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Set planes for diving, down scope and everybody say "arrooga! arrooga!" until we hit bottom. Will Silent Service II send you overboard? Neil Jackson peers into the gloom to see what's sub-standard.

Boats! Brr, horrible things. You wouldn't get me on one for all the tea in China. But during the Second World War, some folk had to put up with living in a streamlined metal bubble, 400 feet under the sea, for weeks at a time. Not a pleasant prospect, especially if you're the tiniest bit claustrophic.

Far better then, than MicroProse give you the option to go sub-surface in the comfort of your own armchair, thanks to Silent Service II. It's been more than two years since they first took a deep breath and realised the original Silent Service simulation which is a bit of a leaky old tub by today's ST standards.

In the new version, you're the captain of an American submarine just before the Pearl Harbour attack of World War Two. Your job is simple: Cruise around until you see a bunch of Japanese ships, duck underwater, torpedo the heck out of them and then scoot clean away.

Success is a lot harder than the mission briefing suggests. There are many factors you need to consider before slamming away at the torpedo tubes. For example, what's the visibility like "up top"? A dark night may be better for creeping around in, but you can always get closer by approaching from the correct angle - your broadside presents a nice fat target to a warship's deck guns.

If you make it to firing range (around 3,000 yards) without getting spotted, you have a choice. If you're up against a small or unarmed target, you can just pile it on with your deck guns - but it takes a few shots to get the range and elevation set correctly. Through the binoculars on your Target Bearing Transmitter (TBT), you can see the plumes of water caused by your initial ranging shots. Finally you hit metal, and a series of explosions and fireballs rock the target ship. Its engines stop running and it glides to a standstill, waiting for your killing blow to sink it.

If instead you find a large group of heavily armoured warships and patrol boats guarding a red-hot target - like an aircraft carrier - a different tactic is called for. Dive to periscope depth and track the convoy without getting too close. Usually convoys move fairly slowly, so you can overtake them and position yourself ahead for firing.

An undetected torpedo launch is your best bet for mission success. You can use the Torpedo Data Computer to calculate the correct course for your tin-fish, but it means you have to be at periscope depth, so your crew can check the target's speed and direction. An alternative approach is the manual mode, where you have to do all the appropriate calculations yourself, but you can launch from below the cold water shelf. This is very difficult, despite diagrams and explanations in the Silent Service II manual. But it wasn't easy in the real thing either, so at least it's accurate.

Submarine warfare wasn't renowned for its fantastic views and grand panoramas - there wasn't a great deal to see at 30 fathoms. But Silent Service II is a lot more visual than you'd expect, relying on six main displays to show your life on the sub. You spend most of your time on the Chart display, which is a plan view of the area around your sub. You can zoom in for a close-up and see short black lines with grey trails which show the movement of ships above you.

You also use the chart screen to plot the correct course for manually-fired torpedoes and to check their progress as they race to their targets. Digital displays show the fuel-time left in each running torpedo, and information from your engine-room and navigator.

When you're not map-reading, you skip between the remaining displays according to your current course of action. The Bridge Lookout and Bridge TBT can only be accessed when the sub is at the surface. They show (not surprisingly) a vast expanse of sea, and perhaps a few ships. The quality of the graphics is pretty good, but, although they're better than on the original version, they're not exactly state-of-the-art, fast-moving sprites. Other displays include the mainly static Gauges screen and Damage Report, which show the sub's important dials and instruments and give an indication of the boat's integrity. Useful, but not especially stunning.

All screens, including an intermediate animation which depicts your submarine launching torpedoes, are accompanied by crisp, clear sampled sounds. The bubbling torpedoes, crashing guns and the chugging of your engines all help to enhance the atmosphere and make it a lot more realistic.

Silent Service II is good fun to play, but it's a bit repetitive after a while. There are 53 different keyboard commands involved in piloting your U-boat - the mouse and joystick are not used at all. A clearly-marked keyboard overlay prevents this being a nightmare.

The game can be played with different levels of difficulty, depending on your choice of equipment at the start. You can select reliable or realistically-inaccurate torpedoes, single or multiple engagements, or an older, less effective sub. All these factors modify the relative difficulty of the game, without actually changing the gameplay at all. For the experienced player, there's a career option which takes you through the entire war, complete with up-to-the-minute war news reports informing you of all the historic battles being fought elsewhere.

There's a lot on offer if you're prepared to plod along and get into the spirit of submarining, but Silent Service II is no shoot-'em-up extravaganza. Its presentation and atmosphere are brilliant, but it needs you to be into the subject to begin with. If subs don't get your propeller spinning, then you're likely to find this a bit too slow and boring. But if you're prepared to take the plunge and wallow in a bit of underwater skullduggery to earn your slice of the action, Silent Service II won't let you down.

1. Much better graphics and animation than its predecessor, Silent Service.
2. The best submarine sound effects you can find. Beats those in Hunt For Red October!
3. Better gameplay, with less keyboard hassle than Red Storm Rising.
4. Far better presentation and appeal than Wolfpack.