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

[JScones]

Thanks Neal. Admittedly much more critical than I expected.

The game manual is no longer printed...

This must be a region thing. Unless Ubisoft here changed their mind in the last few days before "official" release , Aussie copies come with a printed manual.

[cherbert]

Originally Posted by JScones

Thanks Neal. Admittedly much more critical than I expected.


This must be a region thing. Unless Ubisoft here changed their mind in the last few days before "official" release , Aussie copies come with a printed manual.

So does the UK version.

[Phantom453]

Thank you for the review Neal. Well written and a good read.

I thought your review was accurate, balanced and quite comprehensive. I particularly liked the points you made about the unfinished nature of the release and the extremely poor documentation (I still can’t bring myself to use the word “manual” in this case) and poor tutorial system. Obviously my pet hates at the moment.

Given your written assessment was spot on (IMHO), I too think your scores were a tad too high is some areas. Most of all though, I think you largely captured the concerns, disappointments, hopes and desires the Subsim community (still?) has for this game.

[Sharkfin]

Thank You Neal for the excellent review. Will do exactly like You proposed:
wait a few more weeks for patches. And only if those patches fix the game, I will consider buying Silent Hunter 5.

[Snake Man]

Excellent review, very nice read. I was surprised of the honesty of the review (meaning quite negative yet truthful).

[floundericiousWA]

As others have said, top notch review which sells the good points and hands out lumps for the bad/meh points.

Well written review, Neal!

[Ablemaster]

Yeh that about sums it up Neal, agreed on most things said, good and bad points highlighted and seems to be what we are all saying and thinking about SH5, so concur on that, good and informative, thanks.

[Faamecanic]

Good review Neil.... but you left a few things out (that Im sure others have already pointed out)

1. Morale system is broke. My crew's morale was at 1 dot the minute I left Keil Harbor on my first patrol.
2. TDC is broke. If you use any ability that increases your torp speed or warhead effectivness, the TDC does not take this into account and your torps MISS their targets.
3. Rudder control is 1 deg at a time or 35 deg with automtic Amazing/ludicrous/Insane/Holy S*&t speed (what ever ubi named it) ahead.
4. Rediculous mission requirements (sink 150,000 tons by June 1940...really? in 8 months?)
5. Germany had Sonar in 1939?
6. Germnay had Radar in 1939?
7. American Liberty Cargo ships in 1939?
8. Only half the war is available to play.

Dont get me wrong... I think the review is spot on. There is so much promise with this SH release. But at the same time this is the most incomplete release to date. As if Ubi fully expects modders to finish the sim for them. to Ubi and to the review.

[harryt8]

I don't post very often, but I feel I would like to chip in my "two cents worth".
I haven't purchased SH5, and based on the mainly negative forum comments to date will not until the approval ratings improve.

Neal Steven's review is excellent and I would thank him for it, but understandably it is limited in scope, otherwise it would be as he describes, some 20 pages in length. (Maybe his critique could now be broken down into readable sections?).

However, having now read the well written review, I cannot understand how the comments and problems outlined in it relates to the final scoreboard of somewhere in the "70's" out of a possible 100. As one forum correspondent states: "maybe 50 points max". Product unseen and untried by me, forum criticism would tend to suggest this perhaps a more accurate reflection on the current state of play.

The question I would like to pose is: How much bandwidth is DRM "chewing up" per hour online?

In the meantime I'll just keep on with good old SH3, GWX and OLC Gold. It may not have the superb graphics of SH5, but it all works pretty nicely.

Harry

[pocatellodave]

I found Neal's review very well done.I can tell that Neal is an optimist,as he found the quality in items that others seemed to be very negative against.I picked up The game at a Game Stop in Idaho Falls,read all the box information,and after several seconds,I put it back.I will purchase the game after several weeks,as Neal recommends.The one thing I really dislike about Ubisoft,is the fact that they put unfinished games out,then they patch them up,and with the help of the SubSim modders,we players end up with a decent game!The DRM thing doesn't bother me that much,as I play order of War,and it has the Steam cluster thingy.Anyway good job Neal.We all should give Neal a big <S> for all the great work he does for we virtual submariners.
pocatellodave

[BigBANGtheory]

@Neal : Do you intend to update your review with the 'yet to be officially confirmed' Patch v1.2 release?

[Onkel Neal]

I will probably add a status update to the end of the review if a significant patch is released.

Significant = a patch that fixes significant problems that will improve core gamelay and that cannot be fixed by modding, issues only the dev team can address.

[The General]

From what I understand Neal, that is about to be the case. I look forward to reading your 'Status Update'.