Das Boot (Amiga) - A Playguide and Review - by LemonAmiga.com
66Das Boot is a true 3D real-time multi-event arcade combat game, released by Mindscape in 1990. We always review one 3D game in each series, and this one is fast and requires full control over our vessel. This is another introductory guide, where I go through the basics.
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Production Notes:
Captured: 29th July 2021
Narrated: 20th July 2022
I discovered this title on Lemon Amiga when searching through the WW2 tagged games. The idea was to play D-Day by U.S. Gold, which is a series of mini-games, with a 3D tank section. But I couldn't get the game to function using WHDLoad and game up. This title seemed much more inviting, and a quick tour of the training modes made me instantly want to cover it in a guide. I enjoyed the shooting part, as it reminded me of Beach Head (and yes, I'm aware we haven't covered Carrier Command yet, as I was never very good with the game, maybe next series?).
I had a quick warmup try before starting the camera, where I got past the mine field you can see at the end of this video, but didn't reach the final base. You might notice in the video that I was never given any order to attack the base, simply to patrol the islands, so not sure if this is part of the mission. The other modes I tried included the Straights of Gibraltar scenario, and here I was attacked by planes in the fog, and hundreds of other boats dropped depth charges down as I ran below them, and got blown up (maybe I should have used silent running?).
The caption in German you can see are mostly just commands to helm. The message which comes up after the score which reads 'Damit' actually says "I am happy with that!", referring to the average score given. I wanted to dig out the full TV series and watch it again but it's not online and is hard to find now.
The audio was edited quit low, or at least sounds low on my system. This is half the volume of my usual recordings, so on my system I have to turn it up to full volume to be able to hear it. I've edited several videos at this volume this series, so let me know if this is better or worse than usual in the comments.
Danscore:
Das Boot seems to be a homage to the legendary German movie, but you won't find any tie-ins in this game, and it is clear they never got a licence for the name. On the Commodore 64, the training section would be the whole game, and I can see how this would be amazing on that system. On the Amiga, the action is very slow on anything less than an 030 CPU, making aiming for targets a lot more frustrating due to laggy frame rates. This certainly hinders the magazine scores, and anyone who didn't have the luxury of upgrading their Amiga in 1990 (99% of people then.) It's not hard to imagine a story mode, but they didn't include one. The open world scenarios are rather limited, and yet some commenters say this is still better than Silent Service. As someone who loves arcadey rather than simulatory games, this felt fun; perhaps an ideal game to play after coming back from the pub. It felt atmospheric to play as a one-man army, in control of the whole vessel in real time. For casual players this might as well have been entitled "Sub Games" as the mini sub-games are great, but there is not much else here to keep the player hooked. I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt and give it 7 out of 10.