All this takes place, as previously mentioned, aboard a 3D
U-boat. Not all of the sub’s compartments are modeled but the ones that are
look great. The control room is fitted out with gauges, valves, and pipes,
including the long-sought sausages swinging overhead. (I’m not sure why it
took so long to get this feature in a subsim but now that it’s here, there are
sure to be arguments in the forums--beef or pork). During a severe depth
charge attack the lights flicker violently, you hear glass breaking, and
water
and high-pressure air lines are prone to breaking. For the first time you can
enter the conning tower and man the attack scope (which in this build was the
same as the navigational scope). On the bridge your U-boat throws up a
marvelous bow wave with spray while the diesels bellow out their stately hymn.
Life aboard a U-boat was spartan and rigorous. The small
700-odd ton boats pitched and rolled with the waves. Silent Hunter III
suitably recreates the sensation of standing on the bridge or in the control
room of a moving U-boat.
Using the binoculars (the UZO was not implemented in our build) requires
constant compensation for the movement of the boat. One feature I found
appealing at the May 2004 E3 showing was
the way water would run off the
periscope lens as it was raised, giving the view a blurry, out-of-focus
appearance for a few seconds. The guys in the Subsim Media room agreed that
was noteworthy.
The build we previewed had most menu items disabled so we
could only sample a few general convoy missions. According to the Readme, the
realism settings were on "Easy". The external camera view allowed us to
examine the battle from both sides of the waves. This really helps when trying
to evaluate the AI. And believe me, after the Jekyll and Hyde AI of SH2, AI in
SH3 is a top concern so we ran a few tests. Running submerged with the
phonograph tooting "J'attendrai", the boat running at full, and otherwise
making noise, the nearest escort charged right at us and dropped a string of
well-placed ash cans all around our hapless U-boat. Interestingly enough, by
using the external cam to watch the pattern, we observed some of the bombs
were shallow, some deeper than our U-boat, and a few right on target. So, even
though we gave the DD a good target, his aim is not perfect (though two more
passes did us in).
Then
we replayed the mission and this time observed the highest order of stealth.
We put the boat in front of the convoy, submerged, kept a zero bow angle on
the nearest escort, ran at slow, and kept the periscope in the well. No music,
not joking, just silent sweat and concentration. One escort passed by, not
detecting us at 1800m range. After we torpedoed a merchant another escort
spotted our periscope. How do I know this? Because it started shooting at the
scope! In Silent Hunter III if you spend too much time focused on the target
you’ll end up hearing high speed screws fast approaching and when you spin the
scope 'round, you’ll be face-to-face with a hard-charging destroyer. We
crash-dived to 120m and again employed the external cam to measure the
escort’s accuracy. By maintaining silent running we soon managed to slip away
with minor damage.
That’s a sample of the AI but bear in mind, SH3 is not
finished and we were unable to ratchet up the realism settings. A thorough
evaluation of a gold copy will determine the true nature of the game’s AI but
at this point I feel a lot better about it than I did SH2.
Convoys are well-stocked with an ample variety of
ships—tankers, generic merchants, troop ships, and Liberty ships were seen in
our preview. SH3 does not appear to have issues with large convoys. We saw
nine merchants and five escorts in one large mission and the game ran
smoothly. Collision avoidance seemed to be working, too. I did not see any
examples of ships crashing together and locking up like was the case in SH2.
When torpedoed, ships sink in a range of ways. The Readme points out that the
AI ships have working compartments and specific areas of the ship that can be
damaged so the manner and rate of sinking depend on where they are struck. I
saw some roll over and sink quickly, others broke in halves, and one sank
evenly, very slowly, and I had to wait for the convoy to leave him and finish
him with the deck gun.
The escorts appeared to vary their search techniques,
stopping at times or sailing at slow, as if listening for U-boats. Other times
it seemed that one DD would sit off while another made a depth charge run,
mimicking the tactics that made Captain Johnny Walker, one of the great heroes
of the Royal Navy, so successful. And as for "headhunting", well, good luck.
These DDs aren’t as easy to hit as the ones in SH2. Launch a torpedo and the
AI escort is likely to spot it or hear it and evade. Payback is hell. Again,
these are just first impressions but they lend a great deal of confidence to
the eventual gameplay.
There is an "action camera" that pops up when something
significant is about to happen, such as a torpedo about to strike or an escort
rolling depth charges off the stern. You can switch to it or disable it at anytime.
