SINGLE PLAYER REVIEW

Riddle Lives! Tesseraction has released an offline single player version of its upcoming massively multiplayer naval game and it lives up to its potential and then some. Playing Enigma offline gives you a chance to see what this game is all about and train for the upcoming virtual Battle of the Atlantic (and the Pacific, since the Japanese/British are part of it).

Enigma is set in an “alternate history”, “one that begins in 1936 but in a world as it might have been if Germany had won World War I”. The Germans drove the British Empire out of Europe and allied themselves with the fledgling Japanese Empire. Together, the Nippo-Anglo faction takes on the German monarchy and an expansionist United States joins the war to make a unique three-sided conflict. Neither Pearl Harbor, nor Hitler, nor Nazis, nor the Soviet Union. With each mission, you’ll be kept up to date with newspaper headlines and reports from HQ.

There are over 35 individual training missions and six separate campaigns where you play as a destroyer, corvette, PT ship, or submarine, for a total of over 90 missions with two difficulty levels, easy or hard. The structure of the campaign is written and to progress you must complete each mission and live to tell the tale. Each mission is an instant encounter at sea. There is no Aces-style hunting or tracking. The mission starts right after your scouts make contact and the action is about to begin. The single player version does not have time compression or an in-game save feature. When you start a mission, you have to finish it. Getting caught by escorts and waiting for them to come out can take hours, real life hours. Like any good captain, there were times when I was forced to take her deep, shut down the engines, and trust my luck while out of the room.

Enigma does not pretend to be a complete simulation and it is not. Be that as it may, the level of combat and the essential elements for a true naval game are there. Enigma is not an arcade game by a long shot. Enigma allows for first-person weapon control, but all other stations are integrated into a command-style interface. Firing torpedoes is done by casually aiming, there is no TDC to operate. While I’d personally be more satisfied with some sort of tangible input into target movement analysis other than simply “watching” it, with all the pace and lethality of Enigma’s battles, it suffices. No player-controlled damage control method is present, nor can you send radio messages. Aside from this and the lack of TDC, Enigma gives the sim player most of what they could want in a naval game.

Enigma has an AI that makes you say “Ouch!” – enemy ships can hurt you. Stick your periscope in the middle of an armed convoy and you’ll be covered in tracer fire so thick you can feel the hatred and despair of the crews aboard the merchantmen. Destroyers behave aggressively with tenacious, if somewhat predictable, tactics. The ships and planes are based on historical models with some modifications. Submarines carry a realistic load of around 22-26 torpedoes. They reload much faster than actual WWII submarines, usually within a couple of minutes. However, since this is an alternate history, that can be explained by the hydraulics that were actually employed in the Type XXI German submarines that were developed late in the war (the actual war). Destroyers, corvettes and PT Boats (motor torpedo boats) have different types of weapons: depth charges, torpedoes, hedgehogs and cannons.

All ships contain a small radar/sonar screen that gives you updates on surrounding ships. When playing as a submarine, the screen can be interpreted as the sonar map normally found on submarines like Silent Hunter and Aces of the Deep. I was pleased to note that the positions indicated while submerged are not accurate and the closer the range, the better the contacts. Tesseraction did a good job of finding the middle ground between giving the player information and hiding information they shouldn’t have based on the tactical situation. Combined with the alarm bell that sounds every time your sonar type detects an incoming torpedo, it’s equipped with fair and accommodating sensors.

Enigma has an easy to learn mouse/keyboard interface and has the best voice control I’ve ever experienced on a sub (in the same league as Sub Command). Without a special microphone setup, I was able to change speed, headings, depth, firearms, and more simply by whispering into a microphone. It allows you to keep one hand on the mouse, one on the keyboard, and simultaneously issue helm and weapon commands.

The graphics are a strong point for Enigma, especially the effect of the ocean waves. It’s as close to looking out a porthole on a real ship as anything I’ve ever seen. The ocean surface has very good textures, movement and definition. The waves have sharp white crests that are several notches above Silent Hunter II. Your submarine or ship is a constantly moving platform on the surface and adds to the challenge of hitting targets with weapons or keeping your binoculars steady. The ocean battlefield varies from calm seas, to heavy seas, to gales with rain and strong winds. Simply amazing.

Ships and submarines are depicted in great detail. Not only are the lifeboats, cannons, portholes, bolts, and antennas illustrated in inspiring detail, but the decks, windshields, and surfaces have a weathered look that immediately adds to the feeling of seeing a real ship in a real ocean. Hard-charging escorts part the seas with a foamy bow wave, and submarines leave foam on the surface when they dive (although the foam lingers too long, as if designed as an orientation cue). Along with voice control, Enigma’s graphics get high praise.

An extensive sound suite accompanies good graphics. I enjoyed the hiss of the bombs falling, the changes in engine sound linked to the speed of the boat, the sounds of the ocean, the secondary sounds from the interior, especially sonar beeps and bouncing sounds. When your submarine is damaged by a depth charge attack, you can hear the breaking of glass and light bulbs and the threat of water leaks. The sounds are also directional, a plus. I noticed enemy screw sounds when they were missing from an underwater submarine. Some of the best sound effects include the death scene, when your ship is mortally wounded. Water rushes in, rivets pop and the hull creaks accompanied by slowly fading lights… the effect is appropriately dark and creepy. Finally, you are treated to a musical score with different anthems for each faction.

This would not be a proper review without considering the physics of the Enigma. It’s easy to see that Tesseraction put a lot of effort into making the ships interact with the ocean in a compelling way, and they succeeded. The ships seem to be in a constant dance with the surface of the ocean. Smaller boats like PT boats require a constant hand on the helm – rough seas shake them. I also noticed that when you’re using the binoculars and an enemy ship hits you with a round, your view jerks drastically, requiring time to readjust your view. Same for the sub-cabin under depth charge attack. The screen shakes visibly after near misses. That is realism, simulation or not.

One thing that Enigma has going for it is the atmosphere. The graphics are so good and the action is so compelling that you won’t mind repeating the same missions over and over again. Some scenes caused me to amaze: seeing my sub advancing on a squadron of distant escorts and seeing the flash of their muzzles followed an instant later by a death-tipped projectile, trail of smoke, and an audible whine. The color and moodiness of stormy skies and towering waves touch your inner sea dog. When the action really gets going with destroyers circling, submarines on the prowl, merchantmen on fire, planes dive-bombing! Torpedo bells sound! splashing shells!–Enigma rules the ocean. Although it is an action game, in a way Enigma is more of a simulation than Silent Hunter II. When you’re in the control room, you really are in a control room. Executing a crash dive causes the room to tilt noticeably. Tesseraction knows how to suspend your imagination.

With the development’s emphasis on eventual multiplayer action, there’s no random mission generator, scenario editor, or dynamic campaign. Countering this is the implied guarantee that since Tesseraction will release updates on a three-month cycle, that could include new quest packs. And when they complete the online version (December 2003, we hear and hope), most of the players will face each other online.

It’s fun, but a lot of what separates Enigma from Fleet Command is the first-person view from the bridge; and Enigma is distinguished from Fighting Steel by a vastly superior depiction of the ocean. However, a host of other details and engineering cues make Enigma superior to most previous naval games. The AI ​​is better, the pacing is action-oriented, the voice control works, and the environment is very engaging. Enigma promises fun and action in a superior ocean landscape and the single player version fully delivers. If Tesseraction can go ahead and bring new versions and improvements to Enigma as promised, including the massively multiplayer component, Enigma will have a lock on the naval gaming community. If you like naval games in general, you will like Enigma. If you like good naval games, you will love Enigma. This is really a good naval game.