doug@edge.UUCP (Doug Pardee) (11/02/88)
Title: Red Storm Rising
Type: Nuclear Attack Submarine Simulation
System: Commodore 64 disk, 1 joystick required.
Publisher: MicroProse
Price: $28 discount
Overall Grade: C-
Sid Meier and MicroProse have once again produced an epic simulation, but
this time they've missed the mark. An awful lot of creativity, research, and
just plain hard work obviously went into Red Storm Rising, and it's probably
the most factually accurate simulation yet available on any subject. But the
subject matter (commanding a U.S. nuclear powered attack submarine during a
Soviet no-nukes invasion of Europe) is just inherently unexciting.
What you get is a well-done simulation of the boredom and frustration that is
the lot of the submarine captain. Frustration trying to locate your target
without giving yourself away, and boredom while trying to close to weapons
range. Unlike most naval warfare simulations, RSR does not have any "time
compression" option -- you must endure every second of a pursuit. Many
times I've found it best to just set up for flank speed at 800 feet and go do
something else like read the newspaper, then come back in 15 minutes or half
an hour and see how much I've closed up on my quarry.
Adding to this problem is the fact that RSR does not have any way for you to
withdraw from a conflict. Once you've made sonar contact, you are committed
to sinking all enemy ships and subs in the area. The worst situation I've
had was to encounter a Soviet Alfa class sub which was already beyond torpedo
range and moving away at a speed greater than U.S. subs can manage. All I
could do is crank 'er up and give chase and hope that eventually, sometime,
the Alfa will slow down and I'd finally be able to mount an attack.
Individual battles usually take between half an hour and three hours, and
there is no provision to "save game" during a battle -- just between them.
The meat of RSR is its "campaign" game, where you are involved in the war
from the beginning and have a number of assignments, the successful
completion of each being crucial to NATO's ability to repulse the Warsaw
Pact's invasion. Right there is one problem -- the game is rigged so that
the balance is just barely in your (NATO's) favor *if* you complete all
assignments successfully. One failed operation will set NATO back a long
way. The only way to end the campaign quickly is to let the Russkies win.
The Soviets never make a mistake, and never fail to capitalize on any NATO
mistake. Sorry Sid, I don't buy that notion.
Another problem of the campaign is that the scenario just doesn't have a
reasonable level of continuity. It's all too clear that each assignment is
chosen at random, and then some words appropriate to the assignment and the
current situation are thrown together. Thus, after sinking a Soviet
amphibious assault group headed toward Iceland, my next assignment was
something to the effect of, "The Warsaw Pact is getting desperate, and so
they've resorted to desperate measures. Intelligence sources show an
amphibious assault group headed toward Iceland..." Sheesh.
The last problem with RSR is that it needs high-resolution graphics, and
the C-64 just can't hack it. On the situation displays in particular, each
target is designated by a small box with the target type underneath it in
small print. The box and the text are too small; they require one pixel wide
graphics and that just doesn't work on NTSC systems like the '64 unless you
restrict yourself to black, gray, and white. But RSR uses a variety of colors
for the target, and places it on a blue background. The result: a smeared,
illegible display. Most of the time you can guess what it says, but there
are a few cases where you can't guess and you *really* need to know. The
most dangerous situation is when you're in shallow water and the depth is
represented by single digits indicating how deep the water is in hundreds of
feet -- I can't tell the difference between a 3, a 5, a 6, and an 8. I'd
guess that a C-128 with a dedicated monitor probably looks okay.
Considering all of the effort that obviously went into developing RSR, I
really hate to bad-mouth it. It's really an incredible piece of work, but
it's just plain NO FUN. I can recommend it only to those who already have a
considerable interest in nuclear subs and/or NATO vs. Warsaw Pact skirmishes
and who are looking for realistic simulation rather than entertainment.
(If anyone wants a description of how the game actually plays, drop me a
mail message and I'll be glad to fill you in.)
--
Doug Pardee, Edgcore Technology (formerly Edge Computer), Scottsdale, AZ
{ames,hplabs,sun,amdahl,allegra}!oliveb!edge!doug uunet!ism780c!edge!doug