Military and nautical enthusiasts beware – there’s a hell of a time sink headed your way.
My first reaction to Silent Hunter Online’s announcement was a mixed bag of interest and, to be entirely frank, doubt. A submarine simulator, built in Flash, marketed as a free to play browser title? It just didn’t have that initial spark of “This could be something really bloody cool” that Anno Online and Might and Magic Online did. Perhaps this is somewhat brutal, but from the start Silent Hunter was going to have to pull something extraordinary out of the depths to impress me.
Our first experience with the game, in which we were encouraged to dive headfirst into some combat, was thankfully prefaced by a lot of explanation, and this was where the main goals of Silent Hunter really began to sink in for me. This is a title, first and foremost, for enthusiasts. There’s a very specific and very large audience who will treat this game as their Call of Duty, or their Halo, or their FIFA, or World of Warcraft. That’s no exaggeration – there’s a huge amount of passion and authenticity present in its design paired with what’s shaping up to be some intense multiplayer and a thriving beta community. Enthusiasts and tacticians will love the relatively complex interface that gives you complete control over your sub’s weapons and capabilities, and the same depth of control transfers to stalking Allied waters sinking convoys and battleships.
The major issue, as with most games geared towards enthusiasts, is that it makes getting into the game as a regular gaming Joe with a passing interest in military technology and no experience with the genre a royal pain. The preview build we played had a tutorial of sorts built into the first few levels but without the benefit of the game’s development team standing over our shoulders and helping us take our first intrepid steps we would have been dead in the water. It went a little like this.
“Okay, so I get my submarine out of the bunker, and then what?”
“Now you just click on the mission you want to try and use the fast travel to get your sub there”
“Okay, should I try that one?”
“No, no, no, not that one, that one might be a little tricky for now. Try this one”
“Cool… now what?” (Staring at a seemingly unchanging interface blankly)
“Take control of your sub like this and you’ll be able to use your sonar to track down your target”
“Oh, cool. I think I’ve got it, thanks” (Developer walks away)
“…I have no idea what I’m doing” (A huge thank you to the patient project leader teaching me how to captain a U-boat)
Eventually the cleverly designed map and ship interface starts to click together and naturally you become more adept at reading the huge amount of information it offers. But at first, it is the very definition of being thrown in at the deep end. A more paced tutorial, perhaps even a smidge of hand-holding, would open this game up to so many people. “There you go kiddo, you just broadsided them with a torpedo! Two hundred souls burned to death and drowned at the same time. Have a biscuit”.
There’s a good variety of options to customise your submarine, and these will doubtlessly become more important as the game’s multiplayer features debut. Silent Hunter will allow gamers to form “wolf packs” to take on the missions and push back the Allies together. There was talk of employing strategies like a faster but scarcely armed sub to make a group of targets give chase, at which point some slower but punch-packing ships flank them and catch them as they turn about to fire at the faster sub. Techniques like this barely scratch the surface of Silent Hunter’s strategy focus, and the game is made to bring out that kind of brutal tactical genius in even the average player. Even I found myself, as a gamer with a passion for everything outside of realism itself, tensing as I loosed torpedos and watched them blip across the sonar, hoping that they’d at least clip the enemy sub and put me one step closer to sinking it.
Silent Hunter is a game you play holding your breath, anxious for the next conflict, for the next chance to employ the brilliant tactic you just devised. And when it all comes together you’ll find yourself exhaling a sigh you didn’t even know you were holding back – it’s borderline ridiculous how involving it can get.
It’s not for everyone, and it would need an almost patronising step-by-step tutorial in order to open up to that extent. But it is a fully featured Silent Hunter simulation game, designed with the enthusiast in mind with no exceptions, part of the true re-definition of what we all know and expect of free-to-play browser gaming. With a tense, satisfying and unique approach to multiplayer, this is going to be the biggest Silent Hunter title yet.
Watch the Video over on Ubisoft YT Channel http://www.youtube.com/user/ubisoft/videos?query=silent+hunter+online
