One drawback to this game is that even a long game is timed at 1 hour and must be completed in that time or you loose.  Some of these missions would be much more fun if they would give you two hours to allow you to expand your mind to find new ways to complete each mission.  Nova Logic sometimes tends to limit its games and your ability to play the game in different ways.  They say it's just their way of doing things and they don't intend to change that for anyone.  I say it is because they want to limit your time spent with the game so you can buy one of their new games.  But then again they also said their Comanche 3 and their F-22 Lighting II were realistic simulations, so what can a poor ol pilot and experienced game reviewer say to dispute them ?  ;-)  Trying to consult with them turns into an argument of "yes it is" and "no it isn't" and doesn't accomplish anything because Nova Logic does things the way they want them rather than the way we want them.  I like this game, in fact all of Nova Logic's simulation games except their F-22 Lightning II which should never have been made.  For more on this read "...who do they think they are?"  (NOTE: since we have a new site here and we are working to build it and update it I don't have all the links handy yet to link files to every page.)

Some of the missions can load your computer down until it makes it hard to play the game.  I suggest setting all your graphics to low if this happens.  I had one mission which I could not play at all because even on low the computer loads up and becomes so unresponsive that you will be dead before you can even defend yourself.  (Nova Logic has no comments.)

Mission tip, frequently they put your waypoints right in the way of certain destruction.  You can beat these missions simply by telling all your troops to HALT right there and then change their waypoints to a path around the original path.  Sneak up behind or from the side of your attackers if you can and blast them.

In one mission they have over 140 "RED" enemy and I don't know how many GRAY enemy in front of you and all you have to do is drive between them to your base to win the mission.  FORGET IT!  It is one of those missions where the game mission designer thought he would play a trick on you to see if you are smart enough to get around him.  You see your men will not automatically fire on the gray enemy, but the gray enemy will certainly kill you.  20 or 30 RED enemy can be a hand full even for 8 tanks but then put them against the gray and you end up fighting the entire battle because your men won't help you.  I'll tell you this mission is one of those where you must out-smart the game mission designer and this is how you do it.  Use their own game design against them to win the battle.  You see Nova Logic's voxel graphics (like Comanche) is designed using a wrap around map.  If you turn around and go away from the battle eventually you will come back into the battle on the far side away from the majority of the enemy.  You race into your camp and cross the gate threshold and you win the game.  It mockingly says "what took you so long" and "that mission was a walk in the park wasn't it ?"  This is the mission designers way of saying "HA HA I GOT YOU DIDN'T I!"  Well Mr. Mission designer you didn't get me for very long because I finally crossed the threshold with all 8 of my tanks undamaged.

They give you artillery and air support but if you don't use them wisely they end up dead before they can do you any good.  You see their pilots are idiots!  They are nothing like realistic.  They do not sneak up behind hills and fire on the enemy like a real Apache pilot would.  They fly right out in clear sight and end up dead.  They did this in the original Armored Fist 1.  If however you only use them if you need them or wait until you are near the end of a mission and need to locate that one last goal then call them out good deal.  On the other hand Artillery can save your life if you use it correctly.  A-10's can also be very helpful if you know when to use them.  The enemy will almost always call air support on you the moment you call for air support on them so be ready to defend your aircraft.  In some cases you can actually sneak up on their air support while they are on the ground and wipe them out.  These are frequently triggered by you crossing certain waypoint lines.  Simply don't cross them, go around them if you can and good luck.

They say there are about 50 missions, I played them all but one and I didn't count them but some of the campaigns only had about 7 or 8 missions in them.  I think the last one had 10, but as I said I didn't count them. I was going to count them but my operating system crashed and I loaned the game to one of the other ISC members.
 
If you don't care about commanding the entire battle or having short time limits put on your missions.  If you don't care about building your own missions and if you want more realistic graphics and sound effects this one is for you.

So if you want to be able to command the entire battle with features and higher time limits, and real mission builder this is the game you are looking for.  Surprise your multi-player friends with missions you build yourself and there's no end to the fun you can have with this simulation game.

Is without a doubt the best submarine game I have seen since Silent Service II.  I only have one real problem with it and that is the fact that DirectX doesn't appear to get along with my video card/driver.  I have a Reveal Speedcat VC800 PCI video card with 2 meg of RAM.  When DirectX installs it changes the driver to a default driver that works but doesn't work all that well.  When I return to my correct driver DirectX no longer functions.  If I want to play the game the DirectX is no longer installed and must be reinstalled each time I want to play the game.  Jane's say it's not their game's fault, it is DirectX that doesn't like my video card.  They sent me some canned directions that were just about as much help as most canned directions can be.  No help at all.  Anyway when I want to play the game I just reinstall DirectX and away I go.

This game has a real mission builder and all the stations required to man a fast attack Los Angeles class fast attack sub.  It has player options, cheat modes, multi player modes and on line modes.  The graphics, sound effects and game play are outstanding.  This game will challenge you to the limit of your ability.  It is not a game for someone who wants to play a fast mission however.  Some missions can take well over a hour to play even when using the time speed-up feature.

ONE OUTSTANDING GAME FROM THE E.A./Origon Jane's team.  I would not expect anything less from this game developer.  I hope to have more details on this game and some of the missions in another review.

UPDATE: I have finished all the missions in this game.  Highly recommended, will most certainly test your abilities.

NOTE: this is not a game for those of you who want a quick game.  Some of these missions require several hours to complete.  The game does have a fast time mode but that can get you killed so quickly that you will not have any defense or way to fight your way out of a mess if you use it very much.