SimHQ Reviews SH5

LukeFF · 05-02-10, 01:50 AM

http://www.simhq.com/_naval/naval_036a.html

http://www.simhq.com/_commentary/all_099a.html

Quote:

[There] are some serious problems that badly need to be resolved. The game is currently a buggy nightmare in some critical areas. Certainly there are bugs with all games, and some are forgivable, but some of the bugs in Silent Hunter 5 are near showstoppers. There are already some mods released that will correct some of the deficiencies in the game, but the fact that the second patch — the one that is supposed to correct many of these problems — is delayed once again means players that bought the game in good faith are still waiting for fixes that shouldn’t have been in the gold release.

Feuer Frei! · 05-02-10, 01:57 AM

Actually one of the better reviews i've read re the game.
Nothing new of course in that review.

daft · 05-02-10, 02:18 AM

I take it that the phrase "bought it in good faith" actually means "decided to throw all personal responsibility out the window and decided to not do ANY research on the title whatsoever in order to find out if SHV actually lives up to the consumers hopes and expectations". I really don't think that argument holds water in this day and age. I could understand it in the pre-internet age when you couldn't be arsed to wait for the magazine reviews, but now we have internet and opinions and reviews are generally out before the games are released. I have no issue at all with people taking issue with the quality of the game and complaining about that to Ubi directly, but it really isn't a very well kept secret that SHV has bugs and it haven't beem since the game came out.

Bilge_Rat · 05-02-10, 06:10 AM

very even handed review:

Quote:

Boy, is this a hard game to not recommend. Silent Hunter 5: Battle of the Atlantic is one of the more in-depth (no pun intended) games currently out there. The game play is good. The graphics are very well done. The campaign is outstanding. Simply put, this is one of the better one-two-three punches in the gameplay world.

I tried SH4 again yesterday, but I just can't get into it anymore with its clunky interface and controls, there is something about SH5 that keeps drawing me back to it. If Ubi gets its act together, SH5 will be the best in the series.

mookiemookie · 05-02-10, 07:47 AM

Clearly someone who has spent time with the game. Very nice review.

raymond6751 · 05-02-10, 08:45 AM

I believe that SH5 is not seriously flawed. It just doesn't meet with the expectations of the subsim community.

It is true that there are many irritations, things missing, and incorrectly presented. The game does not CTD in my experience.

The modders are fixing cosmetic things and adding missing things that we had in earlier versions. In fact, they are re-enabling them since the game retains much of the file system of SH4. SH4 itself retained much of SH3.

The tragedy is that SH5 wasn't what anyone expected. UBI went right ahead making a game that neither retained the best of the SH3/4 games nor added much of the hoped-for features.

I'd be interested in hearing what new players (never played SH3 or 4) think of the game.

Frumpkis · 05-02-10, 11:20 AM

I appreciate the review, since I haven't bought SH5 yet (and may never buy it, depending on future patch/mod status). It was a good overview, although I would have liked to hear more about the AI. Evasion after an attack is half the fun and challenge in subsim, and there really wasn't much said about it, other than that DD's are more effective later in the war (well, duh!).

Can a DD make you sweat bullets after an attack? That's what I play these games for, and frankly even with SH4 that doesn't happen often enough. The situational awareness in these sims is also lousy during a depth charge attack, compared to real life. Sub commanders would know how close the charges were, on what side of the boat, high or low, etc..... stuff we never get in the game unless you "cheat" and use an external view.

Just my opinion, but all of these Silent Hunter games have done a much better job of modeling the attack phase -- blowing stuff up REAL GOOD -- than they have the evasion phase.

As for the DRM side article, I agree of course, although it's interesting how situational that is. Six months ago I was struggling with a very unreliable cable Internet service that would drop out for literally days at a time. I woudn't even consider buying a game that used this system, back then. Now I'm on a slightly slower, but rock-solid DSL connection, and I'm taking constant connection for granted. It does tend to dampen down the nerd rage about needing it for games, although in the abstract I know how horrible a system that is... and I have a feeling it won't survive this current "experiment" by Ubi and others. I think the future is going to be Steam-like digital distribution where at least some form of offline play is available.

badaboom · 05-03-10, 02:40 PM

Right-On!!

The General · 05-03-10, 02:42 PM

Like Neal's review this one was very level-headed.

Faamecanic · 05-04-10, 06:40 AM

For the most part a decent and fair review...a few parts made me go "Huh?"

For Example:

"It is almost possible to become virtually sea sick. The boat rocks and rolls, the waves roll over the ship and the white caps look authentic. "

They must have a different sim. I still see the "sub on rails" with very little relative motion, especially in the roll arena. A carry over from SH3 and 4 that should have been fixed looong ago. Play GWX with SH3 if you want to see what decent pitch and roll look like.

"Ships are rendered in even more detail compared to forerunners Silent Hunter III and Silent Hunter 4. Details are even more intricate with much more detailed warships and merchants"

Yes they are more detailed....too bad there are only a few types of Cargo vessels. No mention of that in the review.

"The English voices in the game are done with a slightly cheesy German accent which is mildly amusing and not too distracting."

No mention of the absolutely idiotic "Ludicris Speed Ahead" But thats nit picking. They could say "Everyone don your pink panties and boas" for all I care if this game wasnt so bugged.

"
One of the worst examples of this is when you are on the bridge and want to crash dive. If you order any kind of dive, the boat will not do it until you come down into the conning tower. No offense, but if I see an enemy destroyer bearing down on me, I am going to yell for a crash dive and then run for the hatch, not jump down into the boat and call for a crash dive."

Glad they pointed this out. I too love the idea of interacting with the crew, moving about my sub. But for the love of all.... the Germans had VOICE TUBES to tell the helmsman, Chief and all "CRASH DIVE". Im looking forward to mods that increase the crew interaction (I must be strange as it seems Im in the minority here).

"I can’t review a game based upon what mods are out, so out of the box, Silent Hunter 5 definitely needs some help."

THANK YOU!!!! Finally someone that gets it. I grow tired of being bashed and told "yes this game sux but mods will fix it". To me I base my critisim off of an UNmodded game. I DONT want game developers/publishers getting into the habbit of releasing half finished games and rely on FREE mods to fix them.

"The campaign structure is fairly simple. You start out as a young U-boat commander in 1939 and you work your way through to 1943, gradually upgrading your boat. Once you get done with the initial campaign around the British Isles, you can select different segments of the campaign based upon your peaked interest, and upon the success you have in the initial setup. It eventually culminates in the disaster that was 1943, when the Allies finally started getting the upper hand on the U-boat threat."

No mention of the CRAPTASTIC tonnage requirements that are totally unrealistic or just plain stupid (you MUST sink a carrier or battleship??? O-rly... and in the history of Uboats how many times did a Uboat sink a capital ship?)

"The AI in the game tends to vary, which is probably realistic. I have found that spooking enemy destroyers is fairly easy early on in the game, but as time goes on and as ASW equipment improves, the destroyers get better. "

Laughable at best.... In two patrols out of Kiel (after I stopped playing the sim) I was sunk once by a friendly merchat in the Kiel locks going in reverse and smashing me into the lock wall..... AI sucks in this sim...period.

"The campaign is outstanding. "

WTF?? See my above statement about the campaign.

"Sadly, the fact is for right now, I cannot recommend Silent Hunter 5: Battle of the Atlantic in its current condition."

A good wrap up. Even though I disagree to a certain degree with some of SimHQs review...the wrap up I agree with 100%. Lets see where the patch takes us.....

Frumpkis · 05-04-10, 09:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Faamecanic

No mention of the CRAPTASTIC tonnage requirements that are totally unrealistic or just plain stupid (you MUST sink a carrier or battleship??? O-rly... and in the history of Uboats how many times did a Uboat sink a capital ship?)

I guess that's just another attempt to appeal to a wider, non-hardcore audience. The whole point of a sub patrol is to sink enemy shipping to help the war effort, and maybe you'd find yourself in a lucky position for a capital ship attack... like once in an entire career. But I guess Ubi thought that wasn't exciting enough. Many of the capital ships torpedoed in the Pacific were already crippled by air attacks, so it's also more of a joint operations thing. This should be something the modders can deal with though, if they've left the same campaign hooks that are in SH4.

I'm more worried about things the modders might not be able to touch, like the quality of enemy AI, or to what extent the new "interactive crew" is either a help or a hindrance in managing the boat during an attack. One of the big requests during SH4 days for for a full 3D interior, but I don't remember anyone asking for less efficiency in commands. Not being able to command a crash dive while still on the bridge is just one example.

SimHq Tom Cofield · 05-04-10, 10:54 AM

Thanks for the kind words, even with some of the disagreements. I know some of you were worried that this would be a 'fluff' piece based upon my preview. As I said during that little discussion my reviews are a lot stricter than any preview because I don't tolerate bugs nearly as much as I do with previews. I have had several developers not talk to me any more but I call it as I see it.

I agree about the tonnage requirements and the 'rules' for sinking capital ships but I expected that from this game. Unfortunately this is a game, not realism and I knew that to make it interesting it would be a little more target rich than in reality.

I think the campaign structure is outstanding, even with the above stuff. Remember I am a flight sim guy, not a dedicated submariner (although I have been doing this and SHIV a lot more than flying lately) so I compare the game campaign to ones like IL2 or Lock ON and this campaign is damned good. It blows PT boats out of the water (talk about stupid rules of engagement). I haven't met a campaign that couldn't be better but overall this one is very above average.

As for the rest, the game is about as frustrating as it can be for a reviewer. Neil, sorry I forgot to send the copy to you to look over. I thought Doug was going to run it on Monday and was going to have you check it out for major stupid errors but he ran it early and I forgot to send it to you Friday.

If they patch it, and if they do something about the DRM, and once the game is heavily modded then I might just do a re-review of the title. This is a game that could be absolutely outstanding, actually fantastic because the base is there for an outstanding game. Just like SHIII and IV, this is a game that shipped incomplete but unlike SHIII or IV this game has some serious detractions that hurt the game significantly. Luckily a lot of it can be fixed.

Méo · 05-04-10, 12:51 PM

Good post Tom

...(and good review too)

I wish you would post more here.

Onkel Neal · 05-04-10, 01:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SimHq Tom Cofield

I think the campaign structure is outstanding, even with the above stuff. Remember I am a flight sim guy, not a dedicated submariner (although I have been doing this and SHIV a lot more than flying lately) so I compare the game campaign to ones like IL2 or Lock ON and this campaign is damned good. It blows PT boats out of the water (talk about stupid rules of engagement). I haven't met a campaign that couldn't be better but overall this one is very above average.

As for the rest, the game is about as frustrating as it can be for a reviewer. Neil, sorry I forgot to send the copy to you to look over. I thought Doug was going to run it on Monday and was going to have you check it out for major stupid errors but he ran it early and I forgot to send it to you Friday.

If they patch it, and if they do something about the DRM, and once the game is heavily modded then I might just do a re-review of the title. This is a game that could be absolutely outstanding, actually fantastic because the base is there for an outstanding game. Just like SHIII and IV, this is a game that shipped incomplete but unlike SHIII or IV this game has some serious detractions that hurt the game significantly. Luckily a lot of it can be fixed.

No problem, Tom, very good review. I appreciate a review that strives to examine the good and bad, and present a reasonable balance.

Faamecanic · 05-04-10, 02:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

No problem, Tom, very good review. I appreciate a review that strives to examine the good and bad, and present a reasonable balance.

Overall a well balanced review...and glad to see you didnt take my critique of your review the wrong way

Neil said it best...it does strike a reasonable balance. Your summation at the end said enough.

Now here is to hoping UBI will surprise us by taking time with the patch!! Something I dont think they did with SH3 or 4...and left both versions half patched (and again my major gripe with SH4 was the final patch was ONLY included if you bought the expansion...which is utter bollocks.)

05-02-10, 01:57 AM	#2
Feuer Frei! Navy Seal Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Valhalla Posts: 5,295 Downloads: 141 Uploads: 17	Actually one of the better reviews i've read re the game. Nothing new of course in that review. __________________ "History is the lies that the victors agree on"- Napoleon LINK TO MY SH 3 MODS

05-02-10, 02:18 AM	#3
daft Captain Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Sweden Posts: 493 Downloads: 15 Uploads: 0	I take it that the phrase "bought it in good faith" actually means "decided to throw all personal responsibility out the window and decided to not do ANY research on the title whatsoever in order to find out if SHV actually lives up to the consumers hopes and expectations". I really don't think that argument holds water in this day and age. I could understand it in the pre-internet age when you couldn't be arsed to wait for the magazine reviews, but now we have internet and opinions and reviews are generally out before the games are released. I have no issue at all with people taking issue with the quality of the game and complaining about that to Ubi directly, but it really isn't a very well kept secret that SHV has bugs and it haven't beem since the game came out. __________________ And God said: \"Let there be Narrowband!\"

05-02-10, 07:47 AM	#5
mookiemookie Navy Seal Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 9,404 Downloads: 105 Uploads: 1	Clearly someone who has spent time with the game. Very nice review. __________________ They don’t think it be like it is, but it do. Want more U-boat Kaleun portraits for your SH3 Commander Profiles? Download the SH3 Commander Portrait Pack here.

05-02-10, 08:45 AM	#6
raymond6751 Admirable Mike Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Canada Posts: 1,338 Downloads: 421 Uploads: 0	Failure to launch I believe that SH5 is not seriously flawed. It just doesn't meet with the expectations of the subsim community. It is true that there are many irritations, things missing, and incorrectly presented. The game does not CTD in my experience. The modders are fixing cosmetic things and adding missing things that we had in earlier versions. In fact, they are re-enabling them since the game retains much of the file system of SH4. SH4 itself retained much of SH3. The tragedy is that SH5 wasn't what anyone expected. UBI went right ahead making a game that neither retained the best of the SH3/4 games nor added much of the hoped-for features. I'd be interested in hearing what new players (never played SH3 or 4) think of the game. __________________ Game Designer: Close The Atlantic - World War Three https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/...orld-war-three

05-03-10, 02:40 PM	#8
badaboom Weps Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 359 Downloads: 46 Uploads: 0	Right-On!! __________________

05-02-10, 11:20 AM	#7
Frumpkis Mate Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 60 Downloads: 40 Uploads: 0	I appreciate the review, since I haven't bought SH5 yet (and may never buy it, depending on future patch/mod status). It was a good overview, although I would have liked to hear more about the AI. Evasion after an attack is half the fun and challenge in subsim, and there really wasn't much said about it, other than that DD's are more effective later in the war (well, duh!). Can a DD make you sweat bullets after an attack? That's what I play these games for, and frankly even with SH4 that doesn't happen often enough. The situational awareness in these sims is also lousy during a depth charge attack, compared to real life. Sub commanders would know how close the charges were, on what side of the boat, high or low, etc..... stuff we never get in the game unless you "cheat" and use an external view. Just my opinion, but all of these Silent Hunter games have done a much better job of modeling the attack phase -- blowing stuff up REAL GOOD -- than they have the evasion phase. As for the DRM side article, I agree of course, although it's interesting how situational that is. Six months ago I was struggling with a very unreliable cable Internet service that would drop out for literally days at a time. I woudn't even consider buying a game that used this system, back then. Now I'm on a slightly slower, but rock-solid DSL connection, and I'm taking constant connection for granted. It does tend to dampen down the nerd rage about needing it for games, although in the abstract I know how horrible a system that is... and I have a feeling it won't survive this current "experiment" by Ubi and others. I think the future is going to be Steam-like digital distribution where at least some form of offline play is available.

05-03-10, 02:42 PM	#9
The General The Old Man Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Mountain Ash, Wales, U.K. Posts: 1,548 Downloads: 179 Uploads: 3	Like Neal's review this one was very level-headed. __________________ *THE GENERAL* Last edited by The General; 05-04-10 at 09:10 AM.

05-04-10, 06:40 AM	#10
Faamecanic Ace of the Deep Join Date: May 2005 Location: Off your Stb side with good solution Posts: 1,065 Downloads: 44 Uploads: 0	For the most part a decent and fair review...a few parts made me go "Huh?" For Example: "It is almost possible to become virtually sea sick. The boat rocks and rolls, the waves roll over the ship and the white caps look authentic. " They must have a different sim. I still see the "sub on rails" with very little relative motion, especially in the roll arena. A carry over from SH3 and 4 that should have been fixed looong ago. Play GWX with SH3 if you want to see what decent pitch and roll look like. "Ships are rendered in even more detail compared to forerunners Silent Hunter III and Silent Hunter 4. Details are even more intricate with much more detailed warships and merchants" Yes they are more detailed....too bad there are only a few types of Cargo vessels. No mention of that in the review. "The English voices in the game are done with a slightly cheesy German accent which is mildly amusing and not too distracting." No mention of the absolutely idiotic "Ludicris Speed Ahead" But thats nit picking. They could say "Everyone don your pink panties and boas" for all I care if this game wasnt so bugged. " One of the worst examples of this is when you are on the bridge and want to crash dive. If you order any kind of dive, the boat will not do it until you come down into the conning tower. No offense, but if I see an enemy destroyer bearing down on me, I am going to yell for a crash dive and then run for the hatch, not jump down into the boat and call for a crash dive." Glad they pointed this out. I too love the idea of interacting with the crew, moving about my sub. But for the love of all.... the Germans had VOICE TUBES to tell the helmsman, Chief and all "CRASH DIVE". Im looking forward to mods that increase the crew interaction (I must be strange as it seems Im in the minority here). *"I can’t review a game based upon what mods are out, so out of the box, Silent Hunter 5 definitely needs some help."* THANK YOU!!!! Finally someone that gets it. I grow tired of being bashed and told "yes this game sux but mods will fix it". To me I base my critisim off of an UNmodded game. I DONT want game developers/publishers getting into the habbit of releasing half finished games and rely on FREE mods to fix them. "The campaign structure is fairly simple. You start out as a young U-boat commander in 1939 and you work your way through to 1943, gradually upgrading your boat. Once you get done with the initial campaign around the British Isles, you can select different segments of the campaign based upon your peaked interest, and upon the success you have in the initial setup. It eventually culminates in the disaster that was 1943, when the Allies finally started getting the upper hand on the U-boat threat." No mention of the CRAPTASTIC tonnage requirements that are totally unrealistic or just plain stupid (you MUST sink a carrier or battleship??? O-rly... and in the history of Uboats how many times did a Uboat sink a capital ship?) "The AI in the game tends to vary, which is probably realistic. I have found that spooking enemy destroyers is fairly easy early on in the game, but as time goes on and as ASW equipment improves, the destroyers get better. " Laughable at best.... In two patrols out of Kiel (after I stopped playing the sim) I was sunk once by a friendly merchat in the Kiel locks going in reverse and smashing me into the lock wall..... AI sucks in this sim...period. "The campaign is outstanding. " WTF?? See my above statement about the campaign. "Sadly, the fact is for right now, I cannot recommend Silent Hunter 5: Battle of the Atlantic in its current condition." A good wrap up. Even though I disagree to a certain degree with some of SimHQs review...the wrap up I agree with 100%. Lets see where the patch takes us.....

05-04-10, 10:54 AM	#12
SimHq Tom Cofield Commander Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 30 Downloads: 25 Uploads: 0	Thanks for the kind words, even with some of the disagreements. I know some of you were worried that this would be a 'fluff' piece based upon my preview. As I said during that little discussion my reviews are a lot stricter than any preview because I don't tolerate bugs nearly as much as I do with previews. I have had several developers not talk to me any more but I call it as I see it. I agree about the tonnage requirements and the 'rules' for sinking capital ships but I expected that from this game. Unfortunately this is a game, not realism and I knew that to make it interesting it would be a little more target rich than in reality. I think the campaign structure is outstanding, even with the above stuff. Remember I am a flight sim guy, not a dedicated submariner (although I have been doing this and SHIV a lot more than flying lately) so I compare the game campaign to ones like IL2 or Lock ON and this campaign is damned good. It blows PT boats out of the water (talk about stupid rules of engagement). I haven't met a campaign that couldn't be better but overall this one is very above average. As for the rest, the game is about as frustrating as it can be for a reviewer. Neil, sorry I forgot to send the copy to you to look over. I thought Doug was going to run it on Monday and was going to have you check it out for major stupid errors but he ran it early and I forgot to send it to you Friday. If they patch it, and if they do something about the DRM, and once the game is heavily modded then I might just do a re-review of the title. This is a game that could be absolutely outstanding, actually fantastic because the base is there for an outstanding game. Just like SHIII and IV, this is a game that shipped incomplete but unlike SHIII or IV this game has some serious detractions that hurt the game significantly. Luckily a lot of it can be fixed. __________________ Thomas Cofield Feature Editor, SimHq.com www.simhq.com cofster1@simhq.com

05-04-10, 12:51 PM	#13
Méo Ace of the Deep Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Quebec City Posts: 1,153 Downloads: 258 Uploads: 0	Good post Tom ...(and good review too) I wish you would post more here.