Submarine 3D

There's a reason why nobody books holidays on a submarine. There's no natural source of light or oxygen, limited space, grubby decor, and if something goes wrong everybody dies in the most horrible way conceivable. That's why almost all submarine excursions have the same purpose: war.

True to life, Submarine 3D is anything but a holiday. There's no escapism to be had in its polygonal brickwork, nor any reprieve from the daily routine of boredom, alienation and humiliation in which all fighting men are locked. As a simulation of life on a submarine, it is excellent, because it captures the dripping tedium perfectly.

The game places you in control of a submarine that, due to the technical constraints of the platform, never goes underwater. Instead, it forfeits what businessmen might call the 'Unique Selling Point' of a submarine and bobs on the surface, restricting the action to a more manageable single plane.

Of course, during war people must expect to endure privations, and the grim campaign of Submarine 3D offers no exception. While in most submarine games it's possible to use cover and stealth, and to scout in directions other than the one in which your vessel is facing, Submarine 3D rations this kind of luxury. The only direction in which you can look and fire is directly forward. The enemy ships, meanwhile, can fire torpedoes in any direction they like.

The object of the game is to undertake a series of World War II missions in which you have to sink a ship, a flotilla of ships, or – at its most interesting – a ship beside another ship that you mustn't sink. The ships in question belong to the allied forces, and you play the role of a German U-Boat Captain working his way up through the ranks of the Kriegsmarine.

Combat involves looking for dots on your radar and revolving the game universe until the ships they denote swerve into view. As the game becomes progressively more difficult, you'll find you need to consider the angle of your approach to limit your exposure to enemy torpedoes, although this tactical consideration is somewhat skewed by the multi-directional firing capacity of the enemy. Still, you can dodge torpedoes by making sure you keep moving, and the constant necessity to both move and get the enemy in your crosshairs is the meat of the game.

Despite limited gameplay, Submarine 3D is visually fairly impressive. Although the environment is blocky, the enemy ships are detailed and the effect of the sea swelling and subsiding is subtly atmospheric. Explosions bloom grandly against the side of ships when your torpedoes make contact, and these are accompanied by booms and vibrations.

As you start the game you're treated to the classic scratchy beep of the submarine's sweeping radar, and before every level it produces an exquisitely irritating high-pitched squeal, but this adds to the atmosphere that the title successfully builds.

However, looks and sounds don't make a game, and in the water Submarine 3D is simply too a shallow an experience to recommend.