Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2347 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: UBI Soft
• Released on: 2007-03-23
• Platform: Windows XP

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With flight sims and other more serious games becoming ever more marginalised on the PC, it’s both a surprise and relief to find that the Silent Hunter series is still afloat. It certainly deserves its continued success though with not only the most exacting simulation of a submarine ever but by association also one of the most unique strategy action games ever devised. This latest iteration finds you commanding an Amercian sub in the Pacific theatre of World War II. The previous game, set in the Atlantic theatre, was already highly acclaimed but this sequel will feature a new dynamic campaign system which not only includes more diverse mission but also generates them on the fly as other ships and subs around you fight their own battles.

Although the game simulates every element of submarine warfare from the era in exacting detail, you are able to adjust the complexity of the gameplay to exactly how you want it. If you want to plot torpedo angles and time charges yourself then you can, but equally you can just up periscopes and fire away at whatever you see. Crew management will also be simplified from the last game, so that everyone works much more independently, especially as they begin to gain experience and receive promotions. Also expanded is the multiplayer element which now allows you to team up to fight co-operative with friends online. You can also fight it out in teams, with one side playing the role of escort ships and the other the subs. As ever the graphics are looking fantastic – far better than you’d expect for such a complex simulation – and provide the icing on the cake for one of the last great high brow franchises on the PC.
HARRISON DENT

Manufacturer's Description:
Silent Hunter is back! Developed by Ubisoft’s studio in Romania, Silent Hunter 4: Wolves of the Pacific takes players to the depths of the Pacific Ocean as the skipper of an American submarine. Immersed in this intense environment with the help of amazing graphics and sound, players will engage in massive battles with enemy units, manage and evolve an entire submarine crew, and earn promotions and commendations to ensure victory in the Pacific.

Silent Hunter, the industry-leading naval warfare simulation franchise for over a decade, returns to its roots with next-generation graphical realism, immersive gameplay, innovative crew evolution and more action than ever before. Developed by the same Ubisoft team that delivered Silent Hunter 3, the "king of sub games", to worldwide critical acclaim, this installment offers the most memorable, accessible and empowering submarine simulation experience ever.

Features:
Hollywood Blockbuster experience: Lifelike graphics and spectacular audio/visual effects offer an incredibly immersive gaming experience. Witness the historical accuracy and the amazing attention to detail from the breathtaking Pacific settings to the more than 75 authentic-looking war machines such as the U.S. Gato sub, the Japanese Yamato flagship, and the Kawanishi aircraft.

Immersive single player gameplay: Diverse mission objectives and events on over 15 maps combined with unique rewards make each campaign a unique experience. Commandeer various U.S. submarines and progress your career as a naval officer via improved dynamic campaigns in Career Mode, or dive into ‘instant actions’ and single patrols for a quick fight.

Large Scale Naval Engagements: Epic naval engagements can be witnessed by players either firsthand or via radio messages and orders from high command.

Innovative crew evolution: Earn upgrades and experience to guide the evolution path of crewmembers, making your men the most effective naval force in the Pacific theatre.

Addictive Online New Adversarial Mode: Join forces with up to 8 friends via LAN or 4 via internet in either cooperative or adversarial gameplay modes. Scripted and generated mission types allow for epic online battles and unlimited replayability.

Easy to control: An upgraded and streamlined interface makes moving around the submarine and controlling it much easier than ever before.

Scalable learning experience: Selectable difficulty levels allow you to choose how challenging of a simulation to play.

Customer Reviews

This sim just got depth charged...
Damn Ubisoft to hell, once again they've shown their not so unique ability to rush a great dev team to release a product early. The result is a buggy, unplayable mess! Although I admit all games are released with maybe a few bugs that were missed in play testing, this is just a joke! Patched to version 1.1 you get some of the following bugs:
- "A" key for maintain depth causes an instant CTD (crash to desktop)
- Random crew deaths on bridge, don't know why it keeps happening.
- If you are killed at sea, your crew dies, but you are some how rescued and court marshaled.
- "Polygon of FPS death", weird polygon that spawns randomly causing your GPU to practically freeze up.
- AI, escort AI is severely lacking - I have been caught in situations which would have resulted in certain death in Silent Hunter III but I was able to sneak off in this game.
- Sound problems, don't know if its just my aging hardware but the sounds are very quiet, sometimes they repeat and just go weird.
- Too much traffic (not really a bug but its a big problem), there is no way that the IJN had this many ships during the war! I find about 10 convoys per patrol compared to maybe two maybe three max on SHIII.

The one good thing in this game is that the graphics are pretty spectacular, the waves and motion of the sea is so lifelike and the 3D wakes are great. Only problem is that as it stands there is no FSAA (full screen anti-aliasing) which means unless you have the post process filters on (which make everything horribly blurry) its a jaggy mess.

Overall if you want to get this game now, good luck to you I hope you can put up with the bugs, however I would recommend waiting a month or so until the next patch/es are released to fix some of the bugs. If you want to experiance what the SH series is capable of buy SHIII and download the Grey Wolves expansion from www.subsim.com it changes the game completely - its awesome!

Silent Hunter 4
Silent Hunter 4 is probably the most realistic sub sim availible. Not to mention one of the few. All possible implementable details are include in the game. Even traveling time. I.E. without using the time shift function, it can take 2 or 3 days to cross the Pacific. Tube loading times, crew fatigue, skill and rank. Fuel, betteries, oxygen, are all included to enhance the realisme of the game. With sections such as crew management, damadge control, navigation and detection systems, it truley is a game to be played by the Submarine enthusiaste. Manual firing of torpedoes and other armaments requires ALOT of skill and patience, and is definatly something to practice to enhance the realisme further. But in the beginning you can switch to Autocrew and slowly learn bit by bit.

Online multiplay....?? Had a look to see if anyone was online. No one!! Not somthing that is widley played online over the internet apparently. HOWEVER... i did enlist the help of a friend and setup a home network. Instantly the game was trasformed to a whole new level. Working as a team to take out the ships in the multiplayer scenarios was a blast. Dropping coutermeasures and decoys to draw them away from you team mate, or timeing that last torpedo to hit at exactly the same time as your allie. Definalty a team building exercice.

Overall.... Hours of fun if you got the patience to learn a little.

Sub now salvaged & running hot, straight & normal.
After almost a year since this sims release the game is now acheiving it's full potential thanks both to the persistence of the Ubisoft devteam in bug-stomping & the Subsim community in the development of many fantastic free mods widening & deepening an already fantastic simulation.

Recent improvments have shortened loading times and a new dynamic loading system has improved the speed of the game on less 'state of the art PCs'

The graphics in this sim are simply stunning as is the overall atmosphere.

For those who desire U-Boats rather than the US fleet boats included in the main game Ubisoft have recently released an add-on disc (available separately) with a "U-Boats in the Pacific" Campaign this also features strategic control over air reconnaisance & task forces.