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It can't compete with Silent Hunter III, but it does get a few things right.

Welcome kiddies to another review of a lackluster game. Let's start with a little synopsis of the game.

Enigma is a naval war game set in a “what if” scenario of World War II. America, untouched by war, invades Asia. Germany rules over Europe and Great Britain and Japan are allies.

Now the premise sounds really cool, but the gameplay itself kills it.

There are two ways to get into the action. One way is the Patrol missions which give you a chance at learning how to play the game. Second is the Campaign portion of the game, where you pick a side and fight through story-driven missions.

The Patrol mission are broken up into three classes. Training is the first part of the Patrol missions. Here you are taught how to use the funky interface of Enigma. The second part consists of combat missions. And finally, the third is tactical gameplay ,which throws you out in a sandbox mode of the game.

Campaign missions let you embark on the drudgery that is Enigma. Campaign missions have a great flavor of telling the story, until you actually play the game.

Alright, lets get to the nitty gritty of the game. Because games like this aren't really graphical gems. Games of this nature reply solely on gameplay and fun factor.

The interface wasn't very intuitive. You just stand there in a stationary position as either a sub captain or ship captain, while you click on your radar.

Sure you can look around the immediate vicinity, but you can't move! Where is the excitement in being a captain in a stasis field.

As a sub captain your job is to find ships and click on your radar until you are within reach, and then you can either fire torpedoes yourself or let the AI do it.

As a ship captain your job is to wander the seas protecting cargo ships and dropping depth charges on enemy subs.

I'm a naval sim fan and have been since the Silent Hunter days. This game is a sterile naval combat sim. There are no humans whatsoever in the game. You can't see your crew, nor can you see the crews of the ships your destroying. It's all very impersonal.

There are some cool moments playing as a sub captain, sneaking up on unsuspecting ships. Dodging airplanes and watching the ocean lap against your periscope is pretty cool too.

Graphically, the game is like a low budget film. You don't go in expecting awesome CGI in an independent film. To give you an image of how the graphics work, sit in your tub with plastic ships and a sub. Now shoot off a terd towards the ships from your sub, and then you have a graphical representation of the game.

I'm not one to knock the graphics of a low budget game, but the upside of games like that are supposed to be engaging gameplay.

Enigma is a “play the demo” kind of game. It just felt more like a web game than a real game. So wait for Silent Hunter III kiddos.


Review by Jared Gooch.