The Navigation station is probably the most straightforward of the stations. Navigation consists of a zoomable, pannable map of the area with the best known positions of all ships in the area overlaid. It includes an additional screen which displays the depth beneath the keel, which is useful if you need to make sure you won't run aground.
The Weapons station allows you to assign targets to specific weapons, reload empty torpedo tubes, and check on the number of weapons in storage.
Prior to firing, weapons can by assigned presets such as depth, activation range, deactivation range in case of a miss and speed. The presets allow the advanced submarine captain to ensure that weapons will take a route to their target that delays their detection by enemies, and ensures that the weapon will not attack friendly or neutral forces.
Countermeasures such as jammers and decoys can also be used if you come under fire. However, it was at the weapons station that I found fault with I. Weapons are reloaded much more quickly than in real life. I don't know the speed of a crew on a real submarine, but somehow I suspect that it takes them a little more then 5 seconds to reload a torpedo tube.
There is now a patch available of the net to fix this. The Sonar station gives you five functions for identifying other ships in the water. There is active sonar, which can be set to give a single pulse or periodic pulses. Active intercept tells you the bearing and relative range of ships in the area using active sonar. Broadband waterfall shows a cascading display of the bearing of passive sonar contacts.
Finally, Narrowband waterfall can be used to classify targets so you know if they are friendly or hostile. In all sonar modes, contacts show up as brighter green pixels against a black or dark green field of noise. The TMA station is the most difficult to master. The TMA station is where information from all sensors is compiled to try to give the most accurate picture of a target's position, speed, and heading.
The reason TMA is so difficult is that it usually involves taking bearing-only measurements of the target and then trying to estimate its range and speed. For example, if you first spot a target at bearing 90, and one minute later you spot it at bearing 91, and the next minute at 92, does this perceived motion exist because the target is moving North, or is it because you are moving South faster than the target is?
Fortunately for novices, there is an option which can make the computer handle TMA like an expert. Graphically, I is very good. The only blockiness I noticed was when looking at the ocean or at an explosion at very close range. All craft are Gouraud shaded and texture-mapped.
They also have nice little touches like spinning propellers and wakes. Active intercept sonar analyzes the frequency and location of sonar pings from other ships and subs that are actively searching for you. And finally, the classic active sonar allows you to send pings out to detect surface and submerged contacts. The information gathered from all five types of sonar can be critical for a target motion analysis and for identifying friendly ships from unfriendly contacts.
There are also several other stations in I including radar, radio room, periscope, and a pilot station where course, depth, and speed are controlled. The periscope station gives you the choice of two different periscopes -- one with night vision enhancement and one without.
The radar station gives you the standard sweeping display and can be used to locate surface contacts or aircraft when the sub is on or near the surface. In the radio room you receive or send radio messages and monitor enemy radar transmissions. A target display panel provides a computer-generated topographical map of the area around your sub and provides a plot of the position of all targets you have detected. The target motion analysis station TMA is where you enter contact information like speed, heading, and course, and try to determine a firing solution.
This station is very difficult to master; I found I usually had to turn on the TMA expert assistant -- I never did get the hang of plotting positions accurately enough to hit anything.
The missions available in I are fantastic. You may be asked to sink enemy vessels, launch missiles at surface targets, or rescue a downed pilot.
The game includes several training missions that teach you the skills necessary for survival. These missions are accompanied by in-depth tutorials in the manual, giving you a thorough overview of the game's controls and options.
There are also several single-mission scenarios and a fifteen-mission campaign. If that's not enough, there is a scenario editor that allows you to create your own missions, providing unlimited game play. Overall, the graphics in I are very good -- the control panels have a scratched, used look that make them feel more real, and the sonar and radar displays update smoothly.
The periscope views are also well done -- ships actually rock up and down with the waves, rather than sitting there like they were nailed to the bottom. The explosions on sinking vessels also look great. The one display that doesn't look good is the 3D view. No matter how deep your sub is, it looks like it's just a few feet under the surface. But since using the 3D view is not required, the poor graphics didn't usually bother me. There are also full-motion "news footage" video sequences scattered throughout the campaign that help to fill out the story line and provide background for your missions.
The sound effects are great, especially in the sonar suite. Each ship has a unique sound -- if you play long enough, you could probably start recognizing ship classes just by listening.
Other ship systems are also good -- the periscope and antenna masts slide into place with hollow thumps, loading and unloading weapons gives you clanks and bangs, and when you crank the sub's speed up to flank you can hear the propeller churn. This is one game where playing with a good set of headphones really helps -- if you can hear noise from your sub, you can be sure the enemy can too.
The one spot where the sound falls short is the game's music. It is too upbeat for the tense gameplay -- I preferred to shut it off and stick in an appropriate CD like the soundtrack from Hunt for Red October.
For those who master the computer-controlled opponents, I offers several multiplayer options. Up to eight players can compete over the Internet or on a LAN, or you can go with a two-player Sub-to-Sub battle via modem. Hunting "real" targets brings a whole new level of tension to the game.
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