German submarines are looking for a new home on Xbox and UBOAT may be what fans of this type of simulation have been looking for. Or maybe not...
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In recent years, simulation games have become increasingly popular on Xbox, which is a welcome development for the diversity of genres on the platform and to reduce the exclusivity of these types of titles on PC. While we’ve had various types of simulators before, if my memory serves me right, this is the first time a World War II submarine production has ventured into the waters of the latest Xbox consoles, loaded with torpedoes and plenty of good intentions.
Submarine simulators have a long history, particularly among fans of the genre, with notable examples like Silent Service back in the 90s and the Silent Hunter series from Ubisoft with its multiple installments and a large community of modders behind it. However, it’s been 15 years since Silent Hunter 5 (the last installment in the franchise) and now we have UBOAT, a title from Deep Water Studio that was in early access on PC for over 6 years and has finally decided to dive into the Xbox ocean. With some very original simulation details that combine the operation of the submarine during various moments of the war with the human management of the crew, similar to a Sims game.
I hope you’re not afraid of enclosed spaces because in this journey, we’ll dive into very deep and treacherous waters to explore a title with a lot of potential and a lot of work ahead. Revised compressors, diesel engines at full capacity. Join me.
Technical Section
I’m forced to make some divisions to try to be fair to each point, at least in terms of graphics. The design of the water in the various geographical accidents that the game allows you to navigate and the modeling of the ships and submarines is truly spectacular, some of the best I’ve seen in this type of production. That being said, on my Xbox Series S, where I conducted the analysis, the texture popping in the interior of the submarine with the camera in first person is recurrent and annoying; while the modeling of the crew members seems to be from the previous generation and the land parts of the maps, whether they contain forests, mountains, or city profiles, look even more outdated with a really poor level of detail.
The bases do have a higher level of detail, even varying in design as the years progress, which is an interesting point that could have been repeated in the rest of the elements.
The UI is good for PC, but on Xbox, it’s very poorly adapted. At times, it’s hard to understand where the current selection is, and navigating the thousands of menus and options that the title presents is often an exercise in patience or even luck.
In terms of sound, the proposal is solid without being dazzling. The communications and dialogues feel very real, especially if you set the language to German as the base. The sounds of the submarine’s systems, the immersion, and even the navigation on the surface are also very well done. The music is also present with an orchestra in certain moments that doesn’t disrupt the immersion (no pun intended).
The title is localized in our language, but the work here has been very poor and may have been done with some artificial intelligence. The conversations with superiors are read in a very unnatural way, and the same dialogue goes from a formal tone to an informal one in just two sentences, not to mention that no one seems to have checked how the text chains are read on screen; since in many cases, the text overlaps with another without giving the player the possibility of knowing what a certain action or button says.
Gameplay
A submarine simulator is intended for a very specific niche, we agree on that, but even so, the developers have enabled options for a player profile that doesn’t want to make life too difficult. Therefore, UBOAT allows you to choose between an entertainment-oriented difficulty, a moderate one, and a realistic one. Each of these variants can be customized to balance the experience with the title as desired.
Curiously, customization doesn’t just stop at options, but also at the aesthetics of the character that the player embodies and the crew in general. This way, you can select uniforms, haircuts, some physical features like body dimensions or scars, and even some clothing items.
Even on the lowest difficulty, operating the submarine, regardless of the model, is complex, so I advise you to spend some time in the tutorials, that’s if some of them can be enjoyed due to the bugs I mentioned in the above section. For example, when playing the first tutorial with the most basic submarine in the part where immersion is indicated, the animation repeats constantly, making it impossible for the player to take any action until they have to exit the game. In the torpedo shooting tutorial, the submarine travels through a narrow channel following all the steps shown on screen to inevitably end up stuck against sandbanks in a completely unfair and inexplicable way. Many things to improve with an urgent patch.
The campaign allows you to enter the war at different times, the earlier you enter, the easier the missions will be, basically because the armed response of the Allies was not as advanced as the German Type II and Type IID submarines with their respective advantages and disadvantages.
On the other hand, the missions are the most diverse I’ve seen in a simulator of this type. You’ll be able to transport high-ranking officials from one point to another, perform refueling or repairs on another damaged submarine, mine enemy coasts, or even infiltrate spies in some areas under cover of stealth.
The title allows you to follow the action with different cameras, an orbital one that orbits the submarine, a lateral one, and a first-person one from different crew members. Since the real-time navigation times are often days in reality, time compression is essential to have a good time without getting bored, that’s if this function is configured to deactivate automatically when there’s a threat in the area or when receiving some important communication.
Navigation is done through a map with routes that can be plotted automatically or manually; the first option is very practical, but it also requires a lot from the player so that the AI doesn’t make the submarine end up crashing against a wall when entering the base or turning in a sandbank as detailed above in this analysis.
Preparing for the mission in the port also involves getting enough food, ammunition, and equipment to face the difficult journey ahead. As certain missions are completed, the submarine can be equipped with upgrades that will make some aspects simpler. You can also add specializations to crew members, although I recommend not getting too attached to them because their average lifespan is quite short.
It’s possible to automate several tasks and assign various functions to teams. Attacks on enemy convoys are, without a doubt, one of the most exciting things in the game, as well as firing the anti-aircraft machine gun from the surface. Sinkings must be registered so that they count in the history, and the player will have the option to try to rescue survivors and even recover the cargo of the sunk ship in some cases, which adds machinery and food to the warehouse.
Duration
Another strong point of the game, each campaign mission can take a lot of time, even with time compression activated almost all the time, and completing them all won’t take less than 50 hours in total.
Conclusion
UBOAT is an answer to a niche of players and a very original addition to the Xbox catalog that really has a lot to offer, but still has to resolve many inconveniences before it can be considered a valid option to pay a good amount of money for.
When the main bugs are resolved and perhaps some adjustments are made to the UI for better adaptation to Xbox, I think the game can attract, if only a portion of PC players, although, for now, I think they’re better off enjoying the title on that platform where it has already sold over a million copies.
Translator and video game localiser with a passion for retro titles and simulators. He has never let go of a controller since he was given an Atari 2600. He collaborates with different developers in the localisation of their titles into Spanish through Camelot Translations.
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