GAME REVIEW ----------- SILENT SERVICE II -----------------  ¿? 35 ¿*? 35 ¿*? 35 ¿*? 35 ¿*? 35 ¿*? 35 ¿*? 35 ¿*? 35 ¿*? 35 ¿*? 35 ¿? Silent Service was one of the first sub sims to make an appearance back in 1985 when computer memories were smaller than your shoe size. Since the Amiga arrived there's been something of a proliferation with titles like Wolfpack, Das Boot and Hunt For R ed October all vying for would-be commanders. Silent Service aims to restore its predecessors place on the shelf with digitised speech and graphics, historical accuracy and testing scenarios. Set in World War II, it offers the players the chance to command a number of American subs in the South Pacific, raiding Japanese supply convoys and tackling what was the most powerful navy in the world, until...Hey! This ain't a history lesson! The game begins with a spot of training as usual, allowing you to familiarise your self with the controls and get used to sending thousands of tonnes of metal to the seabed. You make your way north where four hulks are anchored, and open up on them with deck guns or submerge and shoot off a few torpedoes until they disappear beneath the surface. With a couple of notches down on the periscope (a naval sign of experience) you can really begin the game. The options which open up before you offer a number scenarios ranging from individual missions to a total wartime career in which you take command of a sub for the entire campaign, saving to disk and building up a service record. This is a bit heavy, so go for a single battle and select from eight historical engagements which actually took place. They have names like "Mush On The Loose", referring to the name of the skipper or captain or, their exploits. They range from a nice easy option like sinking a fat tanker, to tangling with a battleship. The impressive manual sets up the situation, gives advice and, a nice touch, tells you what really happened. Each time you opt for a mission the computer offers you the chance to select the type of submarine you use, the difficulty level and the reliability of your torpedoes, though only a real derbrain is going to take the chance of using crap in the name of realism. War patrols give you a set time to hunt around the ocean with a base and a limited amount of fuel. You cruise around looking for contacts and engaging as much shipping as possible without getting attacked your self. A war career involves hours of play a nd runs the risk of becoming a tiny bit tedious by limiting the number of screens you see unless you're actually involved in an engagement. Thus, you end up staring a map of the South Pacific for considerable lengths of time waiting for something to happen. Silent Service II works best on the individual actions where you can get straight into the business of running a sub and doing some big-time damage. Once you're into the game, all the screens become available to you - charts, damage status, info panel, binoculars, and periscope. You're likely to spend most of your time on the latter two controlling the ship from your keyboard and mouse. An overlay makes it easy for you to work smoothly and on-screen icons speed up your task. Sensibly you don't have to set every gauge on the thing. The graphics in Silent Service II are adequate, without ever living up to the rather impressive VGA screenshot which is on the box. The various control screens are all clear and easy to understand, but it's the views which make a game like this come alive, and they sort of don't exactly set the pulse racing - only the nicely animated shot of the boat firing a torpedo goes any way into giving you some visual feel. It would have been nice if you could take a look at the boat from a number of angles, as you can in flight sims and indeed, Das Boot. Sound is a success, with digitised voices crying "Dive, dive!" as you sub merge, seagull sounds on the surface and a klaxon when you're about to engage. What's really missing from Silent Service II is real excitement. It works so hard at being accurate, yet you never really feel like you're inside a tin can floating below the water's surface. It's a common problem with sub sims that no-one's ever fully solved and used effectively.  Murray Hassan  ¿? 35 ¿*? 35 ¿*? 35 ¿*? 35 ¿*? 35 ¿*? 35 ¿*? 35 ¿*? 35 ¿*? 35 ¿*? 35 ¿?