Silent Hunter 4: Wolves of the Pacific

Silent Hunter 4: Wolves of the Pacific is a computer submarine

Submarine

A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...

simulation

Simulation

Simulation is the imitation of some real thing available, state of affairs, or process. The act of simulating something generally entails representing certain key characteristics or behaviours of a selected physical or abstract system....

for Windows

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

developed by Ubisoft Romania

Ubisoft Romania

Ubisoft Romania was founded in October 1992 and was the first production studio established by Ubisoft outside France.- History :Starting with only 4 programmers and 2 graphic artists, in time, the Bucharest studio has grown to around 800 people working in different fields of activity, in 2010, and...

and published by Ubisoft

Ubisoft

Ubisoft Entertainment S.A. is a major French video game publisher and developer, with headquarters in Montreuil, France. The company has a worldwide presence with 25 studios in 17 countries and subsidiaries in 26 countries....

in 2007. It places the player in command of an American submarine during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

and takes place in the Pacific theater

Pacific War

The Pacific War, also sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War refers broadly to the parts of World War II that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in East Asia, then called the Far East...

. The game allows players a variety of play modes including career, single war patrol and single battle engagements.

Gameplay features

The simulation uses detailed and accurate 3D graphics to immerse the player in the environment of a World War II

World War II

submarine. The systems of the vessel are largely functional and the player is exposed to many aspects of submarine warfare of the time. The game allows the player to choose how realistic and challenging the game experience is to be and it is designed to allow new players to easily master the basic game play, while allowing for experienced users to manually control systems such as crew management, torpedo

Torpedo

The modern torpedo is a self-propelled missile weapon with an explosive warhead, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater towards a target, and designed to detonate either on contact with it or in proximity to it.The term torpedo was originally employed for...

allocation, radar

Radar

Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...

, sonar

Sonar

Sonar is a technique that uses sound propagation to navigate, communicate with or detect other vessels...

and target trigonometry

Trigonometry

Trigonometry is a branch of mathematics that studies triangles and the relationships between their sides and the angles between these sides. Trigonometry defines the trigonometric functions, which describe those relationships and have applicability to cyclical phenomena, such as waves...

.

Like its predecessor Silent Hunter 3, the simulation features a fully dynamic campaign. The game gives players various mission objectives and unique rewards, and attempts to make each campaign a unique experience. The major naval battles of the war in the Pacific, such as the Battle of Midway

Battle of Midway

The Battle of Midway is widely regarded as the most important naval battle of the Pacific Campaign of World War II. Between 4 and 7 June 1942, approximately one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea and six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States Navy decisively defeated...

are re-enacted and players are informed of them via in-game radio messages. However, unlike its prequel, the game gives more specific and varied mission objectives during the campaign (patrol area and engage enemy shipping/deploy to and await orders/rescue survivors/search area for enemy activity(take photos)and: deploy spy), rather than just assigning a specific patrol area.

Multiplayer

Silent Hunter 4 features a new online adversarial mode and gives players the opportunity to command Japanese destroyers and pit them against US submarines. Servers will support up to eight players and let them choose from several scripted and generated missions.

Playable submarines

United States S class submarine
United States S class submarine
The United States' S-class submarines, often simply called S-boats , were the first class of submarines built to a United States Navy design....
United States Porpoise class submarine
United States Porpoise class submarine
The Porpoise class were submarines built for the United States Navy in the late 1930s, and incorporated a number of modern features that would make them the basis for subsequent classes such as the Salmon, Tambor, Gato, Balao, and Tench classes...
Salmon class submarine
Salmon class submarine
The United States Navy Salmon-class submarines were an important developmental step in the design of the "Fleet Submarine" concept during the 1930's...
Sargo class submarine
Sargo class submarine
The Sargo-class submarines were the first US submarines to be sent into action after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, starting war patrols the day after the attack...
Tambor class submarine
Tambor class submarine
The Tambor class submarine was a United States Navy submarine design, used primarily during World War II. It was the USN's first practical fleet submarine and formed the core of the United States Pacific submarine fleet at the time of the US entry into World War II.-Design history:Early U.S...
Gato class submarine
Gato class submarine
The United States Navy Gato class submarine formed the core of the submarine service that was largely responsible for the destruction of the Japanese merchant marine and a large portion of the Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II...
Balao class submarine
Balao class submarine
The Balao class was a successful design of United States Navy submarine used during World War II, and with 122 units built, the largest class of submarines in the United States Navy. An improvement on the earlier Gato class, the boats had slight internal differences...
German Type IX submarine
German Type IX submarine
The Type IX U-boat was designed by Germany in 1935 and 1936 as a large ocean-going submarine for sustained operations far from the home support facilities. Type IX boats were briefly used for patrols off the eastern United States in an attempt to disrupt the stream of troops and supplies bound for...

(U-Boat Missions add-on)
Type XVIII U-boat (U-Boat Missions add-on)

"Hollywood movie" Graphics

Graphics have been enhanced significantly over those of the predecessor, and according to the developers, the game's menu system and game-play is to look like a Hollywood movie. The developers chose this approach to appeal to a larger fan-base, hoping to attract players of more simplistic, action-oriented games as well as simulator players.

Graphics have been enhanced in the following ways:

Character models are greatly improved.
Water can now be set to be transparent in the graphics option.
Smoke and flames extend further.
Terrain and terrain features such as trees have been greatly improved.
Harbors feature eye-candy such as animated cranes and cars/trucks.
Ships hit by torpedoes or grenades now have actual visible damage(SH3 torpedoes and grenades only created black "dots" on the impact area) meaning if the player makes a hole in a heavy cruiser using a Mk-10 torpedo, then he/she DOES make a hole in the said heavy cruiser, allowing the player to actually turn the enemy ships(OR his own sub if not careful with the destroyers) into piles of slowly sinking scrap piles.
radars and hydrophones on subs does now move.
when the player sub is damaged, crew personnel may sometimes have stains of oil on their clothes.
Enemy ships ramming the player sub receives damage.
Enemy ships communicate with signal lights
the damage control crew is visible(when active, crew members can be seen around the interior working with wrenches).
Crew at the bridge look dizzy and disoriented when wounded
Enemy ships have visible deck crew
Said deck crew "goes away" when torpedoes or grenades hits the ship if the Crew is close enough to the blast area
If the mentioned "go away crew" blast area does not reach a crew member, he will start to look confused and scared instead.

Mods

Many mods have been produced for Silent Hunter 4. Some of them have been combined into major mods such as the realism-focused Real Fleet Boat mod (the successor to SH3's popular Real U-boat mod) and the Trigger Maru mod. These mods combine popular gameplay and realism mods as well as unofficial bugfixes so that players have a 'one-stop' modding solution that prevents potential confusion over the hundreds of mods that are available for the game.

Critical Reception

The game was released to generally favorable reviews. This is despite the fact that upon release a variety of bugs plagued the game, ostensibly because the game had a compressed development schedule. However, many of the more serious issues have been addressed in patches that have been subsequently released. The current version of the game is 1.4

Some minor historical inaccuracies remain, some due to legal restrictions. On April 19, 2007, an Ubisoft Community Manager responded to these criticisms on the official forum posting that, among other things :

" ... The dev team is very passionate about naval history, and wanted to include the correct medals, and planes in the game. They worked hard and tried their best to do so. However in the end they were not allowed to include these items in the game due to copyright and legal issues. The respective companies owning the copyrights to the medals and planes which were actually used by the US in World War II would not grant Ubisoft permission to use them in Silent Hunter: Wolves of the Pacific... "

It should be noted, however, that there are currently, as of June 2010, no legal restrictions

Stolen Valor Act of 2005

The Stolen Valor Act of 2005, signed into law by President George W. Bush on December 20, 2006, is a U.S. law that broadens the provisions of previous U.S. law addressing the unauthorized wear, manufacture, or sale of any military decorations and medals. It makes it a federal misdemeanor offense to...

against using American military medals in video game titles.

Expansion Pack

On October 31, 2007 Ubisoft

Ubisoft

announced The U-Boat Missions add-on to Silent Hunter 4. The expansion focuses on the German U-boat campaign in the Indian Ocean

Indian Ocean

The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...

(the Monsun Gruppe

Monsun Gruppe

The Monsun Gruppe or Monsoon Group was a force of German U-boats that operated in the Pacific and Indian Oceans during World War II...

). The U-boat Missions add-on features new strategic elements, new playable submarines, an improved navigation map, and an improved upgrade system. It also upgrades the engine to version 1.5.

Gold Edition

Silent Hunter: Wolves of the Pacific Gold Edition was released on October 11, 2008. This is the full version of Silent Hunter 4, which includes the U-Boat Missions expansion pack.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.