Silent Hunter III preview

Are you prepared to face the terror that awaits you, should you be hit by a depth charge?

The depth charge explodes directly above the submarine’s control tower. In mere seconds a modern war machine is turned into a tin can with human anchovies swimming in their own perspiration of fear. The submarine heels downward and sinks uncontrollably towards the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. The darkness swallows the panic, the screams and the prayers and leaves only a grave-like silence. Submarine warfare is a living hell and Silent Hunter III brings you closer to this experience than any other game has done before it.

Of 41,000 Germans stationed on German submarines 28,000 never returned from duty. That’s not the odds you’re looking for when you start your career as a submarine captain in Ubisoft’s Silent Hunter III. The game is developed by the Romanian department of Ubisoft and it seems like Silent Hunter III has what it takes to become a major hit.

Starve out Britain

You don't want to be near the these grenades when they explode...

Silent Hunter III takes place during the Battle of the Atlantic Ocean between the Germans and the Allies. This battle almost forced England to its knees, since Hitler and his admirals tried to starve them out by sinking as many trade ships as possible before they could reach the British harbours. You’ll find the four major German submarines in the game: II, VII, IX and XXI. The latter barely saw combat before the war was over, but it was far more advanced than any other submarine at its time and it served as inspiration to post-war nuclear submarines. If you choose to operate this one, you’ll get to try out the submarine’s sonar system.

As opposed to submarine game classics like Aces of the Deep, you don’t play a vast free campaign in Silent Hunter III, which is a deliberate choice the developers have made to make you experience the course of history and not alter it. Instead the game presents you with a non-linear campaign which branches as you play and varies in length according to how well you do. But what really sets Silent Hunter III apart from other submarine games is the fact that you control an entire crew.

Sir! Yes Sir! I mean; Jawohl!

Here you see The Bismarck after it has been sunk. Notice the debris at the surface and the play of sunlight on the hull.

If you’ve seen the mother of all submarine movies; Das Boot, you’ll know how important the crew of the submarine is. Not just for sinking enemy ships but certainly also to ensure that everybody gets home safe. In previous submarine games it always seems like you’re completely alone, which is just as realistic a depiction of the real world as Pac-Man. In Silent Hunter III you can walk around most of the submarine and meet your subordinates, like the engineer and the radio operator and if you order the cannon and the anti-aircraft gun to be manned you’ll see crew by them.

Interior and crew are modelled in 3D graphics that can be compared to Call of Duty. Officers and subordinates will be awarded with medals and promotions during the course of the campaign and they’ll also advance in skill as you go, but you also have to consider things such as fatigue and morale. It’s unknown whether your crew will grow long full beards as in Das Boot but it would be damn cool if they did.

Explosive graphics

It’s not until you witness the graphics outside the submarine that you realise how far submarine simulators have come graphically. That might also be the reason why the developers have chosen to include a free-moving camera that enables you to roam around freely, above as well as below water. The water itself is incredibly life-like with perfectly modelled waves and sunlight playing on the surface. Explosions are also impressive with full-fledged pyrotechnics and debris flying everywhere. A slick feature is the action camera that shows you important events in a small window such as the launching of torpedoes. It looks very nice and resembles the look of many submarine movies.

By the way I saved the best for last. If you look through the periscope while you pierce the surface, water will glide down the glass obscuring your view for a while. The waves are of course ever present so it can be hard to maintain good vision when keeping the periscope low to avoid detection by enemies.

Aim for the ammo depot

We're sailing towards the sunset. Hopefully Silent Hunter III will also soon be sailing towards our hard-drives.

The game has a very unforgiving damage simulation, allowing everything from small fires to a complete break right down the middle of a ship. I witnessed a battleship being sunk by two well-placed torpedoes in the ammo depot. Initially it sunk slowly but the process sped up as water filled the compartments of the ship – an element the game simulates very accurately. You can tell your gunners exactly what to aim for regardless of whether you use cannons or torpedoes, and everything can be destroyed. For example, you can use your cannons to set a ship’s cargo on fire which increases your chances of successfully sinking it. You can also control cannons and anti-aircraft guns yourself if you like. The only limitation is the omission of lifeboats, as Ubisoft didn’t want to bring themselves into an ethical dilemma if players started to shoot at survivors (which happened in the real-world conflict). The game also has some interesting multiplayer options that, among other things, include a co-op mode, enabling you to form a so-called wolf pack with your friends and attack an allied convoy.

Silent Hunter III has an advanced AI that doesn’t cheat. Bad weather conditions and visibility will affect its ability to find you and it also has to deal with limited ammo and so on. It all sums up to give the impression that this is the best submarine game to see the light of day in a long time. It wouldn’t surprise me if Ubisoft choose to use the Silent Hunter III engine to make a sequel or expansion pack chronicling the submarine war in the Pacific. There’s certainly potential for more than one game here.

Perhaps you remember Silent Hunter II with the very innovative multiplayer mode against Destroyer Command. It never achieved any success, but Ubisoft have yet to decide if they’ll try to repeat this highly unusual multiplayer idea. Silent Hunter III is due this November.


Source: Boomtown DK
English version by: Julian Henlov (Progrock)