Even though I’m a woman in the true sense of the word, I play video games. And if you believe certain people, sometimes I play too much. But whatever I play, I choose games which are as different from reality as possible – the exact opposite is always preferred. That’s because I believe a game is an escape from the mundane, from every day’s boring passage, from the wonderful office performance and that’s why I usually stay as far as I can from simulators – I’ve got too much realism in my own back yard, thank you. However, last week I’ve had the chance to attend a particular event which should make us Romanians proud. It’s a launch of a game made by us, a game which proves that even in a poor country like ours, it’s possible to produce something of true quality, granted that it has been done under the iron guidance of a company like Ubisoft.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am talking about the launch of Silent Hunter 4, the follow-up of the famous Silent Hunter 3, it too developed by Ubisoft Romania. As some of you may know, Silent Hunter 3 was of big success worldwide, and it’s currently considered one of the best simulators ever launched and clearly the best in its class (subsims). A hard burden that our fellow countrymen must carry, since it’s one thing to launch a very good game and quite another to come with a sequel that will carry on the torch, and hold on to that hard earned respect amongst the worldwide community. But I am currently playing Silent Hunter 4 myself, which says a lot as it is, considering my anti sim background. And I like it, I like it a lot!
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Silent Hunter 4 was launched in Romania on March 19th. The small, unpretentious event had only one purpose, or at least that’s how I felt: for the press to meet the team and to see how passionate everybody was about games, submarines and history. When we arrived at the designated place, our attention was caught by a table full of sub blueprints and a ton of history books about the conflict between the United States and Japan that took place in World War II. The team confidently stated that during the development of this game, a lot of the time was spent on detailed documentation. As you may (or may not) know, Silent Hunter 3 was situated historically and geographically in the same World War II, but in the North Atlantic. Back then, you got to play the Germans and command the notorious U-Boats. Although situated in the same historical period, SH4 changes the perspective a little, since you get to play the “good” side (as some may call it) – this time you are American, and you’re fighting Japan due to various reasons, such as Pearl Harbor. Furthermore, you’ve left the Atlantic now and you’re exploring the Pacific, and yes, you do exactly what the Americans did back then: you are trying to disrupt the supply lines of Japan, and your main and favorite target is the commercial ships. Your purpose is more silent than ever, to stay undetected by huge Japanese warships, with names that mandatory contain at least an y or a k, and to be able to pass by defense lines and get to the otherwise helpless commercial ships.
What first impressed me at the SH4 team is that its composed by people very passionate about submarines and WWII, tactics and strategies (and they have admitted this bluntly, almost as if they were in front of an AA meeting). To be able to recreate the atmosphere of the 1940s, part of the team went all the way to the Unites States and visited a real submarine. Veni vidi vici they said, and they started working. They’ve added hundreds of new models, insane detail accuracy, almost completely revamped graphics, cities that this time looks like real cities, a crew that also looks like a real crew, the ocean full of marine plants and plankton, plus many other goodies that can satisfy anyone’s taste, including the most passionate submarine researchers. Unfortunately, I cannot say I am part of that category, quite the contrary, but the launch event inspired so much passion and dedication that I even after a long and boring Bucharest - Brasov road, I couldn’t help to install my SH4 review copy and to end the life of few hundred digital Japanese, and that’s just the tutorial. I can still hear my initial post launch thoughts running through my mind, that I have just met an incredibly passionate team of professionals who found the means and the way to exercise that passion right here, in our little country.
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