OK... i gave SH5 a fair shot, post patch review

[GoldenRivet]

As a flight instructor, every day i critique people.

I give them the good, the bad the ugly.

evaluating the whole based upon the smaller parts is after all, what a fair amount of my job is about.

so... I gave SH5 a few days, patched her up and i now have the following to say.

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DRM / OSP WHATCHAMACALLIT

The DRM OSP in SH5 is a total failure. Ubisoft's approach here is like sending every citizen in a small town to jail to stop crime from occurring in the city.

Throughout most of today, "5%" or so of the playing community has been unable to connect.

based on comments i have read on Subsim.com and on the SH5 forum... ubisoft's figure of 5% was off by a margin of about 90 percentage points.

for most of the day, i was unable to enjoy a single player game because of the product's requirement that i be constantly connected to the internet. And, just as we had all suspected... the connection problems and stability issues would not be on the end user's side of the cable.

For the DRM...

I give SH5 0.0 points out of 10.0 possible points

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CREW MANAGEMENT / INTERACTION / MORALE ETC

Silent Hunter 5's crew management is one place where the game really shines... you are no longer a solitary soul aboard a roaming sub with zombie-like crewmen aboard the craft blindly following your commands.

Though the morale system takes a little getting used to... when played out properly the campaign offers a couple of interesting things i LOVE.

1. You really get the sensation that you are with a green crew. they lack various capabilities and experience, they dont have the tactical know how yet... they really are not sure what to expect from one another or from you for that matter. as the campaign progresses, the character development, and the maturing of your crew feels quite natural. Where i had originally complained about the "incomplete" feel of the crew dialogue / interactions... after playing through several missions... i am beginning to understand where the dev team is coming from here. you cannot look at the individual parts here... what i mean is, it doesnt matter that the dialogue might not change over the course of one mission... but over the course of say - 3 missions - you get the completed whole from those seemingly incomplete parts.

2. Story line... What every Silent Hunter has been missing (for the most part) is the substance of some sort of story line. Silent Hunter 5 firmly fixes this. Silent Hunter 5 is not the same old "lurk in the Atlantic and sink stuff" game. it has grown... mutated... evolved into something more. Now, Silent Hunter is a lurk, sink, and live out a story type of game. Each individual crewman brings the story to life... some of them dislike one another and voice this to you, some of them are scared, cocky, funny... i'll stop short of saying you bond with the crew because i have not played the entire campaign through to the end yet... but you - appreciate them more in SH5 than in any previous release. of all the elements of war, and especially world war 2 that the previous releases have left out... the human element is the most riveting - and Silent Hunter brings this to the table big time.

while some might not really like the morale system, it has grown on me... through trial and error i have learned to use it, and use it well in the right situations.

as of writing this i have been enjoying the little interactions with the crew... and i cant wait to see what they have to say on the next mission.

for the crew interaction / dialogue / managment system

I give SH5 8.5 out of 10 points

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FULL ON 3D INTERIOR

First off... to the dev team members in charge of the interior 3D modeling... lets get one thing out of the way here...



well done, the detail is increadible, especially when i consider this

now, rivet counting aside... they really have done an incredible job at building us a U-boat.

I really cant find much wrong about the interior other than it really seems to be missing two things a lot of players really think should be in there... the "wardroom" and an abundance of crew creating that crowded feeling.

in the final score, those two things detract heavily from the 3D interior score. If the game says "Your U-boat with 52 crew" yadda yadda... well, a head count should reveal 52 men aboard the boat.

to be perfectly honest, i think that about 15 - 20 feet of U-boat interior space forward of the sonar shack was edited out.

for the 3D interior i give SH5 7.0 out of 10.0 Points

(include the wardroom and the packed in crew... this would have been a 10 score)

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INTERFACE

i have one good thing and one bad thing to say about interface.

GOOD: I understand why the team went "minimalist" here. There is so much to the game now in the way of crew interaction, 3D interior, storyline, drama etc that by packing in a Dial and Gauge heavy GUI... the player would probably miss out on a lot of the other segments of the game.

BAD: The team probably - err... definitely - went too minimalist in this regard. for those of us used to looking at realistic dials and gauges... we were accustomed to a rather industrial and nautical feel to the series... now it is a massive departure from what we are used to and everyone is - understanably - up in armes over it.

in the end, the team had their reasons for doing it the way they did... i think they were right to make the choice to go minimalist, but i think they were wrong with the final look and feel of the GUI.

the GUI in SH5 gets 5.0 out of 10.0 points... after all... it doesnt look like a submarine control panel of sorts, but it is functional even if it lacks a certain charm and satisfaction.

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WATCH CREW

Im happy to report, that after patching to the latest version... the watch crew is doing their jobs well and is contributing to a great deal of success.

unfortunately they still have been unable to kick that LSD problem.

My U-boat, though fully functional now is still being swarmed by invisible flying unicorn people.

Im still disappointed that they dont dress appropriately for the weather conditions.

there we are in the north atlantic shelling ships covered in ice with freezing rain and my gunner is wearing shorts?

lets at least get something done about this

(see crew rating way up above)

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In conclusion

overall, having learned the key commands and morale system... i give SH5 7.5 out of 10 stars.

kick that DRM's ass out the door and we would be talking a full point increase minimum.

Silent Hunter 5 still has it's bugs... and the DRM issue is ruining it for many players.

but i strongly feel that SH5... though she is currently all freckles, knees and elbows, is going to grow up to be a fine young lady; perhaps the finest in the series.