

This drew heavy criticism from many players, leading to several mods which altered the game to display actual United States decorations. federal laws regarding depictions of the Medal of Honor, the original release of the game awarded players with fictional decorations which in no way resembled actual United States military awards. Due to concerns relating to the Stolen Valor Act of 2005, as well as U.S.

The game received "generally favorable reviews" according to video game review aggregator Metacritic. Servers supported up to eight players and let them choose from several scripted and generated missions. Until Ubisoft shut down the servers for the game in 2013, Silent Hunter 4 featured an online adversarial mode and gave players the opportunity to command Japanese destroyers and pit them against US submarines. Unlike the earlier title, however, the game gives more specific and varied mission objectives during the campaign-including rescues, reconnaissance and agent insertions-rather than just assigning a specific patrol area. The major naval battles of the war in the Pacific, such as the Battle of Midway, are re-enacted and players are informed of them by in-game radio messages.

The game gives players various mission objectives and unique rewards, and attempts to make each campaign a unique experience. Like its predecessor Silent Hunter 3, the simulation features a dynamic campaign. The game allows the player to choose how realistic and challenging the game experience is to be and it is designed to allow new players to easily master the basic game play, while allowing for experienced users to manually control systems such as crew management, torpedo allocation, radar, sonar and target trigonometry. The systems of the vessel are largely functional and the player is exposed to many aspects of submarine warfare of the time. The simulation uses detailed and accurate 3D graphics to immerse the player in the environment of a World War II submarine.
