Home » Articles » PC Game Review

Dangerous Waters

	Author: Andrew Glenn Article Type: PC Game Review Publication Date: 2/21/2005 Developer: Sonalysts Publisher: Battlefront Related Categories: Tactical, Present Day / Near Future, Naval Combat, Simulation

Introduction

The aircraft carrier USS Nimitz glided majestically through rolling waves some 150 nautical miles east of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. The flight deck crew scurried about the massive platform, readying its complement of F/A-18 Hornets for a dawn strike on a Russian headquarters building. Unknown to the crew, however, was the near-by presence of an Akula II attack-submarine that had slipped through the escorting cordon of frigates and destroyers. It lurked silently in the depths only a few miles behind the noisy wake of the carrier. As the captain of the Nimitz prepared to launch his strike force, a voice bellowed through the bridge’s loudspeaker. It was the captain of an escorting frigate. “Nimitz, this is Reuben James. We have detected a hostile contact on bearing one-one-zero…”

The confrontation between the agile Akula - Russian for shark - and its lumbering prey is one of the many scenarios available in Sonalysts’ latest simulation of modern naval warfare, Dangerous Waters. Placing the player in command of selected surface, subsurface and air platforms in a 2D/3D environment, Dangerous Waters provides an in-depth and highly challenging maritime combat experience. With over 270 units in the game and a choice of single missions, quick missions, a grand campaign, multiplayer missions and user-designed missions, Dangerous Waters, like the oceans it is played on, is vast. 

In many ways, Dangerous Waters is 11 simulators in one. Fully simulated and playable platforms include the ubiquitous Oliver Hazard Perry Class Guided Missile Fast Frigate, its onboard MH60R helicopter, the P3-C Orion, the SSN 688(I) and SSN 21 Seawolf Class nuclear attack submarines, the Russian and Chinese versions of the Kilo SS and Improved Kilo SS classes, and the Akula I and Akula II Class attack submarines.

Dangerous Waters is also an incredibly complex game. For many, knowing how to classify sonar contacts by interpreting frequencies on a narrowband sonar, for example, may prove overwhelming. Fortunately, the game’s developers appreciate that few of us armchair admirals have a sonar operator’s ticket. This station, and all others, can be automated to accommodate differing skill levels and interests, thus allowing even novice commanders to enjoy the thrill of the chase.

Installation & Technical Issues

Dangerous Waters ships on two CDs and comes with two installation options. A Full install will use approximately 945Mb of disk space, while the Typical install consumes approximately 490Mb. The game requires DirectX 9.0c drivers and Microsoft’s Speech Engine 5.1 for voice command recognition. These are included on disk, as is Adobe’s Acrobat Reader 6, which is needed to view the PDF version of the manual. At the conclusion of the installation process, players determine the initial game skill level by selecting either Novice - all auto crewmen on and quick weapon reload time - or Advanced - all auto crewmen off and realistic weapon reload time. These settings can be readjusted at any time during the game. Finally, players are informed that several tutorial videos are available on the second disk, which requires Microsoft’s Media Player 9 or higher - not included - to view. The game installed effortlessly, but consumed several more megabytes of hard disk space than advised in the documentation.

Although the game engine appears very solid, it has crashed on my system two or three times during the course of play for reasons I have yet to identify. Fortunately there is a save game option, so I pause and save the game every now and then for peace of mind.