More user aids have been introduced on the easier difficulty settings, making lining up torpedo runs much simpler. You can even seamlessly emerge onto the deck (while surfaced, obviously) and scope the horizon for enemies. Here, you're moving fluidly around your sub, from the fully animated engine room, to the kitchens and the torpedo rooms - all fully staffed by your 3D crew, who'll potter about, attempting to look busy. In previous games you'd teleport from section to section, and having arrived in the engine room, for example, you could merely pivot and crane your neck around in an inhuman fashion that would surely terrify your crew. Main differences here include a first person captain camera, which Ubisoft Romania claim will enhance the entire 'Captain experience'. It made actual encounters thrilling as only sims like this can, and the fifth in the series doesn't stray far from that formula.

The Silent Hunter games have always revelled in realism, to the point of accurately depicting the boredom of spending weeks stalking Norwegian fishing vessels in the North Sea. Thank Christ there was somebody in the room who knew a bit about submarines: a German games journalist, who'd ask about periscopes like a terminally ill patient asks about how long he has left to live, and who'd punch the air when he learned of the accurately rendered ship wakes, and the now separate damage readouts for hull integrity and flooding.

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