Newb seeking advice on subsim game choice
 

Hi,

I quite like more cerebral games and I want to get into a sub game. Looking for some advice regarding my choices please. Bear in mind that I'm much more of a 'gamer' than a sub expert or a war historian. I'm just looking for a great game.

I've had limited experience with sub games so far. I've played a bit of SH3, Sub Command, Dangerous Waters and 688(i) Attack Sub. However, I've never played so much of any of them to really get to grips with the details. I've read most of the manuals and played a few single missions to experiment with and now I'm looking to take one game and focus on it to really get to grips with one properly.

I think I lean slightly toward the nuclear sub warfare as opposed to the u-boat sims at the moment but you know, a good game is a good game so I don't want to limit my options. If I'm going to put some good time into one of these games, I want to choose the right one.

In terms of technical understanding, I guess I'm looking for something that most of you guys would probably consider to be fairly casual. By which I mean that I do enjoy doing working on the TDC a bit to calculate my own solutions (although I'm terrible at it right now) and am not averse to some technical stuff. I like working the sonar in Dangerous Waters to identify and track targets, but at the same time I want something that won't take 3 weeks just to understand. I guess what I'm saying is that the issue I've often had with these games is that I'm not quite sure exactly where I'm supposed to be going and what I'm supposed to be doing. So I'm looking for something with good missions structure and well defined goals.

I was actually considering SH5 as it looks real pretty, which I like, but after reading some things on this site, it seems that this may not be a good investment.

Any thoughts/ advice would be much appreciated, thanks.

SH5 has really come a long way from the angst we all felt when it first came out. It, like SH3&4, can be played from arcade mode to serious sim mode.

Since you mentioned Dangerous Waters, you may want to look at Sub Command. Its the same engine as DW, but more sub centric.

Personally, I prefer SH4 - with mods. Remember, with mods you can often "mix and match" (but not always) to create the game experience that works best for you.

Thanks chaps, I wondered if SH was still considered to be the best after my hiatus.

I think I might have to consider SH4 then. I installted SH3 again yesterday and installed GWX3 and it's completely frickin' awesome but I don't think it's for me. I couldn't even get through the torpedo tutorial in five attempts with auto-solution stuff turned on because torps were either off target (at less than 1000 metres!) or just bounced of the hull of the ship (I assume these were duds), so I never have enough torps on the boat to complete the mission.

I know that's good realism but I want a good video game, not a historical document. A good game rewards you for playing well and punishes you for playing badly while GWX 3 is so realistic that those rules don't apply. I'm not knocking it btw, I think it's superb and I totally get that there is an audience for it, I'm just not part of that audience. When I make a good solution and get everything right, I want to see the result rather than watching to see if I get lucky.

I thought perhaps there would be a set of options I could use to customise the experience but I can't find anything like that. Haven't had a chance to delve into the manual yet though.

Think I'll look into SH4 or 5 then. As CaptainHaplo says that SH5 is better now, does anyone now if a Steam install of it can be modded?

Edit: Ok, I just found the realism options when I went to do a single missions. Doh! Well I'm very glad they're there anyway.

The main thing is...there are options out there for you thanks mainly to the modders of each simulation :sunny: