688 Attack Sub (Sega Genesis/Megadrive)

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comchia
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Joined: January 4th, 2020, 9:20 pm

688 Attack Sub (Sega Genesis/Megadrive)

Postby comchia » January 27th, 2021, 1:27 am

I'm currently hooked on the Sega Genesis submarine sim 688 Attack Sub. A port of the MS-DOS/Amiga game, it looks a bit spartan, with various maps and menus to scroll through, but I enjoy the art style a lot, especially the wireframe contour scans, which I'm impressed that the Genesis can render at decent speed.

Gameplay-wise, while more complex than your average Genesis title (the manual is eighty pages!), it's nonetheless more intuitive than I expected, greatly helped by the manual's quickstart tutorial. So far, I like the variety of missions that force you to take advantage of the three-dimensional nature of sub warfare and your sub's various tech. I also like the fictional "Cold War Gone Hot" scenario that calls back to the Commodore 64 Red Storm Rising game, though I found this one to be more simple.

Overall, about halfway through this game, I'm enjoying it a lot. I find these kind of sims with a seemingly steep learning curve extra satisfying when you ascend that curve, and 688 is no exception. Have any of y'all played this one?
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BlasteroidAli
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Re: 688 Attack Sub (Sega Genesis/Megadrive)

Postby BlasteroidAli » February 14th, 2021, 1:34 pm

Excellent game. Probably my fave Sub game.

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VideoGameCritic
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Re: 688 Attack Sub (Sega Genesis/Megadrive)

Postby VideoGameCritic » February 14th, 2021, 2:42 pm

Thanks for bringing this one to our attention comchia! This one has been sitting on my Genesis shelf for years! As you mentioned, these games have a reputation for being hard to play, but it sounds like this one is well designed. I will have to give it a try.

comchia
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Joined: January 4th, 2020, 9:20 pm

Re: 688 Attack Sub (Sega Genesis/Megadrive)

Postby comchia » February 24th, 2021, 9:16 pm

VideoGameCritic wrote:Thanks for bringing this one to our attention comchia! This one has been sitting on my Genesis shelf for years! As you mentioned, these games have a reputation for being hard to play, but it sounds like this one is well designed. I will have to give it a try.


Thank you, VGC! Knowing your sharp distaste for Gato, the faster pace of this one (it has time compression, too) might be more to your liking, not to mention being coded in something a bit better than BASIC. ;). And the manual is eighty pages, which would actually be light for a MicroProse/Spectrum Holobyte sim, but pretty damned large for a Genesis game. It's nonetheless more intuitive than it appears, especially after taking the tutorial.

This game has a sequel as DOS-exclusive sequel as well (3DO version was planned, but never released), titled "SSN-21 Seawolf", which keeps much of 688's formula, while enhancing the graphics, and adding a cool WWIII story. It's kind of reminiscent of Red Storm Rising, both in the gameplay and story, and might be worth tracking if you like 688. I have a CIB copy with floppies, although disk one has gone bad. :/ . Still, it's rad to have the rest of the materials.

https://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/ssn-21-seawolf

comchia
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Joined: January 4th, 2020, 9:20 pm

Re: 688 Attack Sub (Sega Genesis/Megadrive)

Postby comchia » February 24th, 2021, 9:18 pm

BlasteroidAli wrote:Excellent game. Probably my fave Sub game.


That's a good choice! This is probably my other favourite sub sim, behind 2017's Cold Waters. It's kinda short, but challenging, and I like the overall aesthetic and balanced gameplay, though I wish there was a campaign mode. Nonetheless, I like the variety of scenarios, and I find it oddly satisfying to blast Soviet ships with SSM missiles.

Buttermancan
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Re: 688 Attack Sub (Sega Genesis/Megadrive)

Postby Buttermancan » February 28th, 2021, 3:38 am

I remember renting this game as a kid. I soon realised it was the wrong sort of title to rent as it would take a long time to get into but I had some fun with it.

goldenband
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Re: 688 Attack Sub (Sega Genesis/Megadrive)

Postby goldenband » February 28th, 2021, 12:38 pm

I'd love to see the Critic review this someday, as well as two Genesis military sims with which I'm more familiar, LHX Attack Chopper and M-1 Abrams Battle Tank. If one can avoid the "who cares about a game like this in 2021" mentality, they're both pretty fun, albeit frustrating at times.

Of the two, LHX is probably the better game, convoluted control scheme aside (but the controls do work well once you learn them!). LHX has a nice turbo/speedup/frameskip feature to make long trips around the map go by quicker, which M-1 Abrams Battle Tank sorely needed...

688 seems like a cool game, and I've always liked sub sims. My copy's been neglected for too long!

comchia
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Joined: January 4th, 2020, 9:20 pm

Re: 688 Attack Sub (Sega Genesis/Megadrive)

Postby comchia » March 4th, 2021, 6:47 pm

goldenband wrote:I'd love to see the Critic review this someday, as well as two Genesis military sims with which I'm more familiar, LHX Attack Chopper and M-1 Abrams Battle Tank. If one can avoid the "who cares about a game like this in 2021" mentality, they're both pretty fun, albeit frustrating at times.

Of the two, LHX is probably the better game, convoluted control scheme aside (but the controls do work well once you learn them!). LHX has a nice turbo/speedup/frameskip feature to make long trips around the map go by quicker, which M-1 Abrams Battle Tank sorely needed...

688 seems like a cool game, and I've always liked sub sims. My copy's been neglected for too long!


Funny you mention that, I recently got a CIB copy of the Genesis port of LHX Attack Chopper, and I've been eyeing an MS-DOS copy. That game was kinda choppy on Genesis, but still a lot of fun, and not as bad as say, SNES Hard Drivin'. I like that it covered some prototype helicopters (RIP Comanche), and how it mixed arcade and sim rather well.

And I've heard of M1, but have yet to play it. I think that was originally a Dynamix game, a company that did a lot of legit military sims back in the day, Red Baron included. It wouldn't surprise me if that game has that similar quality. And yes, time compression is a must for any military flight sim.


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