Nippelspanner

I want to like it.
But I simply can't at the moment.


While I do not regret to support the title, I am disappointed in the 1.0 result, so far. It feels too arcade for my taste, and is ridden with bugs, while many "features" make you want to rip your hair out.


Some things out of my head:
- Instant-ASW aircraft with pin-point sonobuoy-spam.
- Enemy submarines going active all the time, because it's Tuesday.
- Enemy submarines hitting the ground very(!) often, because Vodka.
- You fired a wire-guided torp eh? Let's cut that wire because 25% yolo!
- I got killed - back to "We have a sonar contact!" screen, "repeating" the same mission(?)
- Loading Special Forces did unload everything else without warning/notice, so I sailed out with just 4 Mk48 in my tubes - come at me bruh!
- Briefing demands to sink special targets - your commander pisses on you for trying to guesstimate what might be your target among all those same ship symbols present (so. not. fun.).
- Apparently, all it takes to fool modern torpedoes is putting your rudder hard to port/starboard. If in doubt -> knuckle. 100% fail safe - except against wire guided torpedoes.
- Russian surface groups don't know EMCON - non-stop pinging. Yay, disco!
(heard this is kinda legit, but I have doubts tbh.)
- Overall gameplay seems "too close" - even at max spawn range, and player is thrown into action too quickly with no time to maneuver whatsoever. This is bad, so very, very bad!
- Campaign map lacks features and action. It is interesting for exactly 11,4 seconds. Then you've seen it all, and Europe being completely covered in snow, in November, gets odd too.
- No crew voices. This is a deal breaker for me. It disconnects you from your sub, steals immersion and authenticity, and most importantly: The feeling of commanding something alive, due to ~130 souls aboard.
I heard the devs want to add them later - but this is a review, not a "let's pretend it will be great at some point"-view.
- Mini-map desperately needs a range-meter, so you can judge distance at all. Right now, contacts on it could be right next to you, or in a different time zone - you wouldn't know besides the range data the contact itself shows, but that's different. Situational awareness is key, and here the game is lacking, I feel.
- All manual controls. While it reigns supreme for evasive maneuvers, it sucks so hard for periscope depth, or simple maneuvers. I am the Captain! All I should need to do is order course and depth, so i can focus on other things. Here I have to constantly watch not going below crush depth, broaching the surface, or turning too far during course adjustments, all while not losing focus for combat. Terrible design decision.

Honestly, gameplay feels like a 20€ game for mobiles or tablets, as - if broken down - it is the same over and over and over, unfortunately.
The "dynamic campaign" doesn't change that, due to the quick-mission like scenarios. This isn't really convincing me at all, and I am sorry to say so.


Now the positive things in a nut shell:
- Optics are fantastic mostly (some FX look horrible, like underwater explosions, others look great, like overall lighting).
- Sounds are splendid. Could hardly be better. Everything sounds as I would expect it, and the sounds are high quality, not some cracking mono-garbage like in the Sonalyst titles (age is no excuse).
- Artwork is beautiful. Period.

Now, the developers seem to have their hearts in the right spot for this title, and I am rather confident that many things mentioned above will be fixed or addressed. On top, it is moddable in some aspects, another big plus.
Yet, the devs need to step up their game (no pun) to really turn this title into a simulation. In all honesty, having nice models and NATO-format briefings with more-or-less accurate sonar modeling really doesn't cut it while AI is failing (see above) or gameplay feels like on methamphetamine in a dark closet.
(And I set speed and range scaling to 1:1, yes.)