Long time since Silent Hunter IV, but it seems that Ubisoft didn't forget how to make a good Sub-Sim (...with bugs).
Well, my verdict for the Client. It is at it's current state the worst client I've installed. I can't start the game half of the time, because the servers seem to be down. And without connecting to UBI.com you cannot start the game..."I really hope you fix this soon UBISOFT"
Now to the game. First I'd like to mention the game looks fantastic. Running through the Sub shows how much detail went into the design of the vessel. Also the water effects improved, yes, they made it look almost real. Explosions and sinking ships are great as always but also the emptyness of the harbours have evolved to the next level. There isn't any movement or population in Kiel or Wilhelmshafen and crew of sinking or damaged ships just run around as usual. This also effects your "U-Boot".
The problem here is the crew. After being a fan of Roland Emmerichs "Das Boot", my U27 actually looked real empty. Only 3 Officers and a few more crew doesn't fit the historical data. Since Ubisoft declared this a major new part of the game, it was quite disappointing. Also the interaction with the crew is at the current state (1.15) buggy as hell. The crew doesn't stand still while talking (turning back and forth) and the conversations are cut off inbetween. Also there aren't any crew rotations and they don't seem to care if we're at battlestations or not. I really have to say, that the crew doesn't feel more alive or more important as in SH4, although they UBISOFT declares them a major part of the game.
The new User Interface suits the new focus of the game. There aren't much buttons filling up the bottom of your screen. However, this also contributes to a major problem. Importent commands that were displayed in the bar of SH4 haven't got any command possibility in SH5. Resume course is missing as well as water depht and a few more importent commands. A big annoying part of the game is the course plotting, which is easier but also very frequent, since you have to plot a new course every time you decide to manually change course (to evade ships) etc.
Overall I have to say that SH5 is as full of bugs like SH4 was when released. Big graphic glitches, Crew Management bugs and many more really kill a really good game. However, after several patches SH4 evolved to a state of the art game. Also there isn't any Sub-Sim out there which could tackle SH5. In my view it's a must to every Sub-Sim or Silent Hunter Fan, but also keep in mind that it'll probably take a while till it reaches it's full (bugfree) potential.
I hope soon patches will make the game more reliable, stable and fun.