I miss Silent Hunter 1 - Page 2

mcoca · 04-24-07, 03:51 AM

Years and years ago (gosh, I must be getting old), I was completely hooked to the original Silent Hunter. I played it for years, despite the fact that nobody ever bothered to translate the patches to the Spanish version, so I was stuck playing the retail version (1.0?).

I just loved the excitement, the way you went from hunter to prey in an instant when the first torpedo went off. I loved being chased by destroyers diving like crazy, taking my boat to the outer edges of test depth with an eye on the bathythermograph, hoping to find a thermal layer before I hit bottom or the boat was crushed.

Somehow this excitement is just missing in SH4. Yesterday I sunk my 50th merchant or so. I just snapped, and went into a group of unescorted merchants, surfaced and guns blazing. Why bother taking the stealth approach, when there is no risk? I've only been depth charged once in the entire game, and the destroyer gave up a minute after losing contact and returned to its escort station. I continued my approach and sunk a couple of ships.

You can sink tens of thousands of tons without seeing a destroyer, and when you do, it's with a convoy so large it can't really protect it. I miss those small convoys from SH1: 2-3 merchants protected by 1-2 destroyers. The fight was almost personal. Maybe not exactly realistic, but much more fun. My average SH1 career lasted two or three patrols, and generally ended when I tried to attack a task force. Now I only get killed by aircraft.

Please don't get me wrong, I enjoy SH4 a lot, even with all the small problems, or I wouldn't have spent all this time playing it. It has many small details that I missed in other subsims. I really like how you can keep requesting new orders that send you all over the Pacific. But that special touch is missing.

Does anybody else feel the same way, or am I just suffering from Grampa Simpson syndrome?

04-24-07, 03:51 AM	#1
mcoca Loader Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Madrid, Spain Posts: 86 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	I miss Silent Hunter 1 Years and years ago (gosh, I must be getting old), I was completely hooked to the original Silent Hunter. I played it for years, despite the fact that nobody ever bothered to translate the patches to the Spanish version, so I was stuck playing the retail version (1.0?). I just loved the excitement, the way you went from hunter to prey in an instant when the first torpedo went off. I loved being chased by destroyers diving like crazy, taking my boat to the outer edges of test depth with an eye on the bathythermograph, hoping to find a thermal layer before I hit bottom or the boat was crushed. Somehow this excitement is just missing in SH4. Yesterday I sunk my 50th merchant or so. I just snapped, and went into a group of unescorted merchants, surfaced and guns blazing. Why bother taking the stealth approach, when there is no risk? I've only been depth charged once in the entire game, and the destroyer gave up a minute after losing contact and returned to its escort station. I continued my approach and sunk a couple of ships. You can sink tens of thousands of tons without seeing a destroyer, and when you do, it's with a convoy so large it can't really protect it. I miss those small convoys from SH1: 2-3 merchants protected by 1-2 destroyers. The fight was almost personal. Maybe not exactly realistic, but much more fun. My average SH1 career lasted two or three patrols, and generally ended when I tried to attack a task force. Now I only get killed by aircraft. Please don't get me wrong, I enjoy SH4 a lot, even with all the small problems, or I wouldn't have spent all this time playing it. It has many small details that I missed in other subsims. I really like how you can keep requesting new orders that send you all over the Pacific. But that special touch is missing. Does anybody else feel the same way, or am I just suffering from Grampa Simpson syndrome?