Computer + Video Games - Commodore Is Awesome

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O. MACHINES CBM 641128
10 SUPPLIER: EPYX
P. PRICE: E9.99 ICASSETTEIE14 99
(DISK)
al• REVIEWER: STEVE BADSEY
'So, there I was, captain of a
German submarine in the first
week of World War Two,
hunting for British merchant
ships in the English Channel.
After two days' patrol a lookout
reported smoke to the north.
"My binoculars showed only
clear blue sea, so I followed his
directions. We pursued for an
hour with the lookout getting
more excited. Suddenly there
was an almighty crash as we
went aground,
"I checked the map, and we
had just sailed 50 miles inland
from Brighton. The lookout still
reported the convoy,
presumably sailing down the
main runway at Gatwick airport.
I took another look through the
binoculars. Nothing but ocean. I
must get them fixed."
Of all the attack submarine
games on the market, Subbattle
Simulator promises the most. In
charge of a World War Two
submarine, the player must
master the problems of
manoeuvre and torpedo attack.
V An enemy in view.
There is a training scenario, a
set of special missions
including picking up aircrew at
sea and landing agents on
enemy islands, and a "wartime
command" scenario in which if
you survive your first patrol you
move on to a better submarine
and continue your career
throughout the war. There are
four levels of difficulty, and a
selection of either American
submarines in the Pacific or
German in the North Sea and
Atlantic. Your submarine can be
attacked from the air, and you
must recognise which aircraft
are hostile, The earlier subs
really do have worse handling
and poorer torpedoes than the
later models.
It sounds too good to be true.
It is. Apart from showing the
ocean when you are sailing on
dry land - or even worse,
almost on top of an enemy ship
the program is almost
unplayable.
Course is set on a dial with a
joystick, and is accurate only to
about five degrees. Precision
navigation, one of the main
skills of a submarine, is
impossible.
V Maps-all at sea or on land?
_
Submarine work alternates
between long days of
patrolling, hours of stalking a
convoy, and minutes of very
precise manoeuvring to attack
or escape_ For a game some
form of time compression and a
way of "zooming" in and out of
larger scale maps is essential.
The method chosen by
Subbattle Simulator makes the
game almost impossible. Time
compression is reasonable up
to one Irealtimel second equals
30 seconds, but then it jumps to
ten minutes, and to four hours,
reverting each time to the
smallest scale map. This means
that you either have to run 12
day-long patrols in the ten
minute mode, or speed up and
risk that a degree or two out in
your navigation, multiplied by
eight hours' sailing, will put you
in Tokyo harbour in two
seconds. Even worse, once you
have sighted a convoy the
computer, not you, calls "battle
stations" and locks you in
tactical mode, with 30 seconds
as the fastest speed. The basic
submarine tactic of stalking a
convoy all day to attack at night
is not possible.
Subbattle Simulator is
potentially a very good game. If
it did what it is supposed to do it
would be highly realistic and
very playable indeed. But it
needs a lot more playtesting
and debugging. I look forward
to a second, improved version.
▪ GRAPHICS 6
II. REALISM
▪ PLAYABILITY 2
O. VALUE 4
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