Not the next subsim.... sadly.

[Damo]

It's been a long time since I came to these forums and posted. It's also a long time since I played SH3/5, but that has now changed, and it's all thanks to the new Uboat game. Thankfully, I didn't pay for the game myself, a friend who is on holiday was a backer and as I was housesitting while he's on holiday he said I might want to try it as it was 'right up my street'. So I did, and here's what I think;


First of all, it should never have been released, EA or not, at this point. It needs a good 4-6 months of further development purely to make it playable. It has so many game breaking bugs that literally force you to start a new game it reminds me more of a technical demo than a £20+ game. I know all releases have issues but I found myself thinking so many times that the devs MUST be playtesting the game, along with the Alpha testers and yet someone decided it was ready for release when it so obviously isn't. Whoever made that decision obviously had their eyes set on the cash if you ask me.


Subsims are a niche, and I can see what they are trying to achieve here to open it up to a broader audience, but it's sloppy and some things are obviously down to a lack of knowledge or research. I know it's a small thing but Union Jacks and Maple Leaves for British and Canadian flags? Historical accuracy obviously isn't a priority here. Planes turn on a dime and cover miles in seconds, AI get stuck on each other/the sub so you have to spend time manually moving them. First person is merely a novelty that makes actual play a frustrating affair and the camera in section mode is infuriating. I found myself getting actually angry at trying to navigate around and that is without even mentioning the bugs.


So the bugs, which eventually will be sorted (hopefully), have NO PLACE in a released game, an alpha, yes, but this is why it should have been held back for a good few months. Save games regularly corrupted, upgrades cause you to get stuck in the upgrade interface so you have to save and reload, I even had 2 instances where the map stopped working, forcing me to start again from scratch. Not being able to add crew to one of the officers, 50% of the crew got tuberculosis while I was still in port, ships not sinking after their HP is zero and shooting them with a coup de grace or with the deck gun has no effect whatsoever, although it gives you the credit for 'sinking' it. Sound bugs where you lose all sound, deck gun gets stuck so you can't aim, no deck or flak gun ammo in your warehouse at port or if there is it's like 3-6 deck gun rounds, helpful...


You're forced to load torpedoes into storage and then wait for your guy to load them so you can then top up the reserves. Crew recruitment is a mess, 2 separate screens for recruits and your active crew that should all be implemented onto one interface. I like the side missions aside from your patrol grid but I travelled 1000km to the other side of my grid to help a fellow UBoat only to find it 2km inland in Portugal, said they needed spare parts, I'd say they grossly underestimated their predicament.


All in all a VERY frustrating experience and after about 12+ hours of play I find myself having to yet AGAIN start over due to my save not loading without CTD. The most I managed was 3 patrols involving a LOT of saving and reloading and even more sifting through the Steam Bugs forums trying to find fixes/workarounds for all the issues. My jaw literally hurts from grinding my teeth so much.

I WANT to like it, the SH series requires a fairly lengthy play session to get anything from it and this game will provide a much easier way into the genre, maybe even bringing more players to SH and these forums but in all honesty this game as it stands is trash. I'm not angry at the game, it has the potential to be fixed eventually but I AM angry at Deep Water Studio for unleashing this pile of ****e in this state, it's an all too common thing nowadays and Early Access should be outlawed. Crowd Funding, Kickstarters and Indie Projects are fine, but to knowingly ask people to pay this sort of money for something so broken is a blight on the games industry. Personally I'd like to see all EA titles be forced to accept refunds right up until full release, at least that way the consumer doesn't get screwed in the rear end by cash grabbing devs.


Hopefully it will come good in the end, I do play SH5 after all, even though that was only saved by the good people here, so I wish it the best, but they won't be getting my money anytime soon, I'll rely on you bunch to tell me when I should give it another chance, if it ever earns that right. If you're thinking of buying this game and you've played the SH series, do your self a favour and like me, install SH5 WOS, it's the only saving grace of this game, that it gave me the subsim itch again.


Regards,
Damo. o7