UBoat - first impression

tonyeh · 05-18-25, 08:12 AM

After not playing any sub sims for a few years, I decided to fire up SH3, and with a bit of a heavy heart I came away from my session thinking the old girl had aged quite a bit. In fairness SH3 is a 20 year old release (even if I still remember firing it up for the first time), so a bit of aging was to be expected. But looks wise, it just doesn't do it any more, even with the mods.

I thought "it's time to retire her and get a new sim". So, having been aware of UBoat for some time and having bought it but never played it for nearly 2 and half years (the reviews weren't great) I reckoned it was time to get back into to Atlantic and start sinking some enemy ships.

Well, that's what I thought was going to happen.

What really happened was me struggling to get to grips with what the hell I was supposed to be doing at any given time and little within the atrocious UI made and sense to me. I had no idea what to press to get to where I needed to be and if I moved to a different station, the character I was controlling at a given time seems to always want to bugger off to somewhere else on the ship. There is absolutely nothing intuitive about the game in any way, despite having many years behind me playing submarine games (I cut my teeth on Aces of the Deep). In short, the controls are terrible.

I find the method of targeting an enemy ship confusing in the extreme and I hate the way I have to leave first person and go to a cutaway every time I need to get someone else to do something. It gives me PC whiplash and takes me completely out of the sim.

I'm also not really that much of a fan of the limited RPG elements that are involved and crew management can be a bit annoying, to say the least. Plus the AI can be really, really, sketchy at times. I know that the crew are simulated "green" to begin with and you level them up with XP, but we were practically on top of a ship before anyone called out "smoke on the horizon". Nobody can be that blind and be in service.

As of today, I keep firing it up thinking that I'll eventually master the game (I'm no stranger to doing that with PC games) but every time I end up quitting in frustration and feeling that I'm just wasting my time with this one.

I understand that UBoat is still a WIP and that it has come on leaps and bounds since it first came out (I shudder to think what state it was in when it first released), but as of May 2025 it still feels like there's a bit of a way yet to go with this game.

It's unfortunate. I want to like UBoat, I really do, but I just cannot get into it no matter what. I'll keep giving it a few more tries and tweaking it here and there to see if I can get a suitable U-Boat sim experience from it. But, at this point I think I might just be better off giving SH5 with the Wolves of Steel mod a go.

Aktungbby · 05-18-25, 09:09 AM

tonyeh!

...after a 13-year 'silent run'!

Jeffg · 05-18-25, 11:23 AM

The Sim needs a user manual and a tutorial pdf that you can use and follow along with. You Videos are good but do not replace the written word.

Jeffg

tonyeh · 05-19-25, 10:28 AM

A standard user manual would be great alright, but I think there's still a lot of creases to be ironed out in the game itself, a lot of which are standard UI and UX issues.

However, there is never a moment when I don't feel that the game is going to do something that breaks it. For instance, last night I tried another go and after finding out how to do a crash dive, which is really easy in SH3/4, I ordered one and found out that the boat was unable to go below 25m! Plus the sounds of compression on the hull started and the food hanging in front of the Observation periscope started bouncing around like there was a hurricane blowing through the boat.

Just weird.

Also, why the hell do random sailors keep going up to the periscope and using it? Thus giving away any stealth your boat may have.

I really want to like this game, but by christ it makes it hard to do.

tonyeh · 05-20-25, 06:59 PM

OK, I'm done.

Fired up a session tonight and played a few patrols as a skipper only. Everything was going ok. I didn't make any contacts with the enemy, but I did manage to sink a type VII that was on damaged and on the surface with all the crew dead (which I thought was a cool little side mission).

But then, eventually, I did make contact with some Brits.

Unfortunately when they saw me and I tired to dive to evade the destroyers, I found that I couldn't dive below 25m, no matter what I set the dive depth to.

This game is awful.

Guess I'll just have to make do with SH5 and the WoS mod. Or just go back to a 20 year old game that actually works.

Shadowblade · 05-21-25, 01:30 PM

well, it sounds like a bad experience

I still wait for Type IX DLC so I didnt try the game myself yet.

05-18-25, 08:12 AM	#1
tonyeh A-ganger Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Ireland Posts: 71 Downloads: 42 Uploads: 0	UBoat - first impression After not playing any sub sims for a few years, I decided to fire up SH3, and with a bit of a heavy heart I came away from my session thinking the old girl had aged quite a bit. In fairness SH3 is a 20 year old release (even if I still remember firing it up for the first time), so a bit of aging was to be expected. But looks wise, it just doesn't do it any more, even with the mods. I thought "it's time to retire her and get a new sim". So, having been aware of UBoat for some time and having bought it but never played it for nearly 2 and half years (the reviews weren't great) I reckoned it was time to get back into to Atlantic and start sinking some enemy ships. Well, that's what I thought was going to happen. What really happened was me struggling to get to grips with what the hell I was supposed to be doing at any given time and little within the atrocious UI made and sense to me. I had no idea what to press to get to where I needed to be and if I moved to a different station, the character I was controlling at a given time seems to always want to bugger off to somewhere else on the ship. There is absolutely nothing intuitive about the game in any way, despite having many years behind me playing submarine games (I cut my teeth on Aces of the Deep). In short, the controls are terrible. I find the method of targeting an enemy ship confusing in the extreme and I hate the way I have to leave first person and go to a cutaway every time I need to get someone else to do something. It gives me PC whiplash and takes me completely out of the sim. I'm also not really that much of a fan of the limited RPG elements that are involved and crew management can be a bit annoying, to say the least. Plus the AI can be really, really, sketchy at times. I know that the crew are simulated "green" to begin with and you level them up with XP, but we were practically on top of a ship before anyone called out "smoke on the horizon". Nobody can be that blind and be in service. As of today, I keep firing it up thinking that I'll eventually master the game (I'm no stranger to doing that with PC games) but every time I end up quitting in frustration and feeling that I'm just wasting my time with this one. I understand that UBoat is still a WIP and that it has come on leaps and bounds since it first came out (I shudder to think what state it was in when it first released), but as of May 2025 it still feels like there's a bit of a way yet to go with this game. It's unfortunate. I want to like UBoat, I really do, but I just cannot get into it no matter what. I'll keep giving it a few more tries and tweaking it here and there to see if I can get a suitable U-Boat sim experience from it. But, at this point I think I might just be better off giving SH5 with the Wolves of Steel mod a go.

05-18-25, 09:09 AM	#2
Aktungbby Gefallen Engel U-666 Join Date: Jul 2013 Location: On a tilted, overheated, overpopulated spinning mudball on Collision course with Andromeda Galaxy Posts: 30,160 Downloads: 24 Uploads: 0	Welcome back! tonyeh!...after a 13-year 'silent run'! __________________ "Only two things are infinite; The Universe and human squirrelyness?!!

05-18-25, 11:23 AM	#3
Jeffg Exec Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: ponte vedra beach,fl Posts: 250 Downloads: 1672 Uploads: 0	The Sim needs a user manual and a tutorial pdf that you can use and follow along with. You Videos are good but do not replace the written word. Jeffg __________________ Jeff Gerbert

05-21-25, 01:30 PM	#6
Shadowblade Grey Wolf Join Date: Jul 2008 Posts: 780 Downloads: 14 Uploads: 0	well, it sounds like a bad experience I still wait for Type IX DLC so I didnt try the game myself yet. __________________ Kapitänleutnant Vlad von Carstein - U-Flotilla Saltzwedel - U-123, Type IXB SH3 GWX 3.0

05-19-25, 10:28 AM	#4
tonyeh A-ganger Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Ireland Posts: 71 Downloads: 42 Uploads: 0	A standard user manual would be great alright, but I think there's still a lot of creases to be ironed out in the game itself, a lot of which are standard UI and UX issues. However, there is never a moment when I don't feel that the game is going to do something that breaks it. For instance, last night I tried another go and after finding out how to do a crash dive, which is really easy in SH3/4, I ordered one and found out that the boat was unable to go below 25m! Plus the sounds of compression on the hull started and the food hanging in front of the Observation periscope started bouncing around like there was a hurricane blowing through the boat. Just weird. Also, why the hell do random sailors keep going up to the periscope and using it? Thus giving away any stealth your boat may have. I really want to like this game, but by christ it makes it hard to do.

05-20-25, 06:59 PM	#5
tonyeh A-ganger Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Ireland Posts: 71 Downloads: 42 Uploads: 0	OK, I'm done. Fired up a session tonight and played a few patrols as a skipper only. Everything was going ok. I didn't make any contacts with the enemy, but I did manage to sink a type VII that was on damaged and on the surface with all the crew dead (which I thought was a cool little side mission). But then, eventually, I did make contact with some Brits. Unfortunately when they saw me and I tired to dive to evade the destroyers, I found that I couldn't dive below 25m, no matter what I set the dive depth to. This game is awful. Guess I'll just have to make do with SH5 and the WoS mod. Or just go back to a 20 year old game that actually works.