Finally, as the interior bulkheads were failing and I was flooding fast, I blew ballast to surface the boat. I submerged and went along in Silent Running mode for a bit, but along came a big English cruiser, which nastily started Depth Charging me. When I was nearby to Dover, a little torpedo boat spotted me. For example, I was once just cruising along towards a grid of water out past Ireland in 1942, and I thought stupidly that I could sneak through the English Channel, and shave loads of time off the journey. Whilst Silent Hunter III is great when the excitement occurs, you do need quite a bit of patience with it. Everything has an appropriate keyboard shortcut as well, so that you can act quickly and effectively during an attack. The Chief Engineer runs the engines, the Navigator can help you plot courses, and the Watch Officer will allow you to move crewmen on deck if an attack is in progress. Navigating and general management of your boat is relatively easy thanks to the assistance you receive from your officers. Either way, the sense of victory you get from seeing a successful torpedoing is truly fantastic. You can either do this all the easy way, by getting the Weapons Officer to do it for you, or take on the complexity of the Torpedo Data Computer. Then you have the enviable task of calculating the torpedo solution, so that you may fire and have the torpedo explode at the right time. You must quickly determine what the vessel actually is it's course, speed and likelihood of being able to take it down. Depending on whether you are surfaced or submerged, you will receive a message informing you that a vessel has been detected or sighted. Luckily, the excitement always happens when you encounter another vessel. You can also try your hand at completing one of the interesting historical missions. I must admit, I would have preferred it to go slightly higher, as even at that speed, you still might need a book handy sometimes. Thankfully, there is a handy time compression device, which can be used to ramp up time as high as 1024 times normal.
It is important to realise from the outset that there will be quite a bit of time spent doing nothing more than twiddling your thumbs if you play this game at real speed all the way, as it can take some inordinate 'realistic' time to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Along the way, you can and should attempt to sink as many enemy vessels as you can. You are allocated a square grid of water to which you must sail, and then patrol that grid for 24 hours before returning to base. Each mission is of a relatively similar basic setup. This boat can be continually updated and advanced as the war progresses, and you can also make adjustments to the naval staff that operates the vessel. You can then select which Flotilla to join, and will be allocated a home port and U-boat. However, your crucial part in the war can be played out to the best of your ability, and will have repercussions to your influence and importance within the Kriegsmarine (Germany Navy). The war follows real historical events, and so naturally leads to the inevitable outcome of Axis defeat. On top of this, there are also a number of real life historical missions to play through. There is no preset 'story' to Silent Hunter, but instead the main 'Career' mode leads you through the course of the Second World War, from the days of relatively easy pickings in 1939, to running for your life in the highly dangerous waters of 1945. Although it is not without some minor problems, Silent Hunter is an effective and interesting tactical submariner game. Sounds quite interesting from first principles, doesn't it? It's not often in a computer game that you get to play on the side of what are typically classed as 'the enemy', but Silent Hunter III places you in exactly such a role, and couples in a highly realistic submarine simulation. My goal: to sink as many enemy ships as possible, without loosing my own boat. It just so happens to be 1941, and I am a fearless and intrepid Nazi U-boat captain, prepared to strike hard at the Allies. So, I'm sailing through the North Atlantic on a cold, clear evening.
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