Finally sat down and started playing. My first war patrol lasted less than 3 days after I got into a duel with 3 Soviet Subs; downed two of them and then maneuver killed myself by hitting bottom too fast trying to evade (loooooool).
Some thoughts now that I've played;
1) Anyone who thinks the game's 'arcadey' is taking a piss; its just minimalistic about the tech crap. Given how many of us are Combat Mission players used to things going on 'under the hood' I don't think any of you will take real umbrance with it. That being said - it's
not a Silent Hunter or Dangerous Waters esque game.
2) The sonar and sound model blows any (unmodded) variant of Silent Hunter out of the water. Again, just because I don't sit there and stare at a waterfall display doesn't mean its not in depth.
3) Evasion is actually suprisingly easy. It reminds me of a moment from the novel Red Storm Rising when a character muses that evading a torp a few times isn't hard; the rub is that a human will make a mistake long before a torpedo ever will. This rings true in game, especially if you play 1:1 scale. Evading a torpedo salvo for 20 minutes puts your situational awareness to shit and tuckers you out mentally.
4) The AI play by the same rules you do. Again, as we're all CM players, I think we can deeply appreciate that. If you fire a torpedo, even one with a poor solution, at a target, the target's going to be too busy evading to attack you. I learned quickly that firing at every target within range but focusing on the one you really want sunk is how you get the hell out of dodge safely.
5) There's bugs, the usual release-day crap, but nothing dramatic. The inability to replenish noise-makers is the most troubling but not game breaking since you can use MOSS's and create knuckles fairly easily. Nothing that is wrong with the game can't be patched. Don't believe the naysayers, the only reason you won't like this game is if it's simply not for you, not because it's dead on arrival.
Solid 8.5/10 from me. Happy hunting.