Submarine Simulator Game - Silent Hunter 3

One of the most popular submarine simulator games that you can find on the market, must be the Silent Hunter series. Personally, I think Silent Hunter 3 is one of the best games in the list of Silent Hunter games. Man, I spent a lot of hours on that game!

Basically, Silent Hunter 3 puts you in command of a World War II German sub (U-boat). It’s your mission to sink as many enemy merchants as possible, this way no supplies can reach the Allies, consequently this makes it easier for the German army to be victorious over the Allies. Of course this mission is not without peril, most merchants will be escorted by destroyers, or will be organised in large convoys. For everyone who’s not familiar with the Silent Hunter games, there are several tutorials available. These tutorials, help you to get familiar with the different aspects of the game (controls, map, attacking). There are also some standard tactical mission (historical and non-historical).

In the campaign mode of Silent Hunter, you’ll be able to choose in which period you want to start the game. You could say that each period has it’s own difficulty level. The sooner you start, the easier it will be. For example the 1940-41 are referred to as the ‘Happy Times’ for German submarines, in this period the German U-boats sunk a considerable amount of enemy vessels. The technology for hunting submarines wasn’t up to date and British warships had a hard time detecting subs. This is also reflected in the game, you will not find too many destroyers in the beginning. But when the campaign moves on, merchants will be organised in heavily defended convoys, merchants will be equipped with guns...

As the campaign moves on, you’ll also be able to acquire new technology for your sub, this also depends on the tonnage you sink on your missions. Each time you sink a ship, you’ll get renown (practically points) and with these points, you can acquire different items: from a new engine, to a new deck gun. There is also the possibility to enlist new crew members, to promote them, you can upgrade their skill levels (for example making them better at shooting down planes) and so on. When starting your campaign, you also have the possibility to change to realism level. You can change every aspect to your liking, or you could go hardcore full realism in this submarine simulator game (no game speed up, no automatic aiming, ...). Setting the voices of your crew to German is also really cool.

You’re pretty much free to do what you want on the campaign missions. You can sail everywhere you want: United States, Mediterranean, but you need to keep a close eye on your fuel level, or you can set it to unlimited fuel, in the realism options. If you want a real challenge try to sail through the Strait Of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean, and try to intercept some convoys trying to get to Malta. I tell you, you’ll need a lot of patience and skill to get past the Strait, the amount of enemy warships is just crazy (at least in my game). If you want to see the British aircraft carriers, try to sneak through the port Scapa Flow (I think). But watch out, most of the time, these ports are heavily guarded with destroyers and anti-submarine nets.

Silent Hunter 3, is one of the best submarine simulator games I’ve ever played. You get totally immersed by the game, and after some time you get really attached to your crew and sub. It’s definitely still worth a play and must have for every gamer who’s interested in naval warfare during World War II.