Two years after the release of Silent Hunter 3, Ubisoft released the fourth installment of the excellent submarine simulation series. If you compare the two chapters, the differences are so big that you can't stop to amaze how much Ubisoft managed to create in two years of development. I had the privilege to be present at the official release of Silent Hunter 4 at Ubisoft Romania and I must tell you that it was clear Silent Hunter 4 is a winner.

Although there are several submarine simulation games, Silent Hunter is considered the best because of the realism implemented in the game and the content. Silent Hunter 4 places the player in an American submarine in the Second World War, into the Pacific theater. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Americans were forced into war. Among other theaters of war, they tried to get revenge on the Japanese. And this is were you come into play. As an American submarine commander you are given several primary and secondary objectives that allow you to create havoc into the Japanese navy, both military and commercial units.

Like Silent Hunter 3, you are given a submarine and its crew. The submarine it's quite hard to command by yourself so you are given the opportunity to give commands to the different stations. You have the command center, the conn tower, deck guns and aircraft guns, the watch tower and also additional features giving you an impressive amount of data and at the same time the liberty to do whatever you want with the sub. There are six types of subs present in the game and as you advance in the campaign you will have the chance to discover them all.

The crew

Because you control a submarine you will be mostly a lonely wolf, searching the pacific for targets according to the objectives or if the opportunity arises. To benefit the most from your submarine, you must micromanage your crew. Depending on the situation you can take people from the non vital sectors to the ones that lack people. For example, if your submarine is damaged and you have no rear torpedoes left, you can assign the people from that compartment to repairs. Or if you are submerged you can take the watch people to the repair team. This helps you make your submarine a deadly machine but at the same time introduces a micromanagement that may or may not be liked by the casual player. The crew can do most of the job by them selfs but sometimes you must do the things your way. As you progress into the campaign, your crew will gain experience and will get better and better, reloading the torpedoes faster, gaining accuracy in destroying targets, both vessels and aircraft. After each mission you will be given a series of medals and promotion slots which can be awarded to your crew as well. I can't say if the promotions or medals affect your crew but it is a nice feature to the game.

The stations

As I said before, the submarine is divided into stations. Engines, command room, sonar, radar, deck gun, artillery guns - each station has its own job. To ease the access to each station, you will have to click on the station tab and an array of orders will be given to you. For example to dive to the periscope view, you can either press P or go to the navigation station and click on the corresponding command. To view the crew, head over to the management tab and select the crew list to micromanage it.

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The Hunt

As a captain of the submarine you are responsible for both the completion of the objectives but also for sinking the enemy ships. The more tons you sink, the more fame you gain. In the end, your job is to cripple the Japanese forces, by taking on their task forces but also to sink their freighters and tankers. As a predator of the sea, you will engage your targets both at the surface but mostly submerged. Why at the surface when the enemy aircrafts are ready to blast you submarine? Because this way you travel faster. And of course sometimes you will fail to sink a target with just your torpedoes and a good hit with your deck cannon will give it a "coup-de-grace" blow. But most of the times you will attack your targets submerged. You can observe the targets through the periscope and decide what to do next: engage the civil targets or do a sneak attack on the destroyers. Either way, I can tell you that the hunt is thrilling.

If you play without event camera or external view, you will have to rely solely on sonar/radar and periscope. The hard part is when you attack a convoy. Listening of the sonar to see where the targets are because rising the sub to use the periscope can be dangerous considering that the destroyers are there to make sure the cargo gets intact at the destination and will hunt you until you are a wreck. If by any chance they discover your sub, you will have to think fast and take the appropriate measures so the mines won't damage it. Hearing the mines exploding right next to your submarine, the sonar beeping as the destroyers make circles around your sub, listening closely to release another wave of deadly mines is something you won't forget soon.

I remember when I had the chance to encounter a big task force, with destroyers, sub chasers, 2 battleships and 3 cruisers. There was also a tanker but the thrill that I felt when I stumbled upon this convoy was intense. I was making all kinds of plans to sink the battleships and cruisers and in the end one cruiser managed to escape because I had no more torpedoes on the sub. My escape solution was the third cruiser who managed to get out of the formation and I slipped under it and maintained it's course and speed and once I was far away from the destroyers which were still looking for my sub around the place where the mighty ships fell down thanks to my torpedoes, I surfaced my submarine and with the deck gun finished the agonizing cruiser. One officer got hit and was wounded but the medal I received worth the try.

Silent Hunter 4 features a superb graphic. The water is simply breathtaking, with waves hitting the bow of your ship and the surface of the sea reflects moonlight and fire. Sea water pools on the lens of your periscopes and even smears the external camera for a bit as you come up from underneath the ocean. Torpedo hits send huge geysers shooting up into the air when they hit the target. All in all, everything is rendered so wonderfully.

In addition to the geysers that the torpedoes create when they hit the target, they also leave a deformation on the ship, adding to the realism of the game. Water filling the damaged ship, ships torn in two pieces by the explosion or by the force of the torpedo impact is something you don't see every day.

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Gameplay: 89

Silent Hunter 4 manages to be everything that a submarine simulation games wanted. Easy to play, thrilling, giving you the liberty to do what you what, the game holds you playing, waiting for another convoy to sink, playing cat and mouse with the task forces, upgrading your submarine and your crew, all in all to be the best underwater hunter.

Graphics: 91

Ubisoft implemented a beautiful water model to the game, great atmospheric effect, very nice detailed ships, everything to put you into the right atmosphere, the one of a American submarine commander.

Multiplayer: 87

The multiplayer modes in Silent Hunter 4 feature both cooperative and competitive modes. In the first you can team with up to three players on the Internet or seven others on a LAN, working together to sink enemy ships. In the competitive mode, one player controls the Japanese surface vessels while the other players control submarines and try to sink the Japanese fleet.

Sound: 88

The sound effects definitely help to create the atmosphere. The creaking of your submarine's hull and the sea hitting your sub provides a constant backdrop to the action. Weapons fire and impact sounds have a real sense of weight and convey the right amount of destructiveness. Voiced crew dialog also adds to the sense of realism here but it has the added benefit of actually giving you information that you need about the world around you. If this is not enough, you can listen to the radio, both American and Japanese.

Hardware: 75

Two patches were released and they fixed a couple of problems and improved the performance of the game. The game runs ok on high systems but even on low details you will have a hard time playing it on weak systems.

Wolves of the Pacific is an excellent submarine simulation that manages two important things: provides instant accessibility to the newbies while managing to provide enough detail and realism for the hardcore players. By allowing players to create modes for the game, the survival of the series is assured and there's no need to worry that a torpedo might sunk this game's ascension to our hearts.