now make a huge difference. At the moment I rate it higher than sh4 but lower than sh3, with the right time and care I have no doubt it will surpass SH3.
My view is if you can live with the DRM it is a worthy purchase, hopefully UBI will even see the light on this aspect and make it more accessible to everyone as at the end of the day the SH series are a niche market and by implementing a DRM you are alienating a fair chunk of the userbase.
:salute:
I remember SH4 vanilla being a bugfest and the mods\patches making it a playable game but I just did not find any enthusiasm with the campaign when first released. I have recently installed SH4 on my laptop with Trigger Marau and it improves things no end but I still prefer SH3 with GWX.
Moving to SH5, I bought the game on the day of release, was disappointed with the DRM approach but when you only get 1 sub game every few years it was something I could live with (I understand others will not have the same view as me of course). What I don’t understand about the DRM was why it was implemented in the first place in its current form, it would make much more sense if it polled the servers every month or so rather that requiring a constant connection. I feel sorry for people without decent internet connections and need a subsim fix! I travel a fair amount with work so have to revert back to sh3 or sh4 all the time still.
I am using the following mods at the moment so review is based on these being enabled:
Mighty Fine Crew Mod
Capthelms Audio Mod
TDC + Enhanced UI by Dark Wraith
Hesam + Barf
Damage Assement
Graphics 9/10
Easiest area to rate is the graphics. They are simply outstanding out of the box and give the impression of heavy seas and weather. I didn’t notice the quality at first as I was trying to get to grips with the game but now I have taken time to just watch the world go by while heading to the destination and I am impressed.
Sound 8/10
Another easy area to rate, Capthelms Audio Mod makes a difference but the stock sounds are functional and good enough. Diving to evade destroyers and turning to sound up to listen to the various creaking\destroyers going overhead are atmospheric.
Dynamic Campaign 4/10
I personally don’t like this area. I don’t like the sinking 100,000 tonnes in a certain area to progress things and not getting any reknown or points for sinking merchants out of this area makes no sense. I like the fact that you are given a large area to hunt in rather than just a single grid reference but 100,000 tonnes is at least 5 trips back to base given it take on average 3 torps to sink one merchant!
Some of the other missions seem too precise as well, like sinking a carrier on a certain route and 5 troop carriers, I spent ages trying to find the targets and eventually gave up.
I think UBI missed a trick with this as it would have been good to alter the course of the war based on tonnage sunk rather than having to hit 100,000 tonnes in a mission to move things forward.
AI 5/10
I am struggling with this area and not sure if this is too low a score as the recent events I have had means I should give it a higher score.
Firstly planes are a waste of time and never attack but not sure if this changes as the war progresses and just act as a distraction.
DD’s have been a mixed bag but since deployed the mods above seem to have got a great deal tougher. To experiment when I found a huge convoy with over 20 merchants and 5 destroyers I took a save point to test things out. I sunk a merchant and straight after the convoy slowed down and the DD’s started their search pattern. I then tried to evade them in different ways to see how advanced they were in detection. I found that they starting circling in their own patterns to find me.
I ran the same thing a few times and casually tried to evade them and they got me everytime. It was only when I concentrated or used the contact map that I could get away cleanly. The final test was without map contacts and monitoring the hydrophone and with patience and control you can evade them.
So the score of 5/10 is open to discussion as my experienced has been a bit mixed.
Roleplaying 2/10
Walking around the sub is cool, talking to people is a terrible implementation. It is a nice idea but given the only topic of conversation is about the royal navy or wives\etc it seems to be a complete waste. Given a bit more work it might be something worthwhile but in its current state it serves no purpose. The mighty fine crew mod makes a huge difference with crew walking around and I reckon it might be something decent with further mods but at the moment its just not there.
Overall 7/10
With further mods and patches this will definitely get higher and the mods that I am using now make a huge difference. At the moment I rate it higher than sh4 but lower than sh3, with the right time and care I have no doubt it will surpass SH3.
My view is if you can live with the DRM it is a worthy purchase, hopefully UBI will even see the light on this aspect and make it more accessible to everyone as at the end of the day the SH series are a niche market and by implementing a DRM you are alienating a fair chunk of the userbase.
:salute: