Well, I finally took a shot at playing this game, and it didn't dissapoint me.
I went in fully expecting it to be dreadful and it truly is.
There are too many problems with it than I can possibly count, so I'll just list the major ones:
The graphics: Really ugly pixely sky, with a gliceryn like sea that's boiling away around your boat, ugly textures, inanimated models (I watched the lone bridge sentry for 15 minutes, and all he did was shift his binoculars about 10-15 degrees to his right) The ship models are pretty good though, some of the merchantment are just as detailed as those in SH3. Pity that doesn't extend to your own sub!
The sim: WHAT simulation?!
Ok, so I wasn't expecting this game to be a hardcore sim, but something I could play on my cofee break. You know, drop in the conning tower, sink a couple of merchants, run from the destroyers, feel refreshed afterwards!
But no. This game is so bad control-wise, that it takes away even this simple pleasure.
For starters, the periscople. Your main tool, right?
Wrong!
For some reason, the dev team decided crosshairs would be too modern for a WW1 peri and that the image should be really blurry, too, to simulate those old optics....
Well, I say Bull**** to that!
So, ok, I never looked trough an actual WW1 periscope. Well, big deal, I'm sure nobody on this forum has. But I do own a couple of WW1 rifle scopes (built by Dr Walter Gerard, aus Charlotttenburg, Berlin) and a MG scope for the Maxim Machinegewehr 08, and, save for a bit of distorsion around the edges of the riflescope image, the optics are as clear as a bell! More than that, the machine gun sight (actually there's a simmilar one pictured on the machinegun in the game, sadly not functional) has glass etched crosshairs that can be illuminated...
But enough about that.
The control is really choppy and jerky. If you try to point the MG or binoculars at a target, it scrolls unevenly, and you can never make small corrections. Similarly, the periscope will sometimes freeze or become really sluggish. And let me tell you, when you are desperately trying to lower it so you don't get spotted by those pesky DDs, it's not a pleasant surprise.
The same extends to the diving gauge, that you really have to fiddle with in order to attain a stable PD, because the dial in the conning tower is just too small, and that in the control room too imprecise.
Manual control. Well, some degree of manual operation is provided. You can set the angle, speed and depth of the torps manually (it even asks you if you are sure about those settings when you press the fire key!) but I don't see anybody bothering with that, since you can't make visual observations on a traget's speed, bearing and range.
That's right, because you have no crosshairs on your peri!
Instead, the target info is generously displayed on your screen the moment you point your gaze at the enemy ship, all, including the captain's birthday and wherever or not he likes seafood. And this feature can't be turned off, because all there is in the famed "realism" directory of the game options are buttons asking you wherever you would like unlimmited ammo/fuel/air/whatever, and some dubious question about realistic handling characteristics that changes nothing whatsoever (the boats, even the old "Petrolboot", dive amazingly quick, in less than a minute, and there isn't a single difference between "Petrol" [read kerosene] and "Diesel" subs, save a different 3d model).
The sounds. Well, I think that either my crew are really shy, or they really hate me, because I haven't heard a single word adressed to me in this entire game. That's right, no "Javohl, Herr Kaleun", or even "Was fahl ihnen denn ein, Herr Kaleun, auftauchen in des mittels die Englishe Kriegsflotte?! Das ist Wahnsinn!"
Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Not a peep. Apparently my crew are about as inarticulate as they are imobile...
Other than that, the sounds are generally ok, even likable when you change from diesel to electric engines or you want to send a radio message, but sadly they are very, very limited.
Of course, by now you've probably realised this game is not going to have such things as Dynamic Campaign, crew management, torpedo management, or even ports for that matter.
For some time I suspected the land isn't even modeled...
Enemy AI. Well, it's surprisingly good, but buggy. Sometimes it spots your periscope from 3-4 kilometers and others times it misses you when you are on the surface 500 meters away... Especially for the merchants, if you give chase on the surface, are spotted then you imediatly submerge, not only are they going to not see you anymore, but they forget you were even there, and stop their engines waiting for you to sink them. The warships are a lot more intelligent, and I had the nasty surprise of seeing Aboukir, Hogue and Cressy gang up in me before they got into torpedo range, then shell the spot I was last seen in without ever going too close, all because I was a little careless and left my peri up for too long... In the end I manged to sink two of the ships, but the third escaped unscaved, and even tried to ram me on a couple of ocasions!
I wouldn't know about those realistic missions Deamon observed though, because I got sofar as the 4th one (where they ordered me to find and sink the british warships blockading the coasts of the Vaterland, in accordance to what happened in real life) then got really frustrated with the game altogether and decided to play SHIII instead.
To make this long story short, it's totally unadvisable, for anybody, be they casual gamers or hardcore simmers, to buy this game.
Why? Because it's bad and it looks like the dev team got bored in the middle of it then decided to launch it anyway, just so they would be over with.
It may be the only WW1 sub-sim existing right now, but, although some of the problems are due to insuficient funding, others are just there because of neglect from the part of the development crew.
And what were they doing instead of fixing obvious game issues?
This:
Holy Smokes! Is
that a
dead fish in my conning tower?
Yep, sure looks like it!
Well, or at least a suffocating fish, because, in a flurry of movement far exceeding that of the wooden look-out it shares the deck with, it wags its tail every 5 minutes or so.
Truly essential accessory, isn't it?
