Amazon.com Review
Many collections of older games are unquestionably worth the price, but the quality of the offerings in the
Ultimate Wargame WWII Collection Volume 2 is so spotty we'd pause before spending $20 on it. Sure you get a great game like
Silent Hunter: Commander's Edition, but then you're also paying for the laughably bad
Luftwaffe Commander. This package still represents a significant value over buying the games separately, so WWII buffs may want to just go ahead and take the good with the bad.
Luftwaffe Commander is the biggest stinker in the bunch, and we can't come up with a single reason it was even released in the first place. The graphics are bad, the flight models are abysmal, and that about sums things up. Worst of all, it was released after several vastly superior WWII flight simulations came out, and you'd be better off spending money on any of those games than this tragically flawed coaster.
Fighting Steel simulates the naval battles of the period and isn't nearly as bad. Here you become admiral of a virtual fleet of WWII battleships, destroyers, and other surface vessels, all rendered in full 3-D (although the game runs at a low resolution). Battling with the big guns is fun for a while, but we soon were longing for aircraft carriers, submarines, or anything else that could add some variety and complexity to the gameplay.
Panzer Commander puts you in charge of a squad of tanks. Gameplay is a little too simplistic, and the other members of your squad are complete idiots (they get stuck on walls and buildings all the time), but it's still a great deal of fun. The game models lots of different tanks, and their varying weapons systems require vastly different tactics for effective use. Half the fun is in watching your tanks bounce around from an outside view, as their suspensions are modeled in terrific detail.
Finally there is Silent Hunter, which is probably the best WWII submarine simulator of all time. The game is aging well, since its crisp graphics were good to begin with, and the tense gameplay never loses any of its charm. There are enough difficulty settings to satisfy both novices and die-hards, and the historical information included on the disc gave us a fascinating look at the troubles real-world submarine crews faced in the Pacific theater of WWII. Don't miss this one if submarine simulations interest you. --T. Byrl Baker
Pros:
- Silent Hunter is perhaps the best WWII submarine simulation ever released
- Fighting Steel is fun--while it lasts
- One of the few collections that gives players air, land, and sea simulations
Cons: - Luftwaffe Commander is one of the worst flight simulators ever released
- Panzer Commander has infuriating flaws that put an enormous dent in its fun factor
GameSpot Review
The Silent Service. The phrase conjures up several images: sleek submarines slipping beneath the waves; torpedoes knifing through the water at unsuspecting targets; men silently praying that the next depth charge doesn't find them. SSI manages to capture all of these elements in Silent Hunter, their new World War II submarine simulator.
One item that immediately stands out is the variety of options available to the player. Do you want to play a campaign or single mission? Do you want dud torpedoes enabled or disabled? Do you want your crew to be green, veteran, or elite? Silent Hunter gives you a Realism Panel to select the options that fit your abilities or desires. You can make things as simple or difficult as you like.
Once you've selected a mission, the game places you in the control roomthe nerve center of the submarine. From here, you can use the mouse to jump from station to station. SSI cleverly lets you access common controls (navigation, torpedoes) from several different stations to prevent unnecessary navigation; when you do need to check out another station, you can use keyboard shortcuts to jump around the ship quickly. I recommend sticking to easy missions when starting out so you can get comfortable with the control interface.
A trip to the bridge or a look through the periscope, reveals some of the finest graphics I've ever seen in a submarine simulator. The sun rises and sets, the moon goes through phases, and cloud cover reduces visibility. Coastal cities even show distinct buildings, lights, and docks. Enemy ships are rendered in great detail, but do pixellate even in a close-up view. Sinking ships burn and smoke realistically.
Although Silent Hunter's graphics are excellent, its sound is even better. Sonar pings from enemy ships vary based upon distance and depth. Depth charges can rattle your teeth. You can even tell if a ship is close by listening to his propeller sounds. In addition, your crew offers digitized responses--which are always appropriate and professional--to many of your commands.
Silent Hunter offers great depth of play. Randomly generated campaign missions, realistic settings that have you swearing at your crew, and sounds that place you IN a submarine are the great strengths that set this product apart from its competition. While the enemy AI will make you scratch your head in puzzlement at times, it offers an acceptable challenge for a wide variety of skill levels. In the end, Silent Hunter is one part game, two parts simulator ... but entertaining through and through. --Kevin Mical
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