Silent Hunter 3

One of my favorite surprises at the show was Silent Hunter 3. Not only does it look fantastic (check out the screenshots), but the developers have put in a ton of detail and realism options in the simulation. For example, the bridge of each sub is done in 3D and painstakingly recreated from available source materials.

The realism options are extensive and reach into territory rarely covered by other sub sims, like having torpedo reload times follow accurate historical precedents - which is dramatically longer than that which sub sims tend to set as default. Crew members are also simulated - they gain experience, can be injured or tire out, they're qualified for certain tasks and can also be rewarded for heroic performance. As crew quality improves, so does the u-boat's performance.

The game will offer a semi-dynamic campaign, consisting of a series of branching missions (the longest possible chain being 24), that have some limited freedom in them. Despite expressing our concern over the appeal of this setup, the producer insisted their design had significant advantages, such as more diverse and complicated mission designs. While this may be true, a dynamic campaign has been a fixture of submarine sims as far back as silent service - failure to deliver one is not likely to go over well.


In fact, just by browsing UbiSoft's message boards, we see our sentiment echoed in many posts. Why the company would choose to continue to develop what its audience seems to have rejected is confusing at best, but we wish them the best of luck. Unfortunately, it seems as though these same forums have been invaded by the kind of realism obsessed fans that drove the flight sim market into the ground. It's our sincerest hope that UbiSoft balances out realism and gameplay, giving the nod towards gameplay if tough choices have to be made. The average gamer doesn't care about the exact quality and capabilities of U-Boat targeting optics in early 1943 compared to 1941, any more than they care exactly how the gauges were arranged in a late model Bf-109G.