Others say...

"Great premise, buggy delivery"
The Silent Hunter series has been a great series, to date. I own II and III and still play them. I was thrilled when I heard of Silent Hunter IV. I missed the days of Silent Service on the C64, cruising around the warm and Sunny Pacific.

The submarine simulator genre is always plagued by technical junkies, history buffs, and detail nit-pickers, but, out of the box, SH4 is a bomb in all aspects. There are numerous crash-to-desktop scenarios, one of them is by pressing the "a" key (normally used in the game). The dials and instruments used to manually compute a firing solution don't work and torpedoes don't run at the right speed, so getting a kill by torpedoes is pure luck, even with the automatic setting. How did *that* pass quality control?

Graphics are good, as long as you have a Cray or two to provide processing power. Even if you do have a top of the line rig there are numerous graphical glitches and errors (e.g., a 2001-like monolith rectangle that sucks FPS) that simply kill the game. The interiors of the subs have graphical issues, as well, including periscopes that don't move, lights that flicker that shouldn't, and dials and wheels that either move the wrong way, or don't move at all.

The game shipped with a copy-protection scheme that apparently caused a lot of problems, even with legit users. I never experienced this, and it may be that the legit users weren't so legit.

Even if you learn how to work around the broken targeting system and set the graphics settings to their absolute lowest, the enemy AI is terrible. Often all it takes to sink a convoy is to look at it. I watched a fleet of cruisers and destroyers bash into each other until they exploded and sunk without firing a single shot or even surfacing. Sometimes convoys seem to be sailing along normally until the first torpedo hits, then they come to a complete stop.

There are patches available and a dedicated submarine simulation community (www.subsim.com) that have fixes and workarounds to most of the problems in SH4, but, in this reviewer's humble opinion, it's simply not worth the money or effort. Go buy Silent Hunter 3, download the patches and a mod package or two, and the experience will be much more enjoyable.

"Disappointment turns into amazement"
A big fan of Sub Hunter III, I was very excited to see what improvements were implemented in SH IV. My first impressions were, "What on earth have they done to this game?"
I was disappointed by slow load times, a very different user interface from SH 3, but most disappointing was the graphics. SH 3 had fluid, beautiful graphics on my relatively modern computer, but SH IV crawled, and I mean REALLY CRAWLED. I started my patrol in Pearl Harbor, and that was probably part of my mistake, as I was getting framerates of about 4 FPS. What was worse is that the graphics actually looked "ugly" compared to SH 3.
If I could have returned the software, I might have done so right then, but instead, I did some research online and found the latest game patch from Ubisoft as well as advice from other submarine simulation fans. I was able to tweak the game to get 20 FPS out of my computer, and this was with some pretty astonishing graphics.
It wasn't until my new video card arrived, an NVidia 8600 GT, that I was ready to write this review. The video card made all the difference for me, and now instead of 12 to 20 fps, I'm getting 60 fps, with occasional drops down to 30 fps. It only drops less than this during intense battles, but during normal game play, those battles are rare.
Now, on to the game. It's really more of a simulator, so if you prefer fast action and somewhat mindless game-play, this game is NOT for you. This is a chess-player's game, in that it's all about tactics and strategy, positioning yourself without getting detected, firing your torpedoes and living to tell about it. If you want to get the feel of how it was to serve in the Pacific submarine fleet during WWII, then this is definitely the game for you.
In a game like this, immersion is everything. The feeling of being there, in command of a Navy vessel of war, that's what it's all about. This game does an amazing job at this, with a little help. Let me explain - much like other simulation games, SH IV is designed to be modded. There is a community of people who spend countless hours of their own time working to make SH IV better than it is out of the box. If you are interested in this game, head over to www.subsim.com to learn about all the various mods that can be added to the game to make it even more realistic. For example, one of the mods is a free-float camera mod, that allows the player to walk around to parts of the command room that they normally could only view from a distance. I've also used this camera to walk the decks of other surface ships. In fact, this unconventional use of the game is quite addictive! There's nothing quite like being on the bridge of a battleship slugging it out with an enemy fleet!
One of the things I discovered using this free cam mod is the detail put into the 3D models. The command room, where you spend much of your time, is modeled down to individual bolts. I'm talking detailed, 3D bolts - not just textures. The detail is breath-taking, especially since you would not be able to see it all with the stock game mode (which just allows to turn but not walk through the room). The problem is, once one sees all this detail, one will want to explore the rest of the sub. Unfortunately, that is not possible. The conning tower and the command room are the only rooms available to visit. How I would love to visit the engine room or the torpedo room!
The crew is also modeled very well. They are close enough to life-like to be almost "spooky" looking, especially their eyes, which are always fixed on you. They'll acknowledge orders and manipulate the controls. They even tighten down bolts when the sub takes damage.
I'm also amazed at the detail of the surface ships. These are normally viewed from a distance through periscope or binoculars, yet using the free float camera mod to walk on the decks is quite a pleasure. The detail doesn't compare to the sub itself, but it's still amazing what is rendered. People walk the decks, all guns, radar, depth charges, etc. are functional and moving on the warships, and ships accurately show damage, including large holes exposing flooded compartments that are blown into the ships by your torpedoes.
However, the most impressive part is the water. With a graphics card that can handle the higher settings, the water looks more realistic than computer-generated water on many TV shows. In fact, there are times, looking out from the bridge of your sub, that you can almost smell the salt water in the air. That's not to say it is perfect, because water is tremendously difficult to render accurately by computer, but I have never seen a game do as good as a job as SH IV with water.
Land, on the other hand, can ruin the immersion if you get too close. Cartoonish trees, for example, spoil the realism. The navy bases are nicely rendered, yet for some reason the lack something that was present in SH 3. I can't place my finger on it, but even with the better graphics, SH 3 gave a more real impression of pulling into a real port than what I've felt playing SH 4. Since most of your time is spent out in the open ocean and away from port, this is of little matter, and I'm sure the subsim community will someday soon create a mod to replace those glow-in-the-dark fake looking trees with something more realistic.
Having not been in WWII in a Navy submarine, I can't comment on how realistic the simulation is regarding WWII submarine combat, but from the books I've read and reviews of others, it's about as close as you can get, at least in the games available in this genre. There are some things missing, even things that were in SH 3 but have been removed from SH 4 (like giving commands directly to crew members). However, I know of no other game, that taken in it's entirety, does a better job at simulating life on an American submarine operating in the Pacific.
I gave SH IV 4 out of 5 stars because it does take a little work to get up to it's full potential. The departure from the SH 3 interface is disappointing, but it doesn't take long to get used to the new layout. Many bugs are fixed in the latest patch, and there are mods that compensate for some of the odd things (like giant underwater plants and rocks) that come with the stock game. Ubisoft has a reputation of rushing products to market before they are ready, and SH IV is no exception. However, they do seem to work hard to patch the game with fixes - the latest being patch 1.4 as of this review. What Ubisoft does not offer in regards to patches and support can be found in the subsim.com community, and that alone adds much value to the game. If my first impression had been as favorable as my current impression, I'd easily would have given all 5 stars for this review..

"Do Not Buy This Product"
I bought this game directly from Ubisoft. I installed and it on a Win XP pro system with 2GB of Ram and 250GB hard disk space. It crashed every time I tried to play it. I contacted Ubisoft and they provided help on "tweaks and fixes" none of which worked. They asked me to uninstall and re-install. I did and still the game would not work. After 3 or 4 hours of trying their fixes I had had enough and asked for my money back. I was told that because I registered the software and used the game they could not provide a refund. I responded by saying yes I had registered the game, but how could I have used the game if it crashed every time I try to run it? They basically said no refund. If you search their user forums you see similar complaints to mine. I wish I had access to their user forums before I bought the game. Anyone considering buying this game should consider my story as a warning.

"The best once patched to 1.3 "
I have played them all from Microprose Silent Service through all the Silent Hunters and this is easily the best. Make sure you have the patch and a rig that is about 3.0mghz with a high end video card that is no older than two years old. The view cameras, action, AI are amazing. Unlike many Silent Hunters this has a free-form type of campaign that is not scenario driven and allows you freedom to continue or return to port at will. Probably the best graphical warsim I have ever seen, you can even pick out crew on opposing ships with your binoculors with facial features. You can use the cam to watch the ships sink, they have holes in their sides, gun shots will topple the big smoke stacks on ships. Wow.

"Wolves"
A great game, once the patches are installed, but, visually stunning. If you like War, and Sims, and fire, and explosions.....this game is for you! I love it despite the bugs initially, and system requirements are steep.

Tucky