Hello everyone!
Wow, how fast the time passes by... already another two month have gone by and bluethief started the next time travel into the year 2002!
Well, let me tell you something about my experience with both submarine simulations of yore, starting with
- "Silent Hunter II", and continuing with
- "Sub Command"
So, in principle both are treating the same subject matter, but their strength and weakness and hence their gameplay are entirely different!
"Silent Hunter II" lets the player taking the helm of a German diesel-electric U-Boat in the battle for the Atlantic in WWII. Their maneuverability and speed is significantly higher at the surface than underneath the sea! On top of that, the time which an U-Boat (German for "Untersee Boot" = literally translated 'undersea boat') can remain diving at the bottom of the sea is severely limited by oxygen (actually CO2 accumulation) and available battery power for the electric engines. (For this reason some do not even deem them to be called actual 'submarines' but 'diving boats' = "Tauchboote" in German.)
The game at its release was heavily critizised for not having a dynamic campaign, but rather an asortion of individual special missions--a collection of various historic missions and U-Boat activities by many different U-Boats, different crews and captains.
For me, this mission structure is actually an advantage over the more dominant dynamic campaigns in the sequels (especially, "Silent Hunter III" and "Silent Hunter IV"), because it guarantees the player to see some real action in every departure from port!
The so-called 'dynamic campaign' with ramdomized patrol routes or zones in the sequels often causes huge stretches of game time without any significant contacts or without convoys within reach of your U-Boat.
Then, what else makes this older iteration still interesting for me or newcomers?
For one, it was the first old school submarine game to integrate a functional, directional hydrophone accompanied by a superb sound scape, also when diving and in particular when going deep down! You can not only determine the rough direction from where another ships engine/propeller sound comes from, but further more are able to distinguish between slow 'chucking' merchant ships and fast 'running' warships and even get an idea of their respective speeds!
Secondly, it is all about aproaching your detected target and determining a proper target solution and putting it into the TDC (Torpedo Data Computer = "Torpedovorhalterechner) which enables to shoot the torpedo in such a way, that it takes the target's current distance, course and speed into consideration to achieve a hit.
Unfortunately, the game does not allow for an entirely manually detection and solution finding for targets without a little bit of self restrain on map use or some modding. A valid solution on enemy position and course will always be depicted by the real psoition and orientation of a ships keel symbol on the ingame map.
[picture 01]
Only when your crew has some uncertainty, e.g. on greater distances or while you are diving, the game stops updating the known absolute positions and replaces them with relative position/direction cones (which I think is neat and more welcome than the too precise bearing lines in the sequels).
Although, quite basic the game provides sufficient map tools and other measurement instruments to determine or calculate individually the relative bearing (direction to target), its heading (target's course), its speed and its current distance in one or the other manual way. (Some math, especially trigonometry required!)
For instance, you could turn of the auto-display of target data on the map and instead use your map tools to measure or geometrically construct a solution for your distance, you could adopt course and speed of your target to approximate it, or calculate it by how far it travels in the span of 3 minutes and 15 seconds (speed in knots = distance in meters travelled in 3:15 min. divided by 100) (I prefer scaling it down to 1 minute and 5 seconds loosing some accuracy) or identifying your target vessel in the recognition manual (database) and using total ship length and maximum mast height for different calculations estimating current speed and distance.
Despite being a little crude on the outlook and lacking the automatic transfer of the estimated values into the TDC (which the sequels do have by the click of a button) you can still perform manual target analysis in "Silent Hunter II", or let the computer determine a solution for you whose accuracy increases with the amount of time you let it before setting off your torpedo.
[picture 02]
Another great feature that was removed in stock "Silent Hunter III" and "Silent Hunter IV" and only brought back by modding is the always available side panel from "Silent Hunter II" which has individual tabs for the helms controls, the TDC (& weapon firing system), the crew commands, and for the recognition database.
By the way, the prerendered fixed station screens are much faster to navigate than the 3D interiors and convoluted interface menus of the sequels. (An additional plus in my point of view!)
[pictures 03 & 04]
After you sent your 'fish(es)' (torpedo(s)) it is time to dive, usually deep, and to change course in order to avoid counter attacks by destroyers throwing lots of depth charges at you!
And here again 'shines' "Silent hunter II" among the contemporaries, with an optional external 3D camera while diving, fixed to your boat but freely rotateable! (The fixed part only modded-in in its sequels.) And an emphasize on atmosphere with every underwater creaking sound of your boat, explosions, flooding, etc.
Too bad, if the seabed does not allow for hiding in the depth--deadly!
[picture 05]
You are able to save freely out at sea, but have to finish every mission by returning safely back to port. Keep paying attention to fuel consumption, because midsea refuling was not fully implemented in "Silent Hunter II".
Overall the graphics are serving their purpose, ship models are relatively detailed, waves are modelled (but not astonishingly as in the sequels), GOG's version already allows for surface reflections, changing day-night-time cycles, and various weather conditions. A minor thing, the land masses are vector-based and not composed of large squares as in both sequels!
I had a lot of fun playing it again and even continued returning to its mission-based campaign after having started "Silent Hunter III Gold", as well, for I prefer the ease of use and quick responsiveness in both the user interface and the mission's design. The sequels improved a lot about the actual sailing on the ocean, but also introduced maintenance-heavy crew-fatigue management and more cumbersome interfaces!
Something I am still going to re-attempt, is to save the Bismarck from its historically correct demise!
Kind regards,
foxgog
