Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5528 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: UBI Soft
• Released on: 2005-03-18
• Platforms: Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows XP

Manufacturer's Description
Command the cunning and deadly U-boats of the North Atlantic and experience the tension-filled atmosphere of a WWII submarine movie. The king of submarine simulations returns with an all-new 3D game engine, new crew-command features, and more realistic action than ever before. The game includes a career campaign, patrols that have both single and historical missions, a mission editor, and multiplayer feature. Whether it's stalking destroyers or hiding from depth charges, players will experience their own personal war story. The spectacular graphics, multiplayer options, and suspenseful gameplay combine to create the most impressive submarine simulation ever.

Features:

• Command your crew: The crew will take orders and evolve based on the results of each patrol. Commanders must consider morale and fatigue in decision making. A reward system will advance rank, elevate skills, and bestow medals for achievement.
• Realistic and immersive environment: Spectacular 3D water modeling, day/night cycles, realistic weather, historically accurate subs, ships, and aircraft, detailed U-boat interiors, and engaging audio represent the ultimate in WWII submarine warfare.
• Accessible to players of all skill levels: Includes a 3D interface - what you see is what you use. Players will experience a simplified learning curve that will be easier to handle than standard simulations. Use the naval academy tutorial to learn the basics. Customize the realism settings for play that appeals to a variety of WWII combat fans.
• A deadly array of U-boats and weapons: Playable U-boats include type II, VII, IX, and XXI type submarines. Take aim against Allied convoys and battleships. In recreating the great submarine battles of WWII, players will hide in silence just below powerful ships, fire deadly torpedoes, or surface and pound enemy aircraft with the deck gun.
• Multiplayer with both cooperative and competitive modes: Join a wolfpack with other live players and take aim against intelligent AI-controlled opponents. Test your skills against other players to determine the ace commander.

Customer Reviews

Superb new edition in the series
Following in the tradition of its predecessors Silent Hunter II provides a realistic (to the best of knowledge) submarine simulator played from a German (no other navy is availible) perspective during the Battle for the Atlantic and its prologue.

This game focusses upon the career mode (although one off missions exist and their is a well concealed custom mission editor tool). You choose the start year and flottila (this determines your base of operations and boats availible). From here through completing missions set by U-boat command you accrue renown (used to purchase new crew members, and upgrades of or to your boat) and promotions, medals and qualifications to distribute amongst your crew. If you are successful you are awarded with medals and very occassionally promotion (so far once promoted over 21 successful patrols).

The gameplay is engrossing with visble crew members interacting with a beautifully rendered U-boat interior and exterior. The missions require navigation, stealth, cunning and if you opt for manual torpedo settings: mathematical aptitude (although this can be avoided through use of the automatic solutions option). The realism of patrols is self-determined as you select from a variety of options to determine effective difficulty.

There are a few problems with the game which I feel should be made clear however. You will need a lot of RAM to play this (512mb min req) which can prove frustrating, and it takes an age to load up both the main menu from startup and individual missions, although overall it operates fine on my min spec computer. There is a facility to accelerate time for those long treks in and out of operational zone however at times this is frustratingly slow as you wallow along on 1/3 speed over the Herculian Brest to Azores trip (roughly 5 minutes at 1024x speed). The time acceleration is also limited when nearby enemy shipping, which is irritating if you merely intend to slink past. My machine crashes the game every so often and requires me to save every so often or risk losing litterally hours of work (although this may not be a general problem). This brings me onto my final point: each patrol is designed to make you feel like it is long and thus patrols can take upwards of three hours. The shortest I have ever been on was about an hour. This is not a pick up, play and drop game, it requires time if you want to play on a patrol-at-a-time basis.

To conclude in the traditional fashion: this is a great game. It is not a blasting blitz of gunfire and explosions but a fear inspiring, nerve wracking game of tension, hope and occassional blind panic (argh, there's a destroyer 100m off the port bow emerging from the fog! CRASH DIVE!). If I had my money back again I would still definitely buy it.

Best WWII sub sim to date
This is by far the best WWII sub simulator on the market to date. (Sure SH 4 will tak eits crown)The game is quite old now but still requires a half decent graphics card to run it. as to previous posters you need to meet the minimum specs of the game to run it correctly, there have been a few bugs but these were quickly resolved by patch's for the developer so any crashing must be trouble with your systems as i have run SH3 on 4 diffrent computers without trouble.

The game is ultra realistic requiring you to commision officers and seaman to help run your uboat as well as apoint them on duty stations when on a patrol which they will eventually require replacing form you other members of your crew as they get tired.

You can change relism to suit yourself. So if you want to go throught the whole process of positioning your boat into an optimal firing angle and manually do the Torpedo impact calculations you can. or you could get the handy weapons officer to do it for you.

SH3 is also almost historically acurate as the war progresses you will be hounded by ever increasing allied anti submarine defenses form long range bombers who harass you at evey oppertunity when on the surface. To the deadly ASW destroyers who will start using advanced weapons and detection systems to try locate and destroy your sub.

If your want the best WWII uboat game on the current market then you need to buy this game.

Silent, or not so Silent?!?
A great game. Anyone who as ever hungered after an updated version of the games they used to play decades ago will not be disappointed.

The same tension is there, although with the best graphics you can imagine. Fighting at night is very realistic, you can even use star-bursts and just your deck gun, if you're feeling brave!

The AI from the destroyer escorts is scary and will make you wince if you're not quick - infact when you dive and turn as quickly as you can you actually experience fear as you see the depth-charges drop around you!!

You also gain a sense of attachment to the men under your command and you'll want to see them progress and gain awards/experience, as you will also want to take them with you to bigger and better subs as the game progresses.

Don't ask me why, (call me sick!) but there's something quite satisfying about sinking significant tonnage after a hard-fought campaign. The options to add equipment to your sub to increase it's effetiveness is also new, based on your renown that you earn for sinking enemy shipping.

You can also alter the realism settings to allow the computer to assist you in targeting your next victim, or do it the old fashioned way, right up to identifying the target and altering the torpedo settings.

In a word, if you're a fan of sub games, or enjoyed Das Boot or anything like it, this game is SUPERB!