Play Silent Hunter: Commander’s Edition Online

Silent Hunter: Commander’s Edition came out in 1997 for MS-DOS, developed by Strategic Simulations, Inc. It was part of a wave of detailed sims from that era, games that expected you to read the manual and learn the systems. This one put you in command of a US submarine during World War II, tasked with disrupting Japanese supply lines across the vast Pacific.

You control everything from the submarine’s depth and speed to individual torpedo tube doors, managing your crew’s stations on a detailed control panel. The main objective is to patrol assigned sectors, hunt enemy convoys, and survive counterattacks from destroyers. Key mechanics include interpreting sonar contacts and periscope views to plot intercept courses, manually calculating torpedo solutions using target speed and bearing, and carefully managing your boat’s battery and oxygen levels during silent running. The pacing is slow and deliberate, often punctuated by long stretches of empty ocean followed by intense, claustrophobic engagements where a single mistake can be fatal. It feels like a tense game of cat and mouse where you are both hunter and prey.

Each game uses different controls, most DOS games use the keyboard arrows. Some will use the mouse , "Alt" ,"Enter" and "Space bar".