Silent Hunter 5: Battle of the Atlantic

I think it is worth a mention that you will be required to have and be logged onto a high speed net connection at all times to play the game.

Tons of bad press on this game so far. For those familiar with the SH series it is no surprise the game at release is full of bugs and in vanilla form pretty much unplayable. However, UBI have patched it a bit and likely to do some more.

The real saviours of Silent Hunter in all forms are the modders, and everyone is waiting and praying the Modders will work their magic on SH5 and improve on it as much as they did SH3 and SH4. However, this whole DRM (anti piracy measures) UBI has implemented seems to be not worth the trouble it is causing. It requires you to be online and logged into a UBI server to be able to play even the single player mode. And since most of the world was able to buy this game a week ago the UBI servers have been exhibiting problems in that they do not allow some people (sometime) to log on and play. They have admitted it has been the servers themselves preventing people from playing at times. They even cite it is hackers that are attacking their servers. By doing so they have admitted their log in servers are vulnerable.
At the very least, check out the official UBI SH5 forums and have a bit of a read before investing your money.

Personally I am holding off buying the game for now, waiting to get an idea on the stability of these UBI servers over time. And at the same time hopefully the developers will release some patches and the modders will improve on the game in that time as well.

I pre-ordered, paid and cannot use the product as it insists that I do not have an internet connection. I will scan the internet for a solution for 1–2 wks and then return the product. Customers should not have to be ‘techie-geeks’ in order to have enjoyment in the little leisure time one has and not spent weeks on the internet to trying to find solutions and be disappointed by non-responsiveness by UBISoft. I have SH3 with GWX3 and the IL series. One generic advice by UBIsoft was to de-install internet security software completely – what is one to say? A very sad state of affairs. Otherwise with more thorough testing and taking a customer-centric approach this could have been a great product. I hope you have more luck. Regards, Mike

Ubisoft have removed the always on connection now. You apparently need to untick cloud saving and select force offline and it works without any internet connection needed.

This has been confirmed by people with the game.

I have been a Silent Hunter “Nut” since they first came out and was so excited to hear about Silent Hunter 5. I pre-ordered a copy and installed it the day I got it. Well, I've played a bit of it and now will put it back in the box. Its very buggy and with the DRM this makes the whole game not worth playing. I've got so far in a few missions just to have the game shut down without warning or saving – loosing all my progress just because my internet connection reset for a second. This whole game feels more like a Beta version than something that was meant for the open market. Even the good old short-cut keys of the other versions have gone, now if you want to man the cannon or anti-aircraft guns you need to walk there and do it yourself. I do admit it was fun to begin with and being able to move around the u-boat, it does bring a little life to the game but I'm sure that they could have left the short-cut keys in for those that just want to sink ships. I MIGHT play this again if IF UbiSOFT patch up the bugs and problems with it.