Silent Hunter 4: Wolves of the Pacific

Silent Hunter 4: Wolves of the Pacific
Meeting dawn almost at the equator. Darkness of night gradually dissipated, inexorably stars go out, the horizon is painted in such warm tones that he wants to hug, and you receive the edge of the sun, still quite bright, it just got out of bed, but not yet fully awake. Tired of the darkness the sea plays with bright colors, like beads, and look at it can be infinite. The estimated time of interception is low chasa.Tri two and a half hours later, a few sailors from torpedoed an enemy transport on the boat leaving the sinking ship. Accompanied her gaze through binoculars - to the nearest coast twenty miles. Not the kids already will get their own.

Silent Hunter 4: Wolves of the PacificSilent Hunter 4: Wolves of the Pacific
On the map does not mark the color enemy ports, although in theory should be (in the SH3 this bug was not), so that, returning from a trip to their home base, there is a risk to discover that it is now settled the enemy. Surprise! At maximum capacity realism external cameras are turned off, so there is nothing that the captain of the submarine did not see. Especially for those who want then to admire the old exploits in the game finally came the replay. True, I still get it to work but could not.

Beauty is not saving the world

This is not a game, that's life. Projects of this magnitude come very rarely, and most of them enjoys well-deserved popular adoration, but the submarine simulators have long been one foot behind the face of the mainstream, so that the SH4 glory Oblivion does not shine.

This is a very emotional game, at first glance, all devoid of any emotion. The presence of a dissolution, and dimensional chronometer ticking sounds sometimes triumphantly, sometimes sympathetic, sometimes ironically.

But does it make sense to talk about it, if we are all one and the same world is perceived very differently? Here, no one dictates to you, what emotions should be currently experiencing. Ocean - is freedom. I'll be back, no matter what.

Silent Hunter 4: Wolves of the Pacific HEROES editorials
Already from the first hike, we return with the tonnage of ships wrecked, it is quite possible to become a hero of the headlines, and even run for president of the United States. Moreover, if we look at the box scores hikes in the first year of the Pacific conflict, we find there is a surprisingly modest figure. Why?

The fact that the tactics of most virtual submarine completely conform to the submarine fleet in the U.S. at that time. While military experts believe that for the submarine to be detected - automatically means be started at the bottom.What depth bomb may well destroy or severely damage the submarine, even landed in a good hundred yards from the hull. What periscope peeping out of the water gives the boat much stronger than it was in practice. Therefore the first year or two of war shtatovskih submarine acted with incredible care. It is quite common practice was to conduct an attack at all without the use of the periscope, only on the testimony of the hydrophone. And the reliability of torpedoes, we have already mentioned.

In this case, the merchant fleet of the enemy was often almost defenseless: the Japanese were slow with the introduction of the practice of protected convoys, and generally anti-forces were not the strongest part of the Imperial Navy. And if America's submariners at once acted with the same aggressiveness with which they will attack the enemy at war's end, or with the one that was adopted in the Kriegsmarine, the loss of the Japanese fleet would have been much higher.

Silent Hunter 4: Wolves of the PacificSilent Hunter 4: Wolves of the Pacific
Sometimes the destruction of the enemy's transport required fifty artillery volleys. And then the first round - and you're done. Flags are very convincing rinse in the wind and can not see them not at once.

Place in the Sun

The fourth part is created on the basis of previous, by and large it's the same SH3, only more beautiful, with an even grander scale, more interesting and a new entourage. In place of the harsh Atlantic and Nordic charisma German submarine officer came to the warm tropics of the Pacific, informally dressed American submariners (jeans and a shirt!). Other subs, the other side of the conflict, but the Earth at all is one.

Dynamic campaign is now considerably expanded. In addition to patrolling some of the square (which was the sole aim of military campaigns in the last series), now before us presents another problem. For example, intelligence, when our boat must sneak into the enemy harbor and take a picture standing in the raid ships. Or landing agents, supply the Allies with supplies, etc. And when we're a long time at sea, after performing one task before us may be put and the other, and we go to a new point without going into port.

Headquarters regularly provides us with data on the movement of convoys and individual ships of the enemy. Firstly, it is quite clearly gives an overall picture of the enemy fleet, so that, with the possibility of free hunting, we are able to independently determine the delicious pockets of the enemy. Secondly, properly drawn up a plan to intercept, we are often able to catch the goal originally was hundreds of miles from us. And if we had most of the time moving erratically over the waves, hoping that the case will send us more serious purpose, it is now almost our every move intelligently.

Silent Hunter 4: Wolves of the PacificSilent Hunter 4: Wolves of the Pacific
At the beginning of the war submarines were covered with black camouflage. Looks very impressive, but the boat unmasks: located at periscope depth the boat was visible from the air like a black shadow under the water. Tropical nights are really black. Periscope in such circumstances is absolutely useless to attack should be of above-water position.The first time the darkness suddenly cuts including searchlights enemy ship, the commander of the boat is hospitalized with a heart attack.

The benefits of education

The previous part was pretty easy to learn. The interface has been completely transparent: to navigate through the submarine could be using the mouse, both locations of the quest (by clicking on a hatch, we moved to the nearby bay), but if click on an officer of the commands, there is a small menu - what can he do for us and our common goal. We could take the place of any member of the crew and the mouse is governed by existing instruments. A fourth part of most of these opportunities disappear. Our sailors are no longer paying any attention to us, but sometimes we just need to talk to them.

Did not have to be an expert on military history to guess that the German submarine Type VII modern and better type II, let alone the type XXI - and does a diver's dream. U.S. title series subs are not so transparent, and those who are not aware of the historical realities, the game does not make steps forward. Meanwhile, a very narrow circle of those who know what boat Sargo class differs from the class of Salmon, and those who will doubt the choice between the class S-42 and Balao.

Available in the game mode "museum" of information will not help: they can see only the appearance of the boat, and any additional information or to TTX was not there. "I do not pay for these torpedoes, I use them!" In SH3 torpedo computer was quite possible to learn intuitively, without looking at the manual. Now we learn the manual determination of the parameters of the torpedoes is almost impossible. Moreover, even having carefully studied the relevant sections of the leadership game and mastered, we believe that all necessary procedures, we still can not always hit the target. At the first attempt of attack appears that described in the manual method of determining the speed of a target simply does not work: the use of the chronometer is no data in the computer are not transferred as they may click.

Does not work, and right - the remaining data is sufficient to manually draw a map rate target movement and by simple mental calculations to determine its speed. However, even with the manual introduction of the necessary data situation is not improving. Spend the entire ammunition without a single hit - what happens? Indeed, in most of the last series of starts was fruitful! With these thoughts, we pause the game and start testing disabled in settings realistic simulation of failures of torpedoes and including the display on the map all game objects. When conducting tests, it appears that our torpedoes all the time go far beyond the stern purpose behind the housing and beyond. When checking put into the computer data is that we do everything correctly, the distance to the target corresponds to about the real, her speed too. Does the calculator itself is defective?

Just a couple of days ago, the situation has officially explained the developers: the fact that some of our torpedoes are much slower than the design speed (about 36 instead of 46), but the computer as we are not aware of this fault, and therefore uses data from the TTC. In this case, the bug appears only when a high speed, if the use of 30 small sites, the computer with the problem excels at, and torpedoes finally begin to come to the right place, we will send them ... as a rule. Of course, nothing prevents enable cheat avtopritselivanie and is guaranteed to hit every volley. But we're not that why you came here, right?

Silent Hunter 4: Wolves of the PacificSilent Hunter 4: Wolves of the Pacific
A lot of depth - the world of vague shadows.Here, almost nothing is visible, and therefore protruding from the nothingness boat looks remarkably grim. One Western reviewer likened the graphics in the game with marine painters paintings oil on canvas. Or rather not say.

Blindness and deafness

Hydrophone at periscope depth can not hear anything, but when you consider that we can not grab the mouse knob direction plays, it seems that the system is simply unusable. However, with the keyboard it still can run, but around the suspicious silence reigns. It is worth a boat down a few feet below, as the world comes to life, the sea begins to sound, and if nearby there is someone, we finally hear the sound of propellers. Next the fun part: if at this moment we will give an indication to that particular contact, the acoustician will tell us about his actions and movements, even after we get back to periscope depth and the hydrophone again endeared inappropriate silence. Since the unit did a little work? And yet many mysteries fraught with the world.

For example, radar. For us, this thing is useless at all: either by using the mouse or keyboard commands, we not only can not configure anything, but even unable to turn it on or off. Generally, nevyklyuchaemy radar on a submarine - that even an incident. Something like dragging a parachute behind a scout. Green flickering screen does not display anything at all, while our subordinate quite successfully managed with this thing, and even occasionally tell us about the next contact. Themselves, then use this miracle of technology can, but the commander did not want to show.

Silent Hunter 4: Wolves of the PacificSilent Hunter 4: Wolves of the Pacific
Judging from the SH3, the game will not leave without support. The first patch was released almost immediately after release, and the existing bugs, the developers promise not to ignore. And the rest will manage enthusiastic modders. If at a set depth of light in the cockpit to flicker, then burn bright-bright, turn off at all, it means that things are bad.

Is it worth it to wake the captain?

Since we can not keep up with everything at once (especially when time is accelerated a thousand times), then have to rely on the reports of our team. Most often they can expect, but sometimes wards chudyat. For example, for each ascent, when we recruit the air and carbon dioxide indicator slides down to zero, we report that the boat ran out of oxygen and should be immediately emerge.

Worse when the team decides not to inform us, for example, about the detected target. From some of the surprises you can turn gray: come out to the bridge for some fresh air and discover the face of an enemy ship.

Silent Hunter 4: Wolves of the PacificSilent Hunter 4: Wolves of the Pacific
The weakest link in the timetable - is exaggerated pyrotechnics. Although such spirit of the times. Management team has improved considerably since the last part.

Happiness is inside us

The series follows the general evolutionary path of the genre. The simulated systems are becoming more complex, it becomes increasingly difficult to master the game. Decorative features are giving way to harsh historical realism.A large ship - great diving, and replaced graphical problems last part come errors in modeling of complicated systems. Where will this path, we know perfectly well: to date hardcore simulators like jet planes and submarines virtually extinct because of chronic financial failure. It is possible that the same fate befall SH, but today he is in the prime of life. Today it is almost perfect simulation, the golden mean, with a charming appearance and rich inner world, which so far can be mastered in a couple of days (for comparison: the development of LockOn from scratch would take the very best month).

Of course, the bugs do not have anything good. But on the one hand, simulations without major bugs are no longer happens in general, is that over time, game mechanics are so complicated that fewer and fewer players are able to detect them. On the other, the game specifically meticulously modeled many of the shortcomings of equipment and weapons, and it is an indisputable advantage of it: after all, in contrast to the captains of World War II, we know beforehand that worked correctly, and expect to see these problems.

And oddly enough, software bugs can not work against the game atmosphere, and at her: after all, most of them, too, can be avoided if you know what the problem lies. The situation is similar to the historical: after returning from trips captains now on the forums to share their problems, discuss equipment failures, carry out numerous checks, looking for solutions. World is constructed, and he lives. How can you not love him?

Silent Hunter 4: Wolves of the Pacific On parole
The game closely modeled all possible failures of torpedoes, not only will fail to fuse. Particularly fond of playing up the magnetic fuse: the torpedo can not only detonate at the right time, but, conversely, to explode prematurely. The latter, as you might guess, is particularly strong reaction from our storony.Plyus to simulate and problems with depth course, when the torpedo is significantly below the specified depth, clean lishayas the slightest chance of somewhere to go. And even after the faulty torpedo volleys can go around, and this is the most dangerous problem, because a failed set of circumstances we can become a victim of its own attacks. Of course, all these failures completely match the reality.

Silent Hunter 4: Wolves of the PacificSilent Hunter 4: Wolves of the Pacific