Sub Command for Windows

Up scope!
The last thing I expected to do after leaving the Navy and spending over 10 years in the Submarine community would be play a submarine simulator. However I found this little gem (tucked away in the clearance bin) to be versatile enough to be entertaining or realistic enough to make me get a clipboard out and start taking readings on household appliances and sleep underneath my bed. When run with proper patches, the game offers an interesting and challenging game to a wide array of simulation fans.

Damn the torpedoes
I have been looking for good underwater warfare simulator since the old 80?s Microprose ?Red Storm Rising?. Since there have been some attempts but nothing as interesting?until now. One can chose to play from three different classes of submarines. The first is the aging American 688I Los Angeles Class, next is the newest SSN-21 Seawolf class and lastly the Russian Akula Class. Each have a different look both on the interior and exterior as well as having different simulated operating characteristics. The tutorial is paltry three missions, so the learning curve may be a bit steep for those who are not hardcore sub simulators or navy vets wearing ?fish?. There are also a number of ?jump right? in to a buffet of instant challenges where the player can chose mission objectives, opponents and locations. During the campaign missions there are some slight differences between the US and Russian subs however the general mission is the same (just the names and places have been changes to protect the innocent). Game play is fairly straightforward. The player starts with a standard mission briefing, which is simultaneously read by a dry voice actor (or probably an actual officer!) You then select your weapon load-out as appropriate for the required mission and the action starts. Typically its pretty quiet at first, it takes a little time for your crew to figure out who is who and where they are going. The player can access exterior camera views and change the angles for the various contacts. What is interesting about the exterior views is that it does not give anything away. Unclassified contacts remain a wire-frame ball or cube until they are further classified by you or your AI team. Once classified you can view the action in up to full 1600x1200 glory! There is your torpedo tracking and slamming home to its intended target (much like a Hunt for Red October Movie). Surely this feature was added to appeal to the gamers and non-submariners as true ?bubble-heads? never get to see these neat details (however I must admit the graphics are pretty neat!) On the other hand you can keep things sterile (yet still interesting) by jumping from station to station within your sub. One can quickly find them in trouble if gazing too long at the exterior views.

Angles and dangles
The user may set the difficulty and realism levels to respectively reflect one?s desire to have fun or masochistic tendencies. Graphic and sound options are aplenty and keyboard strokes can easily be reassigned. However the best thing about the game is the ability to let the game virtually take over much of the sonar tracking, target motion analysis and other more difficult functions without detracting from the game play. Believe me there is plenty to do commanding a nuclear submarine without worrying about the small stuff. Similarly, there is plenty things that can kill an unwary sub driver. The player may visit each station such as the periscope, navigation charts or radio room separately or easily issue mouse drop menu commands from any screen whenever necessary. The interface displays are attractive and useful without being cluttered and confusing. This also had a feature that I wish existed when I was underway?a time compression feature! This gets you quickly through the slower portions and right to the chase. While I?m not keen on networked multiplayer games, this has that option too. Additionally, it has a scenario builder for those who wish to create (or perhaps recreate) missions of their own. Overall I was pleasantly surprised to find me jumping at being ?pinged? by hostile torpedoes as well as being extremely satisfied by the sounds of the hull crushing and secondary explosions from a sinking target. I can easily anticipate many nights of silently hunting bad guys in the future.