SUBSIM: Silent Hunter 5 review (17/03/10)

[Onkel Neal]

"A truly great subsim transcends computer game mechanics to stimulate the imagination the way books like Iron Coffins and U977, and films like Das Boot did. Writing about Silent Hunter 5 is a challenge. There's no way to sugarcoat it, the game has lots of issues and shortcomings, but it does some things well and it's a lot more fun to play it than write about it. One thing it does magnificently is give the player a very realistic sense of being on a U-boat. "

Silent Hunter 5 review

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[robbo180265]

Excellent review Neal.

Pretty much sums up the way I feel about SHV

[vigilante]

hehe, when I've said a few month ago that SH5 it will be an unfinished game, made in great hurry and incomplete, a few board leaders were very intrigued: "how can you say that". Now they faced the reality genetelman.
Thank you Neil for a impartial review and the courage to put in black on white: this is an unfinished game, do not buy it now.

[FIREWALL]

Excellent Review Neal.

[GoldenRivet]

Well done.

fair.

I would say it represents the opinion of most players, it certainly reflects mine pretty much 100%

[Dowly]

Good one, Neal.

[pcelt]

On the whole a very fair and balanced review of the major strengths and shortcomings of SH5.
But I do feel that the misery and frustration of some of the effects of the DRM are underplayed. Having on many occasions to wait for long periods to gain access yo your game is one thing but when like me you also find that ,through no fault of your own UBI server has lost or is unable to d/l your last group of saves (in my case ten) then I think frustration and anger are reaonable responses. This game is totally dependent on navigating a net of campaigns (excellent concept) but is consequently totally reliant on dependable and retrievable saving. Otherwise consistent progress is problematic and requires repeating a series of activities already accomplished. And of course such a loss could always happen again.
The success of this game and its enjoyment is really jeapardised if game saves cannot be fully guaranteed for all players.

[robbo180265]

Originally Posted by pcelt

On the whole a very fair and balanced review of the major strengths and shortcomings of SH5.
But I do feel that the misery and frustration of some of the effects of the DRM are underplayed. Having on many occasions to wait for long periods to gain access yo your game is one thing but when like me you also find that ,through no fault of your own UBI server has lost or is unable to d/l your last group of saves (in my case ten) then I think frustration and anger are reaonable responses. This game is totally dependent on navigating a net of campaigns (excellent concept) but is consequently totally reliant on dependable and retrievable saving. Otherwise consistent progress is problematic and requires repeating a series of activities already accomplished. And of course such a loss could always happen again.
The success of this game and its enjoyment is really jeapardised if game saves cannot be fully guaranteed for all players.

I've disabled online saves - you do that by clicking on the little cog icon which is on the top right of the game launcher. Never had a problem with any of my save games since doing that.

[jwilliams]

A fair and just review... In my opinion a little generous on the score. I would have given it 65%.

But with the right patches and mods, has the potential to be 90+. So lets hope the surport from Ubisoft and Modders is good.

Thanks for the review.

[RSColonel_131st]

Originally Posted by pcelt

On the whole a very fair and balanced review of the major strengths and shortcomings of SH5.
But I do feel that the misery and frustration of some of the effects of the DRM are underplayed. Having on many occasions to wait for long periods to gain access yo your game is one thing but when like me you also find that ,through no fault of your own UBI server has lost or is unable to d/l your last group of saves (in my case ten) then I think frustration and anger are reaonable responses.

I applaud Neal on doing a professional review of the game content and simulation level, but to not even mention that many people on his very own forum couldn't access the game for extended lenghts of time on multiple days and weekends - I don't know what he's hoping to gain from UBI by washing over these problems, but it's certainly neither professional, nor accurate nor objective. Besides, the hope (he mentiones in the article) that UBI will remove the CP later has been already clearly disproved by UBI Spokespeople saying the system will stay in all titles forever.

If the biggest negative of a game is the copy protection used, and he glosses over it, even tries to give some missinformed hope that it will go away then he hasn't done a full review of the game.

[Morpheus]

Very nice reading ...

br morph

[SodyM]

Great work Neal, this is professional und fair preview.

[Westbroek]

Nailed it. Good assessment.

[Coldcall]

I agree, very fair review, and I'm really pleased he has suggested people wait a few weeks before buying it to make sure Ubisoft support it with patches.

Nice one!

PS. My Uk retail copy had a very minimal manual about 15 pages in size.

[subsimlee]

I particularly agree with your final assessment..........don't buy it until it's fixed . ( I returned my copy for a full refund and will re-buy it when and if...)