[Ark]

My quick breakdown:

SHIV:

1. Cheap (about $19 USD at the moment)
2. Works.
3. Tons of mods.
4. No DRM issues.

SHV:

1. $50
2. Has quite a few bugs.
3. Has hardly any mods.
4. Has DRM issues (unless you are a hacker/pirate.....it works fine for them. lol)


I REALLY wanted to like SHV but it is just not up to par at the moment. The product is so reminiscent of a beta test (and I hate that phrase when being applied to full retail games) that is just makes me shake my head.

Here are a few issues I noticed after playing the firstfew times:

1. Once in a while, my sound cuts out after I go to the options screen and then jump back in-game.

2. Sometimes my mouse cursor gets stuck in a "free-look mode" (right-clicking the mouse so you can look around freely) and can only be unlocked by opening another menu screen.

3. The "Missions" are somewhat dumb, IMO. "Sink 50 tonnes of merchant shipping along the coast by June 1st. 1940" (or something to that effect). Seriously...what happened to just paroling an area and not finding anything, requiring you to search elsewhere or just return home due to a lack of fuel? I sank 50 tonnes of merchant shipping. Can I RTB and end the patrol? Nope. Why? I don't know....maybe the ships weren't close enough to the coast. It sort of feels like I have to keep playing a level so my score gets high enough to go to level two.

4. The RPG elements are a little wierd. For instance, I need to "upgrade" my chief so my sub goes faster. I have to upgrade my Torpedo officer so his crew will load torpedos and work at "superhuman speeds" (that's a direct quote from the game, btw). I had to upgrade my Cook so he could make special meals so I can increase morale. I have to upgrade my Radar Operator so he can tracks objects better at night. While I see what they were trying to do with the RPG elements, it sort of comes across as a bunch of "fluff" arbitrarily tossed in so there was more content.

5. My watch crew has no binoculars and yet the subsim preview here shows people on the sub using them (at least I think it was here that I saw the screenshots).

6. I can't order a dive to periscope depth until I go down the hatch.

7. I can't get my deck gun crew to leave the deck gun.

8. The people I am talking too repeat the same things, and they hardly look in my direction when speaking.

9. My settings won't save, so basically despite the fact that I shut off the health bars, gun trajectory path, stabilize view, unlimited fuel, unlimited compressed air, etc.. options they are all still enabled once I load the game. "So shut them off after you enter the sub." Sorry, you can't.

10. "It's raining and there are hardly any clouds, Sir."

11. SHV shadows and shadows alone kill performance on Nvidia cards.

12. Some destroyers are half-submerged (the entire rear deck) while they are moving around.

13. Depth under keel? Might be good to know.........ON A SUBMARINE.

14. DRM - You must be online to play. Period. If the UBI servers go down, you can't play....even if you only play single-player. You are not buying the game, you are essentially "renting" the license. If Ubisoft decided to shut down SHV's servers...you would not be able to play any longer unless they removed the DRM scheme.

Those are a few issues I noticed almost right away after playing for a short period of time.

It's up to you, but I would probably stick with SHIV for the time being. Of course, SHIV models a different aspect of WWII anyways so it's not like you can't enjoy both....the only question is are you able to enjoy SHV in it's current state, and the only person who can answer that is you.

Hope this helps.