Silent Hunter III

Gameplay features

Silent Hunter III features a dynamic campaign. Instead of giving the player a specific set of objectives for each mission, Silent Hunter III simply assigns the player a certain patrol grid, and appropriate naval traffic, such as convoys, destroyer escorts, and task forces are automatically generated by the simulation engine. How the mission proceeds and what targets are attacked is determined by the player.

Silent Hunter III features two methods of play - either a dynamic campaign or single mission objectives.

U-Boat Campaign

In the campaign version of the game, a player begins their career as a "Lieutenant, Jr." (corresponding to Leutnant zur See), with the choice of initial assignments to a U-Boat base between the years 1939 and 1943. The war time and political situation of World War II is reflected in the geographical area and time period which the player begins their career.

The Silent Hunter III campaign will assign the player a certain patrol grid with appropriate naval traffic (such as convoys, destroyer escorts, and task forces) automatically generated by the simulation engine. How the mission proceeds and what targets are attacked is left totally up to the player. In addition to being a more accurate representation of World War II U-Boat warfare, the dynamic campaign significantly improves the game's replay value, as the campaign plays out differently each time. The player also has the option to change realism settings on the submarine - these features include the U-Boat having only a set amount of fuel as well as various game play assistance features involving navigation, weapons, and the ability to switch to external camera mode to view the submarine's surroundings.

The most difficult realism setting in the game allows a player to manually target torpedoes for an attack on enemy vessels. In the manual targeting feature, the player must observe vessels, determine their class and nationality, as well as calculate speed, angle on the bow, and gyro angle for torpedo launch. The player also has the option to set torpedo depth and spread shot with multiple weapons. De-selecting manual targeting allows a "Weapons Officer" to make these determinations for the player, although approaching targets at certain angles and determining relative motion is still a factor.

The simulation engine further generates various coastal and port cities, which appear as large harbors surrounded on the outskirts by town buildings, churchs, and factories. It is possible for the player to sail into such ports (friendly, neutral, or hostile) and either dock or engage moored targets. Some of the cities available are Portsmouth, Scapa Flow, New York City, Norfolk, Virginia, and Tampa, Florida. Although possible to sail to South America and into the Pacific, the simulation will not generate traffic or port cities for these regions.

The game features a fully 3D U-Boat control room, allowing the player the ability to look around the interior of certain submarine rooms. Unlike other submarine simulations, where the crew is often heard but not seen, Silent Hunter III allows the player to see and interact with crew members. The game also tracks the stats of individual crew members, such as rank, experience, morale, and decorations between missions. A limited weather generator is also used, which creates winds, rain, and heavy seas at random. The most significant factor of weather is that a submarine may not fire deck guns in heavy seas; crew members standing bridge watches in rain and wind are also shown to be wearing raincoats.

In addition, the game provides historical single-player missions. These include saving the Bismarck, sinking the HMS Royal Oak in Scapa Flow, attacking a task force as the first Type XXI U-boat, avoiding capture as the U-505, sinking the HMS Barham and passing through the Strait of Gibraltar (in a nod to the German U-boat film Das Boot, the player commands the U-96 in the Gibraltar mission).

Ships and Vessels

The stock version of the game includes the following playable U-boats. The player enters the war with only a limited choice of U-boats if they choose to start in 1939. However, the types of U-boat available to the player can vary greatly depending on the year during which the player wants to start their career in. To transfer to another U-boat, the player has to spend "renown" (points awarded to the player every time a patrol is completed).

Weapons and equipment

As the player advances through the game, various upgrades for U-boat weapons and equipment become available; early access to advanced technology may be gained through prestige and renown as acquired after successful U-boat patrols. In all, the player may upgrade torpedo types, diesel engines, electric batteries, hydrophones, anti-aircraft guns, deck guns, and (late in the game) gain access to anti-sonar and radar technology. The player may also custom design U-boat conning towers with U-boat insignia, emblems, and additional gun emplacements.

Character Careers

A feature of Silent Hunter III, enhanced as well in Silent Hunter IV, allows the player to both advance in a personal career as well as control career paths for crew members. The crew is divided into three "classes" - officers, warrant officers (in actuality petty officers), and seaman; three ranks in each class are available for a total of nine crew ranks in the game. For crew members, it is not possible to promote sailors between the various castes, such as advancing a seaman to warrant officer or commissioning a warrant officer as an officer. The historical enlisted rank of junior petty officer (Maat) also does not appear in the game.

The player begins the game as a "Lieutenant, Jr." and may advance in rank to "Lieutenant, Sr." after completing a number of patrols and earning "renown" which are points awarded based on the total number of ships and merchants destroyed. A supreme rank of Lieutenant Commander (corresponding to Kapitänleutnant) is attainable after earning 15,000 renown points. Higher officer ranks are not available while the officer training rank of Oberfähnrich zur See (denoted in the game as "Sub-Lieutenant") may only be held by officer crew members.

The gameplay allows for the award of the Iron Cross (First and Second Class), Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, German Cross, U-boat War Badge, and U-boat Front Clasp. Crew members (but not the player) may further earn the Wound Badge while the player (but not crew members) may upgrade the Knight's Cross to include the appenditures of oak leaves, swords, and diamonds. All awards are de-nazified to remove Nazi symbols such as the swastika.

Throughout the game, the player may also issue qualification badges to members of the crew, making them more efficient at certain duty stations. Only officers and warrant officers may receive qualification badges; officers may hold three qualifications while a warrant officer may hold one. Crew members must further be rotated off of watch at regular intervals to avoid fatigue with certain awards and badges decreasing the rate of fatigue and allowing the crew member to stay on watch longer. In combat and while underwater, fatigue increases exponentially.

Reception

The game received "universal acclaim" upon release according to video game review aggregator Metacritic. GameRankings gave it a score of 88.65%, while Metacritic gave it 90 out of 100. The game was critically praised, receiving a score of 8.8 out of 10 from IGN, an 8.9 out of 10 ("Great") from GameSpot, as well as a 5 out of 5 by GameSpy.