SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - View Single Post - SH5 player review thread

tsotha · 03-08-10, 09:39 PM

I thought the DRM would annoy me, but it's really not *that* bad. You can turn off the autosaves if you want.

I was getting a little discouraged with the game out of the box (or, out of Steam, in my case). I found the tutorial kind of irritating and confusing - don't tell me to go off and sink ships without putting the entire interface there. You can go through everything an instrument at a time, but between the things that aren't there anymore and the things they hadn't enabled yet it was pretty frustrating.

Never played SH!V, but coming from a pretty up-to-date mod version of SHIII, these are my impressions:

The Good:

The graphics, as everyone else notes, especially outside the sub. Water, snow, the lights at port... it all looks gorgeous.
I like the campaign. While I think SHII is great as a sim, it suffers a bit as a game because every mission is "go to this grid, hang out for 24 hours, then wander around trying to sink whatever you find". The ports were done poorly, even after modding, so there really wasn't much to do outside aimlessly wandering around trying to find ships to attack. I like the idea of having my actions influence the campaign. Success opens up new possibilities, named ships stay sunk. Kudos. This is the feature that will make the game worth modding. Otherwise SHIII is just a better game, IMO.

The Bad:

As everyone else noted, it's not finished. I completed my first mission and wasn't allowed to dock, no matter what I did. Reloaded, still no dice. Reloaded again. This time it takes me to the sub pen.. Huh? Exit your game and everyone's morale gets set to zero and they stop following orders. Dive and your deck crew will sometimes stay on deck - you can look out the periscope and see them scanning the ocean depths with their binoculars. That last one is kind of Twilight Zone-y.
British aircraft are flown by tourists. I was all set to try out the flak gun, but pretty much no matter what happens the planes ignore me. I've gotten in the habit of tapping the time compression back up when aircraft are sighted. What would be the point of diving?
Enemy destroyer captains give up easily. Even if you don't change your heading at all after a few minutes they'll go away. Get caught by a destroyer in shallow water in SHIII and you're in a lot of trouble. You can pretty much dive to periscope depth and ignore them in SHV.
The first person thing was great for about ten minutes. After a few hours play it's just annoying. Why didn't they equip my boat with speaking tubes? I can tell I'm going to really, really hate going up and down those damn ladders if I play for any length of time. This really needs hotkeys. Really, really.
Realism. I really got a thrill plotting my own solutions and using the TDC, with all its period knobs and dials and buttons. The new system pulls me back to the present every time I look at it. And there are other things like loading external reserves without surfacing. The bow doesn't go down when you dive or up when you surface.
Bad UI design. It's annoying to use the mouse all the time to move the periscope - my arm is getting tired. No compass. The tactical map seems to come and go at it's own whim. Same with the clock, which should have been 24 hour (It's five o'clock and light out. Is the sun rising or setting?). Some controls, like the deck-gun sights, are non-intuitive and not explained anywhere. The periscopes always go up when you man them, so you have to be quick if you don't want your scope too high above the water line. Not sure if it matters. It should.
The indicators in SHIII were distinctive - well rendered needle gauges and bubble gauges and dials for things like CO2 and fuel level. Here we have straight percentages, so it's like playing a spreadsheet. Doesn't really hurt playability, but the immersion suffers.
The merchant ships are made out of adamantium. I mean, seriously, it takes three or four torpedoes to sink a freighter, no matter where you hit it or what pistol you use. A clean shot a meter under mid keel should break that sucker in half. As is, If you want to sink two ships you're going to be waiting around while the tubes are reloaded, and you'll do a lot of refitting. If you don't get quite enough damage for a sinking sometimes they're aflame from bow to stern but they don't slow down unless they actually sink.

Questionable:

The game only goes to 1943 and only sub you can play is the type VII. I'm actually okay with the time frame. By 1944 any realistic simulation just isn't that much fun - anything worth shooting is in a convoy, and attacking convoys solo has by then become suicidal. Have to admit I miss the type II a bit, but really only because I miss the ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh when I get into the type VII.

03-08-10, 09:39 PM	#102
tsotha Watch Join Date: Mar 2010 Posts: 17 Downloads: 19 Uploads: 0	I thought the DRM would annoy me, but it's really not that bad. You can turn off the autosaves if you want. I was getting a little discouraged with the game out of the box (or, out of Steam, in my case). I found the tutorial kind of irritating and confusing - don't tell me to go off and sink ships without putting the entire interface there. You can go through everything an instrument at a time, but between the things that aren't there anymore and the things they hadn't enabled yet it was pretty frustrating. Never played SH!V, but coming from a pretty up-to-date mod version of SHIII, these are my impressions: The Good: The graphics, as everyone else notes, especially outside the sub. Water, snow, the lights at port... it all looks gorgeous. I like the campaign. While I think SHII is great as a sim, it suffers a bit as a game because every mission is "go to this grid, hang out for 24 hours, then wander around trying to sink whatever you find". The ports were done poorly, even after modding, so there really wasn't much to do outside aimlessly wandering around trying to find ships to attack. I like the idea of having my actions influence the campaign. Success opens up new possibilities, named ships stay sunk. Kudos. This is the feature that will make the game worth modding. Otherwise SHIII is just a better game, IMO. The Bad: As everyone else noted, it's not finished. I completed my first mission and wasn't allowed to dock, no matter what I did. Reloaded, still no dice. Reloaded again. This time it takes me to the sub pen.. Huh? Exit your game and everyone's morale gets set to zero and they stop following orders. Dive and your deck crew will sometimes stay on deck - you can look out the periscope and see them scanning the ocean depths with their binoculars. That last one is kind of Twilight Zone-y. British aircraft are flown by tourists. I was all set to try out the flak gun, but pretty much no matter what happens the planes ignore me. I've gotten in the habit of tapping the time compression back up when aircraft are sighted. What would be the point of diving? Enemy destroyer captains give up easily. Even if you don't change your heading at all after a few minutes they'll go away. Get caught by a destroyer in shallow water in SHIII and you're in a lot of trouble. You can pretty much dive to periscope depth and ignore them in SHV. The first person thing was great for about ten minutes. After a few hours play it's just annoying. Why didn't they equip my boat with speaking tubes? I can tell I'm going to really, really hate going up and down those damn ladders if I play for any length of time. This really needs hotkeys. Really, really. Realism. I really got a thrill plotting my own solutions and using the TDC, with all its period knobs and dials and buttons. The new system pulls me back to the present every time I look at it. And there are other things like loading external reserves without surfacing. The bow doesn't go down when you dive or up when you surface. Bad UI design. It's annoying to use the mouse all the time to move the periscope - my arm is getting tired. No compass. The tactical map seems to come and go at it's own whim. Same with the clock, which should have been 24 hour (It's five o'clock and light out. Is the sun rising or setting?). Some controls, like the deck-gun sights, are non-intuitive and not explained anywhere. The periscopes always go up when you man them, so you have to be quick if you don't want your scope too high above the water line. Not sure if it matters. It should. The indicators in SHIII were distinctive - well rendered needle gauges and bubble gauges and dials for things like CO2 and fuel level. Here we have straight percentages, so it's like playing a spreadsheet. Doesn't really hurt playability, but the immersion suffers. The merchant ships are made out of adamantium. I mean, seriously, it takes three or four torpedoes to sink a freighter, no matter where you hit it or what pistol you use. A clean shot a meter under mid keel should break that sucker in half. As is, If you want to sink two ships you're going to be waiting around while the tubes are reloaded, and you'll do a lot of refitting. If you don't get quite enough damage for a sinking sometimes they're aflame from bow to stern but they don't slow down unless they actually sink. Questionable: The game only goes to 1943 and only sub you can play is the type VII. I'm actually okay with the time frame. By 1944 any realistic simulation just isn't that much fun - anything worth shooting is in a convoy, and attacking convoys solo has by then become suicidal. Have to admit I miss the type II a bit, but really only because I miss the ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh when I get into the type VII.