Hi sim fans,
I come along way as gamer and fan of tank sims and started on "Steel Thunder" on the C64 in 1992. I loved this game and spent a gazillion hours on it as a child.
Armored Fist 1 and 2, M1 Tank Platoon 2, Panzer Elite, Steel Beast Gold, T-72 Balkan´s on Fire, WoT ...spent alot of time on them also.
I need your opinion on SABOW. Please share it with us here.
After learning about SABOW I was really courious about the game and got excited. But after spending some time with it, I found that it really is an unfinished product. Even if I had a few very good impressions at the start (Flying off fenders and stuff of BMP´s which got hit by HE, tank models, etc).
It´s a sim after all but considering this guy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY7aRJE-oOYat the confrontation of fun vs realism fun always wins. SABOW has alot of unfinished "content" which isn´t fun after all.
I run Version 5.81 (1983) update: aug.12b2 which should be the latest as far as i know.
If this title should get sold alot, some stuff really has to become customer friendly.
The UI isn´t made for a broad spectrum of people, the learning curve of the game is steep in the beginning (which is OK for a sim) and alot of stuff happens, where the game does not comunicate why it happenend.
To name just a few flaws, which are really annoying:
1. I couldn´t get out of the cupola with the commander with "O" key, while the loader could do it as often as he wanted to. --> Bug. How shall I see if i´m in position well if I cant get this view (no enemy in sight). Looking for good positioning with the loader is #%&*$#, because of his limited field of view.
2. Quick battle is a good way to get used to all the controls. Thanks to the guy, who put the easy tutorial up in the forums of gravyteam and here. Graviteam should offer you a job! Because you did some of their work already anyways.
Once in quick battle I killed 3 of 4 russian tanks and was just hunting down the last one. (The first 3 quick battles before of this one the AI won.) All of a sudden a countdown kicks in with 30 seconds left, which was not enough time to get the last one. With no option to either stop the countdown or setting the timer to "24h" instead of 5 minutes for a quick battle (or however how long it is)....... --> No fun at all, see the sit Meier link above. If the game designer prevends the player from having fun = game is a flop.
3. I ordered the AI to attack a victory location in campaign mode with 10-15 ´ish tanks, while I fiddled around somewhere else with another platoon as a gunner. The others got the victory location but only 2 tanks where left after that. My first thoughts, OMG, the enemy must have been very strong there. After checking that out, I learned that the biggest thread wasn´t the enemy AI.
Yeah, 4 tanks alone in this ditch like 4 pigs in a pigpen. It came to my mind slowly, where the other tanks disappeared from the map.
---> Biggest thread is the AI on the own side itself, not the enemy AI itself. ---> No pathfinding what the f**k??!!!
3. The UI is well made from a programmers perspective. It´s functional, it has everything but it lacks an intuitive access. The work of a game designer here is neccesary to open the game for a wider spectrum of gamers. This product shall be sold, right?
4. Range finding. That the gunners view switches from his gunsight to this turning device is cool. But I shall do what? Dial in the range on that device visually even if i cant read the numbers on it (low graphics settings, 13" ish laptop screen). This would be still ok, if well readable (I have flown Il-2 Sturmovik successfully on full real with cockpit gauges only and it was fun).
This is way to hard, considering that in RL as a gunner you would be well used to this device and would also have the hand-eye-muscle-memory-coordination to do it fast and well. But ingame here this works not that well.
--> again, no fun at all. Because when the range is set. The gunner/loader is already dead. I admit that I´m maybe too stupid to use the range finder/setting well.
5. The crew swears alot, when the tank got hit but nobody calls out a dead or injured crew member, like: "Scheiße, Hans hat´s erwischt.", "Gunner down, gunner down!" or "loader out of service!" or something in russian.
6. Why does an iranean tank crew speak russian?
After some first impressions and experiences I don´t like to spent time with this title anymore, because of all the flaws and frustration.
Am i totally wrong?? What is your impression of SABOW? Do you think similar about the game or is your experince with it totally different then mine? Please share your experiences here.