This is honestly one of the best games I have ever played and I am generally not all that fond of the simulation game genre. The tension and sense of achievement I experienced with it were quite unlike any other game I have played in over 20 years.

My most memorable moment came when patrolling in the Atlantic off the Western coast of Ireland. According to German command an Allied shipping convoy was expected to pass through the area. I patrolled the area leisurely for days, constantly checking in with my hydrophone operator for signs of the convoy. After 5 days, he finally called out a contact.

I took over the hydrophone myself. He was right. There was the distant sound of screws bearing through the water. I immediately went to consult with my naval charts and try to calculate an approximate course for the convoy and an interception course for my boat. It was nothing more than guesswork facilitated by rulers and sextants. Nevertheless I gave the order for the navigational officer to change course. We had reached the Atlantic uneventfully and still had all of our torpedoes. Anticipation of the hunt crept into my thoughts.

We waited for about a day and a half, following the convoy through the hydrophones. Then the watchman at the conning tower reported he had sighted a ship. I went up in the tower with him and grabbed my binoculars. Distant dots littered the horizon. We had found the convoy. There were a little over a dozen ships guarded by two destroyers from the British Navy. It was late in the afternoon. Night and the protective shroud of darkness were still hours away.

I decided to follow ahead of them and wait for darkness. I returned to my charts and plotted a new course for the navigator. Then we waited. The convoy grew closer and closer. Eventually, sailing on the surface became too risky a proposition and I ordered a dive, still staying ahead of the convoy. As we continued ahead of our prey, daylight eventually gave way to twilight, which gave way to darkness. The moment to strike had finally come.

I ordered every man to battle stations and for the navigator to take the boat off to the right flank of the convoy. The boat was positioned perfectly in the darkness. About 6-700 meters off the closest ship. I ordered the torpedo hatches opened and together with my weapons officer I calculated a firing solution. We were in perfect postition. Our target was a Liberty merchant vessel sailing under the British flag. I fired two torpedoes. They went off towards our target. Due to our proximity we did not have to wait long for the results. Both torpedos scored direct hits and cracked the merchant vessel in two. A fiery explosion briefly turned night into day on the surface. I immediately ordered a dive and submerged beneath the convoy in order to hide the sound of our engines against those of the ships in the convoy and hopefully confound the escorts. It worked.

Throughout the night I hounded the convoy, heading up near the surface to sink another ship before going back down again. I heard the sound of depth charges turning water into foam. I sank 5 ships worth nearly 30,000 tons of shipping. By the night's end we had spent all of our torpedoes and I pulled away, reporting the convoy's position and estimated course back to German command so that other u-boats might fall upon it.

Dawn arrived along with a feeling of euphoria. I set a course back for port. As I watched the sun rise over the Atlantic, Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" played from the worn old grammophone in my quarters.

We sailed North and East of Great Britain so that we might stay as far away from British patrols and air coverage as possible. Morale on the boat was excellent. Our patrol had lasted nearly 3 weeks. Then, the Watchman spotted another ship on the horizon. It was a distant, lonely dot. Impossible to make out. We had expended all of our torpedoes in the attack on the convoy, yet our deck gun was still fully loaded and able to sink unarmed merchant vessels. Enthusiastic about my earlier victory and eager to add another kill, I ordered the boat to close in on the distant speck. That was a mistake.

Even as the ship grew larger in my binoculars, I had trouble making out its shape against the horizon. Then, its identity became all too clear, when I spotted two flashes of light from its deck. Panicked, I ordered an emergency dive but it was already too late. The first shell landed in the water a little way's off the boat and sent a geyser of water cascading into the air. The other shell scored a direct hit on the boat.

We dived and I ordered full power to the engines, even as water poured into the boat and started to fill the compartments. The men fought a desperate battle against a tide that seemed to be unending, all the while we descended further and further into the depths... 100 meters... 150 meter... The hull started to creak dangerously. The boat would not pull up. It had taken on too much water. We could not blow the ballast tanks. The destroyer was up there waiting for us...200 meters...

I watched the depth gauge, my heart pounding in my chest. The hull creaked loudly. Finally, the chief engineer had managed to seal the leaks in the engine room and pump out impressive amounts of water. There were dead and wounded. Morale, which had been so high only an hour earlier, was now at a low point. The boat was still going down. I looked at the faces of my men. There was no other choice. Come what way. I ordered them to blow the ballast tanks.

We surfaced. There was no sign of the British warship that had opened fire on us. I could not believe our luck. I immediately ordered the crew to attend to full repairs and for the navigator to set us back on course for home. With luck and God on our side, we managed to limp back to Germany and safety but not without the harshest of lessons.

On the Atlantic Ocean you are only the hunter until you become the prey.

SH3 is one of those games that you need to invest time in. It is a perfect example of a "Dad game," as Yahtzee Crowshaw once put it. It's meticulously detailed, and you must learn all of the different eccentricities of the sub to be a great captain.

It uses the real-life technological limitations from WWII to define the gameplay. Want to fire off a torpedo? A standard gas-powered torpedo leaves a trail of bubbles in the water, which ships can detect in advance and will swerve to avoid your torpedo. You can fire an electric torpedo, but you'll need to be close, or else the battery in the torpedo will die and it won't reach your target. SH3 is filled with these sorts of tactical nuances that really make it satisfying to play.

Difficulty is customizable. It can be as simple as "point the periscope at a target and shoot," to manually identifying and anaylizing your target's position relative to your own. Difficulty is increased by making the game more akin to real life (limited air, limited fuel, no periscope stablilization, etc.) This helps tremendously, since beginners can relax the difficulty while they familiarize themselves with the ships' systems.

The player is awarded more renown following a mission with high difficulty, compared to a mission with a lower difficulty setting. Renown is SH3's version of experience points. It allows you to 'purchase' upgrades for your sub like improved batteries, hydrophones, conning towers, or even a completely different sub altogether. Medals are awarded after each mission, which you can assign to your crew. This is probably the single most satisfying part of the game; the medals allow your crew to function more efficiently, thus improving things like torpedo reload times.

There's a lot to cover here, so let me just wrap this this up by saying that this is probably the best simulation game I've ever played. I find myself coming back to it every couple of weeks. It's aged quite horribly, but I don't care, since the gameplay is just too good. Forget the sequels in this series, SH3 is the best.

A legjobb tengeralattjárós gamma!

PSA:

This game works perfectly fine on WIndows 10, even without any of the fixes mods. It will change your desktop to 1024x768 unless you install one of the many resolution fixes available (most popular being the ARB WideGUI 1920x1080). To further stabilise your game, it is recommended you install the unofficial 1.6 patch from Subsim. It is also recommended you install the 4GB patch as well.

If you want a properly smooth experience, install all of the above mods and the famous GWX gold mod. This will allow you to play the legendary Silent Hunter 3 in 1080p with brand new features, realism and textures.

Hope this helps!

With mods, Silent Hunter III is a master piece.

And remember, play it with a mouse and keyboard, not a Logitech controller.

Are you wondering whether to buy this over Silent Hunter 4 or 5?

Although SH5 has had some substantial attention from the modding community, it still has a way to go, so I would hold off on that one.

SH4 features US Navy submarine warfare in the Pacific theatre. If that tickles your fancy it is equally as good as SH3.

SH3 features German U-boats in the Atlantic theatre in WWII. It has adjustable settings for difficulty, which the game deems "realism". These features include whether the game will just automatically lock on to a target and automatically set your torpedoes upon them, or whether you would like to do the calculations yourself. Let me tell you there is a significantly rewarding feeling when doing the calculations yourself, waiting for what seems like an eternity for the impact, not knowing whether the torpedo will hit... then you see it happen. You almost can't believe it. Such a great feeling.

This game isn't about instant gratification. There is a lot of planning involved and you will have to figure out how to best intersect with your targets' headings. It is really rewarding though, and I can't say that about a lot of games.

As far as mods, I suggest going with Grey Wolves and then heading over to subsim.com to check out what is available.

Nagyon jó hangulatos játék!

Nagyon jo szimulator.

I just bought the game today, 12/28/2017 and have only spent a few minutes inside it. This is really more of a compatiblity review. I have Windows 10 64 bit, Nvidia 1060 card, Intel 7700, etc. etc. (a very new computer) and just want to let everyone know the game started right up and works perfectly with no compatibility issues.

Ez a játék nagyon régi,de semmi sem űbereli! A Földet körűl lehet vele hajózni. World of Warship itt az etalon,lehet tanúlni!