Silent Service was one of my favorite game back in the day. In this game, you are an officer in a submarine stationed somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. The game offers you a few choices on which sub you wish to serve. Depending on which sub you choose, you may participate in one of the many famous sea battle of World War II. Such battles include the battle of Midway, and the battle to sink the Japanese super battleship, the Yamato. The game starts, by choosing your in-game name and then choosing which submarine you want.
Silent Service was one of my favorite game back in the day. In this game, you are an officer in a submarine stationed somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. The game offers you a few choices on which sub you wish to serve. Depending on which sub you choose, you may participate in one of the many famous sea battle of World War II. Such battles include the battle of Midway, and the battle to sink the Japanese super battleship, the Yamato. The game starts, by choosing your in-game name and then choosing which submarine you want. You then get your mission and the choice for setting your difficulty level, which ranges from 1 to 4. The difficulty level from 3 to 4 is very
noticeable, as enemy ships are a lot more accurate and tougher to sink.
The Game is somewhat limited, but being such an old DOS game, that is no surprise. The sounds are pretty basic for a game of this type and age. The graphics were only decent at most, even back when it was first released. The game-play however, is where this game shines. You can move around the submarine and visit different areas to perm or a certain action. For Example, the torpedo room allows you to check your battle capacities and fire torpedoes. The Comm. room allows you to receive mission information and details, the Bridge allows you to navigate the sub and view your location, speed, and heading. The battle is pretty realistic for such an old game.
You get to look around with your periscopes to find enemy ships. Once you find an enemy, you get to target and fire torpedoes. The enemy ships usually counter by dumping explosive charges into the water. You must carefully avoid these or your sub will take damage and eventually sink. When you are on the surface you get the option of using the subs machine gun, but you are more vulnerable on the surface. This game isn’t too terribly complicated. Most people could probably get the hang of this game in just a couple of hours. Through out the course of the game you can visit various bases to get repairs, re-stock weapons, and other such things. Overall, as far as old school submarine games go, this is one of the best. It may not have the graphics or sounds/music of modern games, but it still makes up for it with its very well done game-play.
