Silent Hunter III Review

[-tronski-]

Originally posted by Gixer
Excellent,

I just died im my first campaign, on my 8th Patrol, destroyer came out of the rain squall and rammed me whle I was trying to close in on a convoy in the channel.

Campaign is excellent by far best I've seen in a sub sim other then wolfpacks don't exist but apparently this has been hinted on for a addon.

Even without it the campaigns are as they should be depending on the year and seem very realistic with volumes of traffic,convoys etc. Forget about racking up 150,000 plus tons in your first year.

This makes every other sub sim/sim look and play crap in comparisson imho. Just wait until you come across the searchlights and starshells.

There's just too much to talk about and too little time right now.  


...-Gixer

Is it dynamic????

 Tronsky

[Sandman]

Originally posted by -tronski-
Is it dynamic????

 Tronsky

According to the reviews, it is.

[Nefarious]

I finally settled into the Campaign, and am half way through the first mission. Gotta a little Type II with the first Flotilla out of Wilhelmshaven.

Instead of sailing directly for my objective (Patrol near Scapa Flow), I sailed over to England and am slowly working my way up the coast.

Gotta keep most of time above the water at ahead 1/3 or i'll run out of fuel, Ive been at sea for six days.

Seen plenty of armed Trawlers, Destroyers, Tugboats, and a few Neutral Merchants And plenty of Hurricanes trying to strafe me and drop a few bombs. But no Enemy Merchants or Capital Ships and with the light load of torps with the Type II, Im keeping them until I see something more tasty. Besides I still got a fairly long way till AN16.

My Crew is tired but i try to keep people on 8 hour shifts, But its hard to manage the Key posistions, with such a small crew.

I want to keep playing but I got to go to bed

[Kirin]

Wow - SHIII is my first sub-sim after "Silent Service" and I just love it.

Doing the campaign on full real (100% realism, e.g. manual torpedo computing, no outside view, duds and everything) right now. Into my 4th mission. Sunk a couple of small freighters and shot some planes. Had a big fat C3 cargo ship in my sights but missed 2 torpedos and the one that hit wasn't enough. Finally have enough reputation to go VII B now! Hello deck gun!

The detail and immersion is incredible. Just too bad they didn't ship the recognition manual with all copies.  

Damn, now I have to split my time between SH3, Brothers in Arms, AH2 - not to mention family and job!!!

[Replicant]

Originally posted by Saintaw
Still no shipping info from amazon, I'm going to start crying and stomping my feet... I hope it'll help

Sub sunk shipping!

[Gixer]

Originally posted by -tronski-
Is it dynamic????

 Tronsky

Yes it's 100% Dynamic. BDU give you a patrol area for the mission and if you reach it and sink a ship great, if you head off somewhere else and sink 5 ships even better. You can even go exploring enemy harbours.

Every encounter is random, so far I've come across everything from fishing boats and tugs to a large 10+ ship convoy and of course many destroyers etc. Oh not to mention the aircraft.  

The convoys and routes are accurate,some areas (e.g west coast of Ireland) are heavier in shipping then others. There's also neutrals to worry about. Though I sunk a French Merchant when I saw since it  was close enough to 1940

It reminds me alot of AOTD, the campaign that is. Except in this the DD dosn't kill you in one pass, well in 1940 it dosn't. Which is great as you can acutually try and evade them, that was one of the bummers about SH2 and PA the DD's were far too deadly.

Only two gripes I have so far are no Wolfpacks and no Milkcows, though the  Milkcows would be a easy mod if they don't patch it before then. Wolfpacks might take some time.

But even without that, it's worth the price of admission just for the crew management, alot like B17 but heaps better and more advanced, you get qite attached to your guys.

Oh and the Renown system is great, works very well. More missions and mor success gains you more renown allowing you to get the later subs,equipment and crew. Very cool. All this and after 2 solid days I've yet to have a single CTD.




...-Gixer

[Nefarious]

Gixer Ive got the Tipperary Sound Pack for the Gramaphone.

Now that I think about it, would be interested to see if Files from SHII's Projekt Swordfish could work in SHIII.

I always did like the Crash Dive Noise from Das Boot in Swordfish.

[Sixpence]

Not bad, found it at eb today

[Russian]

Just past final exam (everything sunk). Time for a real deal.

[beet1e]

I eagerly await my own copy, which I ordered off the SH3 website. Hope it comes soon. It's going to be nice to play a WW2 wargame again.

Any of you guys know anything about the multiplayer option, how it works?

Das Boot - I never tire of that film. The first 20 minutes reminds me of one of the Eurocons some time ago. Well, we weren't quite that bad, but you get my drift. And we didn't have a blonde tart in a red dress either. (had to go out for that!)

[Darkish]

Man!  Got it Friday morning and gave it some serious time over the weekend.  After the hype, hope and anticipation I was really quite unsure how it would grab me. Well, it appears to be one of those rare creations, a jewel of a sim that rewards you more the deeper you get into it.  

It may well just be due to this just be my first sub sim but I'm absolutely hooked; and to paraphrase Bart, "Finally, a use for trigonometry!"

With the ability to control the sub with my own voice!!! (how sweet is that) the immersion level jumps up a couple of factors. Link for voice recognition stuff --- and if you want my SH3 profile I'd be happy to mail it to you.

I'm looking forward to see what the modders will come up with and have been playing with some of the .cfg's to fine tune it to my liking - no orange marker for submerged sub, slightly higher tolerance for going onto the bridge (decks awash).

I reckon if you think you might like this title you'll actually bloody love it!

[ygsmilo]

Picked it up over the weekend,  very cool game.

Any advice for crew management,  seems like my crew gets exhausted very easy.

Nothing like panning the periscope around just in time to see a DD bearing down on you and you think ah, I will nail him with a down the throat shot, whoops,   guess that only works in the movies!!!

[moose]

oh ive gotten the 0 bearing shots to work every once in a while and its an instant kill since it usually blows up right underneath his keel

if you run at more then 32x time compression there is no crew fatigue or rest states, under 32 and they get tired and rest normally

[Fishu]

Darkish,

I just wish the map tools would have included a tool to help with the bearings.
I'm just guessing the degrees and drawing lines "about to that direction".



Ygsmilo,

It gets easier when you pick up level & medals for the crews.
I was mostly annoyed with the officers getting exhausted, because there is only two bunks for them and it takes several times more for them to recoup than for rest of the crew.

However now I do have officers who doesn't get exhausted at all!
They haven't got exhausted since I awarded the knights cross to them.

Also rest of the crew can hang on longer with the higher rank.

[Nefarious]

November 1939-

Getting ready for my 4th Patrol.

Using the Type IID Boat, Ive got my 1st Flotilla Emblem. A nice 20mm Flak for tommie too.

I was awarded Iron Cross 2nd Class last patrol. All of my officers have some sort of War Badge or U Boat Clasp. I also have a full crew which makes managing the crew a hair easier. But like mentioned above use 32x Speed to heal them fast.

I really like the IID, gets me farther than the IIA for sure. Guess I'll buy the VII next patrol.

When does it get impossible for Surface Attacks? 1940's?, I have yet to fire a torp submerged. I noticed the merchants wildy try to avoid you after being spotted, but its nothing to hard to catch.

Game is simply amazing.