Enigma Tide Rising is new WWII naval sim for the PC. You will take on missions that use Multiple ships and submarines and do battle in the high seas. You can play a campaign or take on over two dozen individual missions including a few training operations. These patrols as they are called can be played in any order and may play any faction. Campaigns are sequential story linked missions organized by faction and either surface or submarine service. Though one might think each mission in a campaign may get increasingly difficult this is not always the case. This is not a bad thing, like real naval service sometimes a simple mission is well accepted especially after a grueling battle with multiple ships. In either case even the easiest setting can still be quite difficult, and the key to success is knowing what to do.

You will take control over submarines, PT boats, destroyers, etc. You will find yourself on escort missions, search and destroy, depth charging enemy subs, loading up an enemy oil tanker full of torpedoes, some missions have you swatting at enemy aircraft with AA guns while trying to sink the enemy, and a boat load of other stuff. (Get it? boat load hehe)

The easy games or tutorials if you will, do not do a very good job of telling you what to do. In fact, unless you like to read, you will find training quite difficult. Personally I like a voiceover telling me what to do so I can focus on executing the command while being told what to do rather then reading text. Even the text is not that wonderful in "teaching" you what to do. Another downside of the text messaging is status and alerts to the on going action. I want to hear " submarine detected to the Southwest". Not an alert that pulls me from my AA gun so I can read it instead. So buck up and read the manual and trust me it does get better.

There are plenty of status indicators to let you know how your ship is holding up. Hull integrity, fuel consumption, ammunition, etc. The maps are easy to use and you can toggle how close you want the radar to show. IE 500m 1000m 4000m. Ship heading and a compass makes it quite easy to locate the enemy seeing there are no landmarks to follow in the high seas. Setting waypoints makes patrolling a breeze. You can also keep track of your ranks and tonage destroyed. Keep in mind your rank does not carry over from your patrol missions to the campaign.

You have many facets of gameplay that you participate in. You can try and do everything which will have you point and clicking frantically during battle. This is not a bad thing for you vets out there, but this deck scrubber is about as green as they get. You do have the option of having the AI controlling all the deck fire which in itself takes out the frustration of trying to do everything and leaves you to pretty much sail your ship. If you want to opt and take control of a gun, you can still do that too. The choice is yours.

Ok now this is the good part. I mean the really cool awesome should be in every sim feature. You can actually yell out commands with the use of a microphone to make your ship and crew do what you want it to do. This takes 90% of the frustration and learning curve right out of the game. Yes true you may have to memorize the commands, but the more you utilize this feature the quicker you learn. You don't have to choose between voice activation and typical point and click either. You can do a nice combination of both if you like, which is what I do. This is especially helpful when manning a deck gun and you need a little more port rudder or speed to get a better shot. I cannot tell you enough how this really immerses you in the game. Not one other sim had me feeling like I really was part of the game like this one has!

Overall fans of the genre will really enjoy this title. In my opinion what could make this good game into a fantastic game would have been the use of voiceovers. If I could hear "in coming torpedoes" then I could yell out "Hard to starboard ahead flank" That would have even been more realistic. Maybe next time. Still a fun and entertaining game that most naval buffs will enjoy.

Graphics: 7
Well, for a game that you can run a 500 MHz computer it’s not too bad. Even with all the features turned up high, I was not visually impressed. Still not terrible and quite honestly it really does take away from the game.

Sound: 7.5
Pretty typical for a naval sim. Not anything new just your typical deck and AA fire, sonar pings, torpedo propellers, depth charges etc. May not be new, but they are convincing. Full 5.1 surround would have been nice not many games incorporate that technology into sim games.

Concept: 8
Ok I know its not exactly a new concept (a WWII naval sim), but this is my first sim that uses the voice command feature and it truly pulls you into the game.

Overall: 7.5
It can be fun and exciting and will appeal to fans of the genre.