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Silent Hunter: Wolves of the Pacific | 
| From: Ubisoft
List Price: $19.99
Buy New: $13.95
You Save: $6.04 (30%)
New (6) Used (13) from $3.81
Rating:  30 reviews
Sales Rank: 3497
Platform: Windows Xp
Genre: simulation_games
ESRB: Teen
Media: CD-ROM
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Age: 12 - 20 years
Operating System: Windows XP
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 0.1 x 0.1 x 0
MPN: 68343
Model: 68343
UPC: 008888683438
EAN: 0008888683438
ASIN: B000MR5FBU
Release Date: March 20, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Factory sealed excellent condition. Ships usually within 1-2 business days. E-mail Confirmation.
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| Features:
| • | U.S. subs and Pacific theater: First Silent Hunter product since 1996 to feature playable U.S. subs, a feature strongly requested by fans. | | • | Cinematic experience: Hollywood-style audio and visuals for a fully immersive experience that’s optimized to run on the new Vista OS. | | • | Ultra-realistic and action-packed: Subs and ships modelled in painstaking detail with suspenseful gameplay that emphasizes edge-of-your seat action. | | • | Endless Replay Value: Improved Dynamic Campaign and a new “adversarial” multiplayer mode. | | • | Scaled learning experience: Allows for a satisfying experience for both beginner and expert players. |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
In Silent Hunter 4: Wolves of the Pacific you'll hunt, hide and kill as you take command of U.S. submarines and crews and navigate the treacherous waters of the Pacific during WWII. It's the next-generation naval warfare simulation with graphical realism, immersive gameplay, innovative crew evolution, and more action than ever before. Dive into ?instant actions' and single patrols for a quick fight Diverse mission objectives and events on over 15 maps combined with unique rewards make each campaign a unique experience Selectable difficulty levels allow players to choose how challenging of a simulation to play
Amazon.com
Hunt, hide and kill as you take command of U.S. submarines and crews and navigate the treacherous waters of the Pacific during WWII. Silent Hunter, the industry-leading naval warfare franchise for over a decade, returns to its roots with next-generation graphical realism, immersive gameplay, innovative crew evolution and more action than ever before. Developed by the same Ubisoft team that delivered Silent Hunter 3, the "king of sub games", to worldwide critical acclaim, the 2007 installment offers the most memorable, accessible and empowering submarine simulation experience ever. Exciting New Features Include: - All New Premium Content Including: Premium packaging with special treatment, a robust manual with enhanced ships charts and historical information, a historic map of the Pacific Theater, a replica medal, soundtrack CD and a quick-reference card.
- Hollywood Blockbuster experience: Lifelike graphics and spectacular audio/visual effects offer an incredibly immersive gaming experience. Witness the historical accuracy and the amazing attention to detail from the breathtaking Pacific settings to the more than 75 authentic-looking war machines.
- Large Scale Naval Engagements: Epic naval engagements can be witnessed by players either firsthand or via radio messages and orders from high command.
- Innovative crew evolution: Earn upgrades and experience to guide the evolution path of crewmembers, making your men the most effective naval force in the Pacific theater.
- Immersive single player gameplay: Diverse mission objectives and events combined with unique rewards make each campaign a new experience. Commandeer various U.S. submarines and progress your career as a naval officer via improved dynamic campaigns in Career Mode, or dive into `instant actions' and single patrols for a quick fight.
- Addictive Online New Adversarial Mode: Join forces with up to 8 friends via LAN or 4 via internet in either cooperative or adversarial gameplay modes. Scripted and generated mission types allow for epic online battles and unlimited replayability.
- Scalable learning experience: Selectable difficulty levels allow players to choose their level of challenge.
- Easy to control: An upgraded and streamlined interface makes moving around the submarine and controlling it much easier than ever before.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 25 more reviews...
 Some in-game moments seem straight out of an action film... March 23, 2007
Michael D. Cooper
86 out of 88 found this review helpful
This game was extremely buggy out of the box. Stretched textures, strange inconsistencies (metric system used in manual/imperial system in game), and other horror stories you may have heard of.
Yesterday (2 days post release) a 116mb patch was released which fixed and offered workarounds to these and many other issues.
While I understand the reality of modern software development, and that most publishers offer release day patches to finish the game after it has gone gold and shipped - I still find it in poor form.
That being said - I played for a few hours last night and had a blast.
First of all - this is a simulation. However it is not as hardcore as say Falcon 4.0 - but it can be. The best thing the developers did in my opinion was offer a sliding realism factor, whether you want to actually use the in-game ruler/protractor/compass to plot your course or develop firing solutions for your torpedoes manually - or let the AI do all the math - you can do it however you like. Don't want to worry about CO2 levels, Oxygen, Fuel, Battery Life? You can make it a bit easier. Thankfully there is a time dilation feature. You can play in REAL-TIME days of game time on a single patrol - or you can speed up to 2x, 4x, 8x, all the way up to 5000+x depending on how much you want to miss. Spending hours of staring at the water might suit some - but not most I would wager.
There is nothing arcade about the game. Plotting your approach, sending crew to battle stations, etc. - all of this is relevant to your attack. You can't just aim/target/fire like in some games. You have to line up and give the AI (or yourself) time to calculate the firing solution. Nothing is quite so satisfying after such hassle than the beauty of an explosion and a burning ship gradually going tail up in the water as it sinks below the depths - sailors crying out and flapping around in the water.
There are lots of small details like that paid attention to. Last night - I had my AA gun firing on a Japanese plane that was coming in on a bombing run to hit my Sub. A lucky shot blew the plane's engine and the entire thing burst into flames, I watched as crew bailed out the back of the plane in parachutes and the plane spun out of control - crashing not very far from the starboard side of my sub. I had to remind myself to exhale.
Visuals in this game are beautiful. The character models are average by today's standards - but ship/water/explosions/etc. are top of the line from what I've seen in games.
Dynamic mission generation is another plus:
I carried out a short patrol from Pearl Harbor to the mainland of Japan on a spying mission to take photographs of the harbor there. I encountered Japanese recon planes as I got closer to the mainland - and the closer I got the more determined the patrols became until I had to dive in order to avoid the bombs being dropped. Sonar detected a Destroyer which I stalked and sank - then continued into the sea of Japan. Ultimately the shallow waters led to my downfall as Destroyers started circling my position and I ended up running into one maneuvering.
My career ended on the bottom of the ocean along with an unlucky Japanese ship.
Sea birds circle your conning tower when on the surface, and sea weed floats around the ship in the water as well. All the little details seem to be noticed by the developer.
If you played SH3 - I can recommend this as a follow up that feels very similar albeit in a different setting. New features and updated graphics are only a good thing from the already beautiful Silent Hunter 3. The immersion of the Radio traffic is a big plus also to remind you of the setting. You are notified in real-time of convoy locations, war news (Germany and Italy declaring war), and invasions of islands.
 Back to the Pacific April 2, 2007
Dean Acheson (Silver Spring MD)
28 out of 30 found this review helpful
Silent Hunter 4 is the latest incarnation of the World War 2 submarine simulation series. The first two took place in the Pacific Theather and the following two in the Atlantic. The devlopers decided in 4 to return to the PTO.
To in unitiated, this is a simulation. It is not Call of Duty. There are no power-ups, but there are huge explosions at times. Very very good explosions. The level of simulation is scalable, with the largest difficulty being either the use, or non-use, of the TDC, or torpedo data computer. With this feature turned on, the player must input data concerning targets such as speed, angle on the bow, and bearing into the TDC before launching a torpedo, with it off, the weapons officer will do this for you.
The game can be a bit processor hungry, however, the graphics are scaleable for different setups. I run a 3.4 P4 and a 7800 GTX with all settings to max, and the game is stable and runs well. The need is because of the stunning graphics of this simulator, not only the explosions, but the level of detail from your ship's crew and Japanese targets. The water detail is very good, as are the wakes from any vessel.
Different boats are simulated in this game, from the S Class to the Balao boats. They are modeled very well, with all their different characteristics controlling your approach and attack tactics.
The game over the last few weeks has had a few CTDs, but only a few, probably around five. These are annoying, but not a terribly larger number than I have had with any number of new games.
Patch 1.1 cleared up some of these bugs. Others remain, such as a stopwatch feature that is supposed to help figure the speed of targets out. What is reassuring to a potential gamer is that UBI and the development team has shown itself committed to fixing these problems and being engaged with the community.
Finally, to fit different gamers, a large modding community exists for this simulation already. Largely built around individuals who created a whole raft of Mods for the venerable Silent Hunter 3 and located in the forums at www.subsim.com, tweaks are already being created to help Silent Hunter 4 meet the desires of the subsim community.
Pick up this title if you have not already. That and read Richard O'Kane's books for the immersion factor.
 Great game but released unfinished! May 19, 2007
Marcelo Oliveira
21 out of 22 found this review helpful
This will probably be a great game after it is properly patched. They have only released patch 1.2 as I write this and unfortunately, there are still major issues to be corrected. I am a huge fan of Silent Hunter III (that is a 5 star game, by the way).
So, the game as it is now, is not great. If you buy it now, you will join me as an unwanted beta playtester for Ubisoft that should have waited and released the game when it was READY!
If they continue releasing patches and fix all the issues, this will probably be a 5 star game at some point in the future.
It is a real shame, really, I would like to have been writing a great review for this game...
A Great Game! And I am not a Sim Person! March 27, 2007
T.M. Tolkien (Wisconsin, United States)
18 out of 19 found this review helpful
Silent Hunter 4 Review
Great Game! And I'm not a sim-type person!
I just got my SH4 two weeks ago - and I have been playing every minute I can since then. I am not a Sim type person. However, I am totally hooked on SH4. I always wavered on SH3 because it seemed just too sim for me - mainly, the crew management!
In SH4 the crew manages themselves for the most part, which I really like. I still have to move them off the deck guns when I compress time or else they get injured or even die. I have to remember to reclick the BATTLESTATIONS button when a crisis is over or the crew will become seriously fatigued. And I have to remember to reclick the SILENT RUNNING button for the crew to return to repair work and/or loading torpedoes or else things stay broken and the fish don't get reloaded.
The compression time is now much faster so I travel great distances within minutes instead of hours. I have to make sure that my speed is set to standard or less when I compress time - otherwise my sub gets damaged somehow. I can choose to switch off many of the sim features which would bore someone like me, who is not interested in all the nuts and bolts of the ship. Most of the control buttons are easy to locate: S for surface, C for crash dive, D for dive, etc.
I can choose unlimited fuel, Batteries, compressed air, and 11 other more sub-friendly choices which make the game less taxing for one like me. However, with oxygen, even if the realism box is unclicked still needs to be monitor - the clock helps a lot as I can stay underwater only 3 hours before I MUST resurface - otherwise the crew dies! I was also hoping for unlimited torpedoes and gun ammo or at least the ability to reload & refit my sub from friendly sub tenders located in my mission area (so I don't have to travel all the way back to the base) - but no go for now.
I have learned how to aim the torpedoes. The red, yellow and green indicator arrows over the targets indicate the chances of hitting your target: Green =best; yellow = maybe; red = no good. The closer you are to 0 degrees for a forward shot the better and the closer you are to 180 degrees for an aft shot the better.
I had a lot of fun and excitement playing the Sub School. I'm on my first career game (off the coast of Japan) and I played the Midway Quick Mission twice. The first time I learned the hard way how not to attack a Jap Task Force - both periscopes were damaged and I wasted a number of my LIMITED precious torpedoes. The second game was great. I sunk three military ships and played a cat and mouse game with a destroyer for about 30 minutes. I went deep and ran in silent mode and went dead still and then I would move at flank speed when his propellers were facing me as he could not pick me up on sonar then. It was quite thrilling. He was dropping depth charges - but in the wrong places! He was guarding a cripple destroyer which I wanted to finish off. I had one forward fish and one aft torpedo. I had no chance to surface and sink him with this determined destroyer so close - he was too fast for me and looking for me in a mean way! In the Sub School (which I love and one can replay over and over) during the torpedo practice I was able to take out two smaller type Jap gun boats with my deck gun - but this destroyer was too big and fast for that! I kept moving away at flank speed every time his sonar couldn't detect me and it worked. Eventually he left, and with one aft fish I finished off the crippled destroyer and moved on.
I have a 37" TV screen, Nividia XFX 7600GT 256 Graphics Card, 1 Gig Memory, AMD Athlon 64 3100+ with a DVD-ROM drive. I have the graphics set for low and it looks great to me. I downloaded the patch v1.1 before I played the game and so far I've avoided a number of problems that others have encountered.
The manual could have explained much, much more! And yes, it does freeze up from time to time but it has always gotten out of it by itself after a few seconds or so or after I push the ESCAPE key and then click RESUME, yet within 14 days I have had only 4 crashes. The game has some glitches for sure but it is still fun to play, and patch #2 is on the way which should address most of the problems. There are also many dedicated players who will be putting out trainers, mods, and cheats to make this game even better in the near future.
The number of Jap planes attacking me when surfaced was getting annoying; however, a cheat/mod available now lets you reduce the number of enemy planes and their range. I also make it a point to save the mission just before action takes place and also after I make a great kill. That way if the game crashes or I make a BIG mistake and get sunk - I have it saved at the pre-disaster or post-killing point.
This game is really like an underwater chess game. You have to carefully weigh many pros and cons while engaging a really wily enemy, choosing when to fight and when to run! The dynamic mission generator makes sure that no two missions are the same which gives it such lasting appeal for replaying. It takes hours to play but the excitement is great. You can see the ships sink under the water in a movie-like appearance. I recommend this wonderful this game even to newbies like me. You will be sinking Jap ships in no time!
 Does not work June 2, 2007
Samuel S. Pitts (OR USA)
17 out of 20 found this review helpful
For background I have played all the Silent Hunter gamers from early DOS SS! To the new Wolves of the Pacific. The NEW Wolves of the Pacific is the worst I have played. Buttons don't work, short keys have been changed and it crashes big time. Silent Hunter 3 (MS Flight simulator) does not crash in the same PC. FYI my systems is a P4 3.0 gigahertz with ATI Radon 9800 Pro 128mb with 2 gigs of 3200 ram.
I have also noted 2 current upgrades for a game that has only been out for a few weeks. The graphics are very good with a lot of detail that is not really needed. I would rather have a robust game like SH III that runs and functions. I would not recommend this game for at least several months to see if UBI get all the bugs fixed. They should have stayed with the same game engine and configuration as SH (which works) instead of adding way to many little things that make the game unplayable. It is Sad that SH 3 works fine but Wolves of the Pacific crashes big time on the same PC.
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