I enjoyed it a lot, like SNKneogeousacth and he's right, it takes the right mentality to approach it. Sacnoth was probably in the phase of experimenting with simulations and decided to dip their hands into Submarine simulation. Fact of the matter is, real submarines are usually manned by lots of people, you have to watch gauges here and there, and in order to see enemies around you, the use of Sonar is required and this makes for somewhat dull (read: boring) play if you're not telling yourself, "Ok, ole buddy, it's me versus the world, I'm basically blindfolded and a sonar screen as my eye, so faithful sightseeing sonar, be my guide!"
Plus the addition of layers with varying degrees of water pressure, some so heavy that you cannot even move and can only convert your engine horsepower into translational momentum, this makes for very interesting gameplay.
Sacnoth's miscalculation is not providing enough eyecandy. Dots on sonar screens are boring. Who hasn't enjoyed the thrills of seeing your opponent face to face, stare death in the eye, and defied all odds to defeat them, and watch enemies blow up with the requisite fireworks? Once one becomes accustomed to the gameplay, you can really get into it, plus the story is kick ass! ^_^
I think making the two versions was a waste though, only the very die hard will go about collecting all the subs and upgrading them all, because the speed, power, hub capacity and all those stats are moot when you all look like dots on a sonar screen.
By the way, SNKneogeousacth, good god, do you like, buy up every Slimline available on eBay? I've been trying to snag one for cheap recently and I saw you snatch up that buy it now, bid on all the other auctions I saw including the brand new listing.
<small>[ February 07, 2003, 10:35 AM: Message edited by: bokmeow ]</small>
