Updated review with a lot of time invested
Being a long time fan of submarine warfare and submarine simulators, Silent Hunter III was a welcome addition to my collection. I have logged about 20 careers in SHIII with very little modification to the game itself. I played the stock game with a map mod showing routes, I modded the basic.cfg file to eliminate fatigue and award much more renoun per mission. I also used a sound mod and a periscope mod.
So here comes Seawolves: Submarines on Hunt. I waited for someone to write a review or at least give me some insight as to the content of this "unofficial" expansion to figure if a purchase was in order. Well, I bought a copy from newegg which I received yesterday. After playing a stock and patched SHIII, I installed Seawolves and began playing.
PROS-
Content, there's a lot of extra stuff in here.
Radio reports are frequent and informative.
Sounds have changed and for the better, I like them, engine sounds especially.
Explosions are a lot better.
Ports are plentiful and target rich.
Convoys are fat with plenty of juicy targets.
CONS-
Some of the mods included with this expansion must be activated individually from within the SHIII folder.
Other than extra ports there are no shipping routes on the map.
The game seems to snag (split-second) a lot more than usual while playing.
Ships seem excessively hard to sink requiring more torpedoes than usual.
I've just started a new career in the 7th where I'm just south of Great Britain. I received a radio report about a King George BB in AM93 just outside of Liverpool and I'm enroute. I will post another review in a few days once I get to fully appreciate this game to let you know what I think but so far; I like it. If you have not used many mods in your game then this expansion surely improves your SHIII experience.
Rock on
Updated Review-
After logging many hours of game play I'm back to point out the highs and lows of this game.
One glaring defect is certain sounds tend to hang and play continuously. Very annoying.
There are passenger liners and lots of them but during the time period I was playing they were all Neutral so I didn't pursue them.
There is a new cargo ship weighing in at 17,600 tons. :)
I have an X850XTPE AGP card, using the latest Catalyst drivers with Quality settings my game used to look really smooth before I installed this mod. Now with all settings maxed-out I still have choppy graphics. Maybe it has something to do with this mod, maybe not but I'm sure the game looked better before. I plan to tweak my system to see if I have something misadjusted.
Any way, I still recommend this mod. I will return with another update after I go through everything.
12-01-06
After a lot more experience playing this unofficial expansion I've found it to be well worth purchasing. My last mission at sea in 1943 in the 10th found myself smack in the middle of the Atlantic. I found an area where passenger liners steam through constantly. 212000+ tons sunk. Awesome. With resupply ships available you could stay at sea for a very long time. The only drawback to that is you don't get any updated equipment for your boat.
I've updated my rig with a liquid-cooled X1900XT so the graphics are flawless though the sounds do snag from time to time. It's a shame I have to work for a living... I'd rather be sinking ships!!!