''Silent Hunter 5: Battle of the Atlantic'' is a

submarine simulator A submarine simulator is usually a computer game in which the player commands a submarine. The usual form of the game is to go on a series of missions, each of which features a number of encounters where the goal is to sink surface ships and to ...

for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

developed by

Ubisoft Bucharest Ubisoft is a French video game publisher headquartered in Montreuil, founded in March 1986 by the Guillemot brothers. Since its establishment, Ubisoft has become one of the largest video game publishers, and it has the largest in-house developme ...

and published by

Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Assassin's Creed'', ''Far Cry'', '' ...

. It is the fifth and latest installment of the ''Silent Hunter'' franchise and the successor of '' Silent Hunter 4: Wolves of the Pacific''. Like '' Silent Hunter II'' and ''

Silent Hunter III ''Silent Hunter III'' is a submarine simulation developed by Ubisoft Bucharest and published by Ubisoft. It was released for Windows on March 15, 2005. Like ''Silent Hunter II'', it places the player in command of a Nazi Germany, German U-boat du ...

'', it places the player in command of a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

U-boat U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare role ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, more specifically the

Battle of the Atlantic The Battle of the Atlantic, the longest continuous military campaign in World War II, ran from 1939 to the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, covering a major part of the naval history of World War II. At its core was the Allied naval blockade ...

Overview

''Silent Hunter 5'' takes players behind the periscope of a German Type VII U-boat to take on the Allied Forces in battles across the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. Players command the U-boat after the first captain, Rahn, departs for another submarine. They assume the role of the next submarine captain from a first-person view in a campaign that spans 1939-1943.

Reception

The game received "mixed" reviews according to video game

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

. GameZone's Steven Hopper said, "The game offers some deep elements, but the overwhelming interface and steep learning curve make it very difficult to get into. The campaign missions are fairly low-key, with quick missions not really matching the depth of the gameplay. Many bugs and performance issues will also bog down your ability to enjoy the game." GameSpot's Brett Todd said, "''Silent Hunter 5'' has promise, but this buggy and unstable game needs to be sent back to the drydock for some serious refitting." 3DJuegos' Álvaro Castellano Córdova said that "''Silent Hunter 5'' is the most accurate simulation of World War II submarine conflicts in the Atlantic. With more testing and less bugs this game could have been the best in the series", while ''

PC Gamer UK ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games mag ...

'' criticized the bugs and

DRM DRM may refer to: Government, military and politics * Defense reform movement, U.S. campaign inspired by Col. John Boyd * Democratic Republic of Madagascar, a former socialist state (1975–1992) on Madagascar * Direction du renseignement militai ...

but said that without them, "it would be the best ''Silent Hunter'' yet."

DRM

''Silent Hunter 5: Battle of the Atlantic'' uses Ubisoft's Uplay for digital rights management. Initially Uplay required a constant connection to the internet for ''Silent Hunter 5'' to run, halting the game if the connection was lost during gameplay. The scheme quickly came under fire after a

denial-of-service attack In computing, a denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) is a cyber-attack in which the perpetrator seeks to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users by temporarily or indefinitely disrupting services of a host connect ...

on Ubisoft's DRM servers in early March, 2010, rendered ''Silent Hunter 5'' and ''

Assassin's Creed II ''Assassin's Creed II'' is a 2009 action-adventure video game developed by Ubisoft Montréal and published by Ubisoft. It is the second major installment in the ''Assassin's Creed'' series, and the sequel to 2007's '' Assassin's Creed''. The g ...

'' unplayable for several days. The always-on requirement was quietly lifted towards the end of 2010, being changed to a single validation on game launch. Silent Hunter 5 was later made playable in Uplay's "offline mode" the following year, effectively eliminating the online requirement entirely.

Germany recall

The Collectors Edition of the game has been recalled in Germany, after it was discovered that the publisher failed to remove a portion of ''Silent Hunter 5s World War II symbols, such as swastika flags which was not in accordance with German law. German law, until 2019, prohibited the distribution of video games with certain Nazi symbols such as swastikas and SS runes.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Silent Hunter 5: Battle Of The Atlantic 2010 video games Naval video games Windows games Windows-only games Video games scored by Jason Graves Video games developed in Romania Ubisoft games Submarine simulation video games