If you’ve not been around games for a good few years then you might not be familiar with the Silent Hunter series. Ubisoft and Handy Games teamed up to take it to a mobile platform and I got a copy for my Nokia N81 (which isn’t a bad gaming phone).

You are a U-boat Captain in the German military and after some rather quick training you’re tasked with sinking Allied vessels in Campaign and Sea Battle modes. Sea Battle is a quick match/survival mode where you sink wave after wave of enemy ships and score points and medals based on tonnage, time, etc. Campaign tasks you with different missions and allows you to upgrade our sub as you go. The total tonnage of ships you sink acts as your score.

The game offers you everything you’d expect from a submarine game - sonar, torpedoes, deck guns, flak cannons and of course some diving and stealth strategy. The game requires both skill and solid strategy to accomplish the missions successfully. It also requires strong, fast thumbs as you need to repeatedly change direction, use your weapons, submerge, etc.

The game plays quite well really. Nothing is too small, even on the Nokia N81 which doesn’t have the largest of screens, the interface is readable and understandable. The interface itself is quite simple which really helps. It gives you, at a glance, weapons, sub status and your sonar map. A great job of boiling down a lot of info to the basics.

The graphics and sound also do the game justice and there is some palpable tension when the allies pin you down and your air is running low. I did have a sub destroyed as it needed to surface and did so, right into an English cruiser sitting over my position.

Overall this is a pretty decent game. With some interesting gameplay and acceptable flaws, minor as they are. The controls require a lot of button pushing at times but then again, you are in control of an entire submarine.

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