The voice is steady and certain:
“Conn, sonar – I have a new contact bearing 210 Designated Sierra 2.”
“Secure ventilating.”
“Make my depth 061 feet. Dive,
aye.”
“Dive, dive.”
“All main ballast tank vents are
shut. All compartments report conditions normal on the dive.”
The Seawolf SSN skims along above
the surface of the ocean floor off the coast of New Zealand, the mission is
simply to arrive in port. Crewmembers are sick and you have to navigate to enter
in a precise manner else you may violate the Arms Control Act of 1987. But your
crew is sick, and negotiations have made it possible for you to pull your
nuclear-driven sub into the dock in Auckland.
What may sound easy is anything but
that.
Sonalysts Combat Simulations
Dangerous Waters is a PC release from Battlefront.com. With a manual of Tolstoy-esque
proportions (thankfully it reads well), this is a simulation that is not entered
into lightly. The game has depth, and is rather involved. Casual gamers may find
this way too frustrating, while those who are a little more hardcore will find
this game a real challenge to learn and grow into.
The program features voice
recognition and comes with Microsoft Speech 5.1.
When you first launch the program
there is an initial skill level set-up. This serves as a starting point for
gamers and there are two settings – novice (auto crewmen are on, and a quick
weapon reload time) and advanced (auto crewmen off and realistic weapon reload
time).
The program comes with a nice little
feature in the options package. You can test enable various details in the
graphics and see how it affects framerates. Even turning off something as simple
as terrain vegetation may result in 10 more frames per second (taking it from
151 with all graphical features enabled to 161).
There are 25 missions in the
single-player game from all over the world, from the African coast to the
Barents Sea to an atoll in the U.S. Pacific Command, a Filipino convoy and Tokyo
Harbor Cruise. The game features missions for Chinese, Russian, and U.S. forces.
Each of the single player missions are rated from one to four stars.
A one-star mission tasks the USS
Reuben James to proceed to an atoll in the Pacific Ocean to take radiation
readings from French nuclear testing prior to the arrival of a U.N. team of
investigators. A four-star mission charges the U.S. and Japan of conspiring to
infringe on Russia by gaining footholds in the Kamchatka Peninsula. A task force
centered around the U.S.S. Nimitz is headed the peninsula to support Japanese
actions. The mission is to intercept and sink the Nimitz.
Each mission has various ways to set
up the action. You are shown which vessels are controllable, and may or may not
have an option which vessels you wish to play as. There is a mission briefing,
an overview of the mission location and brief description. After a briefing, you
can load out either your controlled vessel.
After the mission, you are given a
score out of 300, shown how many of the objectives you completed, how many kills
and/or damage you inflicted.
First, it should be noted that this
game is not all that intuitive, at least not to this writer – who spent five
years in Uncle Sam’s Canoe Club and was part of a nav detail. The game features
numerous controllable platforms (the way that air, surface and sub-surface
vessels are referred to), which include the Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate,
the MH-60R multi-mission helicopter, the P3-C Orion (a turboprop sub-hunting
aircraft), the Seawolf class sub, and the Los Angeles class sub. And that’s just
on the American side. There are Russian and Chinese subs as well.
While the game does have a video
tutorial, the manual also provides a nice step-by-step introduction to the
mechanics of gameplay.
There are several modes of play –
missions, campaign, multiplayer, quick missions, and a mission editor. The
latter is an in-depth way to create unique and challenging missions in any part
of the world.
The game adds voice commands, which
must be set up, and work rather well – if you don’t mind other people in the
room think you are crazy for barking commands over and over at the PC.
While Dangerous Waters is not the
easiest of games to ease into, there are ways to tailor the experience for a
player’s preference. You can learn a great deal about sonar, about the
principles of Target Motion Analysis, about underwater sound propagation and
thermal layers, or you can just learn how to drive the sub and go play.
The graphics of this game are well
designed and the F keys will allow players to jump from one station to another
easily. (A multiplayer mode allows different players to exclusively control one
station.) Navigation does take some getting used to, and some of the missions
are timed, and some – depending on your skill – just seem to carry on longer
than they should.
There are three difficulty settings,
and the camera is fully rotatable, giving players a dynamic three-dimensional
look at the world. The replay value of this game is immense, thanks to the
missions’ editor, which cannot only give you a single-mission, but a campaign.
S.C.S. Dangerous Waters is an
immersive and thoughtful game that is rife with challenge and options. Though
there may be a learning curve, the game does provide players with the
opportunity to take full command of various ‘platforms’ in a wide range of
mission types. It looks good, and plays well. Those who remember the Jane’s
lineup of sims fondly will thoroughly enjoy this title. Those who are looking
for an accurate military simulation would do well to check out Dangerous Waters.
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Gameplay: 8.8
The load times are incidental to the mission lengths and depth of play. The
controls take some time to get on top of, but once you do, this is a solid and
intelligent game. This title was initially downloaded from the Internet, and on
two occasions the game stalled and locked up, and had to be restarted, but these
were minor, and it did not happen off the load from the disk.
Graphics: 8.6
The graphical quality of this game is nicely done, and quite serviceable. While
there are some screens that just seem like they are replicas of others, each
does serve a purpose and you have to pay attention to the wealth of information
that is being shown. The game uses picture-in-picture technology in default,
with a map as the main window and the window showing the “live” third-person
view of your vessel. This is very good stuff.
Sound: 8.2
The sounds are very well done. The radio crackles with information that makes
you feel as though you are right in the vessels during the missions. The music
can get a little redundant, especially if trying to create a mission.
Difficulty: Hard
Don’t like the star-rating system beside the missions fool you. This game is
involved and very challenging.
Concept: 8.8
With a wealth of mission, a mission editor, voice commands and multi-station
gaming, Dangerous Waters is a well-designed title. The learning curve is steep,
but once you have the nuances down, this is a cerebral exercise that gives a
solid workout.
Multiplayer: 8.7
The game hooks up in two ways for multiplayer – LAN or Internet. There is also a
multi-station option, which allows players to be assigned to stations on a
platform, either for combat against the AI or against other, similar teams of
players. All in all, this is nicely done.
Overall: 8.8
S.C.S. Dangerous Waters is deep gameplay overlaid with challenge in a seemingly
accurate playground of modern naval combat. While not a game for those seeking
quick, jump-in-and-play gamers, the design of the game seems daunting at first,
but after the steep learning curve, players will find a simulation that requires
thoughtful play. This is a terrific challenge
