SSN-21 Seawolf

SSN-21 Seawolf description

What could be more boring of a submarine simulator? Probably just the boring submarine simulator. In a similar tautology, of course, has its share of truth, but it is worth to understand: what if a submarine on the dynamics of the gameplay will be on the same level with the simulation of some tank or even a plane?

Yes, in contrast to the simulation of other types of military equipment, the submarine is experiencing outright lack of visual-games "action". And all because the divers may not directly see the object of his attacks (except except through the periscope) and can't for obvious reasons be directly observed bottom topography, and other visual "charms". This causes the specifics of the games of this subgenre. And once the developers of Electronic Arts-known as professionals of the capitalist game development, including in the field of simulation of various types of military equipment, invited us in 1994 to try the coast... the jacket of the captain of the nuclear submarine, of course, owned by the U.S. Navy.

Plot pseudo-historical background of the events here are truly gorgeous. Generally, in the first half of the 1990s, our "one-sixth" the simulators somehow wasn't fond of the attention in terms of fictional global military conflict that, more on the little things, casual. But then... the Authors drew the bloodthirsty Russian bear in the most vivid and politically incorrect "colors" which only could be imagined. So, years not given, but it is all so clear, what kind of time period will be discussed. After a very short existence, the young democratic forces in post-Soviet Russia were committed by anti-government coup and came to power by the military. The country was renamed the Russian Confederation. Overnight was occupied Baltic States and Eastern Europe. Also, Communist China was not a long wait for the sea weather, immediately attacking Russia, Vietnam, seizing more and little Hong Kong. Yes, the thing began to smell terrible English acronym that spelled it as WWIII. In other words, the world stood on the brink of a Third world war, which of course involves massive use of nuclear weapons. And only American nuclear submarine fleet able to prevent an impending global catastrophe, only the forcing power of threat of Russian and Chinese, flagrantly crossed the "red line", to start the observance of the peace agreements...

Missions in the game – 33 that can be tasted separately and in campaign mode. You start off the coast of Cuba (slight déjà vu of the events of 1962), and then important for any diver Icelandic-Faroese abroad, Baltic, Mediterranean, Adriatic, Suez canal, Persian Gulf, Indian and Pacific oceans. In General, after this massive "voyage" even a puny gamer will really start to feel like a real "sea wolf". In the beginning of the mission you are brought to the situation and the orders of the commander of the fleet, there is also news about the latest political and military developments in the world.

Well, what we have with "materiel"? Submarine SSN-21 "Seawolf" is the founder of the eponymous project of submarines of the fourth generation. The main requirement for such submarines – further reducing noise. This was achieved by developers by applying a special coating of the case and rejection of the propeller in favor of the water jets. In the late 1980s it was planned to build as many as 30 submarines. But after the Soviet collapse, an urgent need to submarines of such class has disappeared, and then was built just two ships: SSN-22 Connecticut, and SSN-23 "Jimmy Carter". SSN-21 Seawolf, has a top speed of 35 knots in "silent" mode is able to go at speeds up to 20 knots. There is one nuclear power plant with a capacity of 45 000 HP, maximum diving depth is not more than 2000 feet. The weapons are conventional mines, torpedoes and cruise missiles. Oh, and... submarines of this class are not designed to be carriers of strategic nuclear weapons, therefore, for inadequate dreamers clicking on the "red" button – please do not disturb...

The control consists of a menu and a screen with a picture of the commanders of combat units (CU) of the submarine, which in English are referred to as Stations: SCP – controlling depth, speed and direction of movement; further, WEAPONS – everything is clear: management and training torpedo tubes (loading torpedoes and pre-flooding of the apparatus with water), as well as cruise missiles for firing; SONAR – the most interesting battle of the boats: you will trust to work on modern hydroacoustic station (GUS); RADIO – telecommunication with the command: orders, instructions, reports. Sometimes these images are the commanders of the warhead "come alive" in the format of the video briefing, and subordinates tell you about a variety of emergency situations in the compartments. Anyway, the first released by you for fun, in fact, begins to be quite lively and dynamic gameplay, no way inferior to the airplane. Sometimes clicking on numerous menu items have very often and very fast...

Interesting and informative management is implemented immersion depth (SCP-DEPTH). There is no way to specify any numeric values in feet, but there is clearly a reasonable gradation of depths: SURFACE – surfacing; PERISCP – this is periscope depth, something around 25 feet, this automatically displays the view from the periscope. Further – ATTACK – the depth that is most comfortable to fire, the game is taken equal to 150 feet. Then go to the depth section above the thermocline densities (UP all thrm) and below this boundary (DN all thrm). In the game this corresponds to 700 and 800 feet, respectively. For those who are in high school on the subject of "Physics of the seas and oceans" was a solid d, it is worth Recalling that the thermocline is a zone of abrupt reduction of temperature from the surface downwards, with increasing depth. Yes, because of the global circulation temperature from the World ocean bed, even under the equator is rarely higher than +4 ºC. Together with the temperature changes and density. Therefore, if the submarine is at the bottom of the thermocline, the acoustic signal from the sonar come from the top, can be almost completely reflected from the interface density, and the submarine will remain invisible.

But most exciting in this game – working on GUS. It is literally and figuratively "eyes and ears" of your boat. In passive mode (samplingtime station) trapping noise it is possible to determine only the angular direction to the goal (bearing). Acoustic chart is beautifully depicted in the form of amplitude-time scan. The intensity and type of noise are marked with different colors. Scan done like Contracting towards the centre, i.e. the more recent the recorded noises are closer to the outer edge of the pie chart. Recorded scanning noise is always possible to "squander" time. In a separate window displays the frequency spectrum of the selected direction was the noise. Sets of multiple frequencies, so characteristic of man-made sound sources in this window look OK are distinguishable stripes. Signals reflected from your sonar or from the approaching torpedoes will look narrow white stripes. But remember that the main objective of any submarine is the observance of her Majesty's Stealth, so use a sonar signal (PING) only in the most extreme case...

As in any other self-respecting simulator, we have here a encyclopedia. And, of course, it is made in the form of an Atlas of shapes and outlines of the ships that you will meet. About how the submariner is easy to confuse the own and alien craft, we have shown in a good Hollywood mystical Thriller "the Deep" (2002). In postbreeding command you lightly scolding (if it fails), pointing out errors. The music in the game is monotonous and monotonous, but this only adds to the atmosphere. Graphics is very simple – 320х200х256с, and pixels there is enough.

Of course, this simple simulation is not particularly strong plunges us into the technical details of a submarine, and emphasizes the finer details of the work of the submarine commander and the organization of command and control crew in extreme conditions of wartime. Thanks to this feature, the game SSN-21 Seawolf, we can confidently recommend to gamers, even those just beginning their acquaintance with the submarine simulator...

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Source: Archive.org, Mobygames.com