WW II Magazine review of SH5
 

Thought you guys might like to read, what other people think of SH5, that are outside the gaming loop. Please aim your comments at him, not me, I'm just the messenger.


From Ryan Burke, WWII Magazine
Sh5 is the latest entry in the acclaimed submarine series, and debuts an ambitious features: the ability to control a German sub from the captain's view. As with other games in the series, hunting and battling enemy ships is fun and exciting. You can stealthily take on vessels with your deck gun or torpedoes, then dive when their destroyers show up. Unfortunately, as a whole SILENT HUNTER V feels hastily slapped together. For example, sprinting around the ship to issue orders, particular in a hectic combat situation, gets tiresome. Where are the voice tubes of real U-boats? Also the game's digital rights management copy protection requiers players to stay online to insure they are using a legal copy, so those without trusty, high speed Internet connections are not advised to buy the game. Further, If the servers go down, it will be unplayable. You also can't resell the game once it's installed. The game has too many bugs for me to recommend it, but hopefully the other game makers will build off its ambitious goals and fix its weaknesses.

Side Note: You might not like is review of the game but, WWII magazine is one of the best out there I highly recommend it. Indy

Wow, what a crappy review. His first point is totally incorrect saying that you have to run around the ship giving orders to control it. Then he just goes off on a standard issue DRM rant. I'm pretty sure I've read that same DRM rant word for word on these forums too.

I think that guy just copied a rant from here and called it a review. Might be a great magazine, but that guy fails miserably as a reviewer. Some box text, incorrect description of gameplay and forum troll ranting that he calls a review. Bah.

If you play without mods, thats it. But even so, I don't see any major problem. My habit is that before I engage the enemy I always order Riposte and after I unloaded all my ammo order Total Reveal for sonar. Is not that hard, I'm not a fat captain who can't make few steps in the sub to talk with my crew. Actually is pretty realistic to have a word with the Bosun before a battle and to stick in the sonar compartment after.

Since patch 1.2, I'm pretty happy to say that I play the game without mods, except "U-boat Historic Specifications" by ddrgn which is a must have one. Rest of mods are only for fine enhancements, like clouds, funnel smoke, radio and so. My only problem with the game now is ... it's boring. Sinking the same ships again and again gets my nerves. Hope that sometime soon few moders will start to work on an alternate campaign with more excitement and fun missions.

thats got to be the shallowest review I ever read about this crapfest... shallower than 15 meters, Captain..:salute:

Is there a link where we can read the whole review? Or was that it?

I agree - based on what I've seen there its a pretty shallow review IMO.

Google FTW: http://www.historynet.com/command-a-...t-hunter-5.htm

I don't know why people are whining about the review? Think of the source, it is a World War II history magazine! It is not PC Gamer or something similar.
They are not going to dedicate 5,6, or 7 pages detailing every aspect of Silent Hunter V.

While the review posted by indy is a very poor cut and paste job of what is posted at historynet.com http://www.historynet.com/command-a-...t-hunter-5.htm It is still a very brief review.

You can tell the author is not a gamer with this quote "he game also gobbles up a great deal of disk space..." Most current games nowadays do, we are not back in the 1990's. Heck, my first computer didn't even have a hard drive.

While the author may be clueless about the current state of technology, the review at historynet is a fair one and pretty much sums up my feelings about the game. Although, I am less concerned about the DRM then the overall poor quality of the game.

Well, then maybe they should do something else than review video games. Like go fishing, walking with the grandson in the park & stuff.

Seems like you disagree with anyone that doesnt give SH5 a 8 out of 10 star review.

Keep in mind MOST people are playing an unmodded game where you pretty much DO have to run around the boat to give orders. And if you dont then where in the manual does it say how to NOT run around the boat to give orders.... oh thats right...the manual is a joke and woefully incomplete. :nope:

Maybe they added the function to NOT have to run around the ship in the 1.2 patch... but maybe the reviewer played the game Pre-patch (which even PC gamer reviews games ONLY pre-patch, and rarely revists them post patch).

Bottom line is this game was worth about 10 hours of my time.... before I moved on and now await the final patch and mods. I refuse to waste my time with a sim that is so incomplete. I have other games that were actually, GASP, released 90% complete or more, that deserve my time more than SH5 does now.

Actually , now I've had time to read the whole review I pretty much agree.

The author isn't a gamer and we should also remember that not everybody has access to Subsim (well they do, but not everybody knows about Subsim)

So all in all seems fair.

RIGHT! and if UBI REALLY wanted SH5 to be a success and attract NON-subsim grognards (which if the dumbed down UI is any indication they DID)...releasing a buggy game that DEPENDS on mods just to restore basic function, and the lack of anything substantial in the way of a manual, was NOT the way to do it.

I had no idea that there is a magazine in circulation about WWII. That is so odd to me for some reason. How many times do they go over the same stories, I wonder. I wonder who subscribes.

As far as the review, yea, it is sorely lacking and showed evidence that it was the un patched un modded version being reviewed. He does have a point about the running around the sub to give orders. But mods have come out that emulate the "talkie tubes".

I wouldn't be too harsh about this review, it was most likely written by someone that just dabbles in computer games, and spends more time reading really good books about the war, and reviewing them.

I play without mods, as I wrote few post ago. Old people tend to have some serious issues with orientation in 3D spaces, I remember many complained that they cant exit the sub as they don't know how to use the ladder :haha: I mean, c'mon .. that's the only problem with SH5? Orientation, difficulties in moving around the sub and talk with the crew? I saw nothing mentioned about the God damn retard (pre-patch) AI, the boring campaign and the stupid missions.. you know, the real problems. Those guys should quit playing video games, or at least write reviews about.

Anyway, I doubt Ubi give a frak about that review, the biggest hits in the stomach was from the Eurogamer and Subsim review, those hurts really hard and is really bad for business. So if any1 want a good and comprehensive review, read those 2 mentioned... this one is a joke.

My thoughts exactly:up:

Everybody has a right to have an opinion, but it is sad that you think old people should stop playing videogames. :-? I really HAD problems with ladders at first. It was a big problem and annoyed me much. Now I don't know why it was so hard, but it was. And I don't have orientation problems in 3d spaces. Hmm... oh well, I'm not old either, unless one thinks that someone in mid twenties is old. :DL
But I agree about that review. You should not write reviews unless you know what you're talking about.