- John Milton -

I thought a bit about how to start this. While saying that Silent Hunter IV is the best submarine simulator out there is true, it doesn't mean much, especially for new players. Saying it is one of the best simulator games out there is again accurate, but again, a bit of an understatement. Why? Well because... despite the high complexity and realism involved, Ubisoft Romania managed to develop a game that is appealing to the beginners as well, in a certain degree.

For the most part is because of the detailed settings the game has under the difficulty (realism) options. Being able to see only through the periscope for example raises the realism but somewhat lowers cinematic experience because you could roam freely with your cam otherwise.

I am new to the whole Silent Hunter franchise, and I can really claim Ubisoft made it a lot easier for a player like me to approach this game. After reading carefully the instructions and completing the tutorial you can get started on any mission really, including the U-boat campaign expansion.

In Pacific U-boat Missions, you've switched sides and are now in command of a brand new U-boat German submarine. The campaign takes place in the Indian Ocean and, of course, during World War II.

You start low at first, but as you gain fame, experience and higher ranks you are able to call in special abilities like scout planes, and have even battle groups under your command at the highest ranks.

The control of these groups is however indirect: you will give the order, and the AI will take care of the rest. You can't take control of an airplane for example.

Combined with that the newly added heroes: elite crewmembers, specialized in certain tasks, which bring you significant bonuses and have special abilities of their own. These heroes are based on reality, but they don't have real names of course. Pretty much like medals and ships other than US (mostly because of copyright laws active in the respective countries).

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The user interface has been reworked and it looks a tad bit slicker and is more functional. And since you are aboard a German sub, everything is written in German. However, the voices still remain in English, maybe to help you a bit. I'm sure this will disappoint hardcore fans a little.

The expansion pack also patches the game to version 1.05, and most I am pleased to see that most of the bugs from the original release are gone. Yes, I've seen the original release when it was tested, yes I was here, but I didn't get to play it. Geeesh, stop asking already...

This covers pretty much all the new features that have been added into the game. U-boat missions is not a big groundbreaking expansion, but it does the trick: it brings fans a reason to live for again. The missions still involve mostly sinking X tons of ships, as well as various other objectives like in the original: escort, transport, recon, etc.

Of course, the game runs better now, because of the engine improvements and newer systems available to users. It's a shame that you still can't find an anti-aliasing option in the video settings menu, even though I was able to create a separate profile for the game and force it via drivers. If you have a decent machine, I really recommend you this procedure. Graphics remain the same, water looks good and ship models are very realistic. I really enjoyed spending quite some time in the museum, where I could explore all the ships and planes available in the game. Quite a collection.

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Conclusion

Without any fancy stuff, drums and sounds, Silent Hunter IV: U-boats Missions delivers exactly what it promised. A new campaign, from the German side, and a few features to make every captain's life more fun. The expansion pack is only $9.99, so it's certainly worth a look...

Gameplay: 88

A lot of bugs were fixed from the original game. Ubisoft had 5 patches to work out all the issues, and it now brings a mature version of the submarine sym in the hands of the players. The slightly redesigned user interface helps and the new missions and gameplay modes are welcome.

Graphics: 85

While the game looked good on the initial launch, and it still does now, nothing was changed from the graphic point of view. Still, if you have a good PC, you should try forcing high quality filtering and anti-alias from your video card drivers, for an enhanced experience.

Multiplayer: 86

Same as in the original, up to 8 players and various objectives to complete.

Sound: 83

Again, no change, and the voices of German officers and crewmates are still the ones from the American campaign.

Hardware: 82

Time and patches brought the quality of the game up a notch, and it runs decent on mid and high-end systems.