Silent Hunter 3 (DVD) Description:

Silent Hunter 3 (DVD) review:
1 stars (Maybe it's a good game - if you can get it to run.....) - I have not even been able to install the game due to the use of Starforce copy protection software contained on the DVD. My drive see's only empty folders. [...] Bottom line - do not waste your money on this game - if you open it and it does not work, you cannot return it...Ubisoft does not care, they will not help, they just want your money. Do not buy ANY Ubisoft products - if you do not want to get ripped off.
5 stars (Silent Hunter 3) - Silent Hunter 3 arrived about a week ago and I am totally hooked! This has got to be the most engaging simulation I've played. Though it lacks the high action of combat flight, I cannot overstate the joy one feels at stalking, lining up and sinking allied ships. Yesterday on the way to patrol. off the coast of Ireland, we spotted a British destroyer, approached it at periscope depth with electric engines running at slow speed, got within a 800 meters at 90 degrees (torpedoes were unreliable and less likely to detonate if hitting the hull from an oblique angle), and sank it with a perfect firing solution. I can't communicate how giddy that makes you feel. Continuing the patrol I sent five merchants to the bottom.







The level of simulation is scalable, and I'm only playing at around 50%. If you want to go all the way, you have to manually identify ships, calculate distance, course and speed, then do the trigonometry for the firing solution. Presently, I leave all that to the weapons officer and focus on approaching the target undetected. At full realism, you don't get to use the external cameras, and can only experience the action from within the boat itself. Not quite ready for that myself.







If you fail to sink warships, they start to hunt you persistently and methodically, which can get very tense indeed. I've done ten patrols and it's still May 1940. The allies will get their act together as the war progresses and survival will become increasingly difficult.







The sea, weather and ships are beautifully rendered, and the realistic looking damage from torpedo impacts is immensely satisfying. It is fairly time consuming to learn, and I spent probably about 8 hours in the games `naval academy'. When on patrol you also have to manage crew rotations, and there are numerous ramifications regarding the effective manning of the ships stations. If you are successful, you can recruit skilled sailors, and as technology improves, upgrade the U-boat types and armaments. I think I'll be at this game for months, if not years.


2 stars (Good Idea, pitiful execution...) - Beware of the copy protection software. You need a gig or more to run this game. On a W2K platform @ 2 GHz with 2 GB of RAM and a 256 MB video card; it crashes constantly. Beware clicking on the "submerged cruise" button, as that will freeze and exit the game. Un-saved...





Save your games regularly. Career mode is boring... Patrol after patrol after patrol... Single mission is more eventful, but it's a shame that they couldn't have put some decent scenarios into the career mode. I had high hopes, didn't happen.



I give it a 2 for good graphics, good idea, pitiful execution and instability. I've never wrecked on Doom III, and find it completely unacceptable to wreck on primitive graphics such as these.