At any given moment in time, there are nearly 150 nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles pointed at targets within the Western Hemisphere. Each of these missiles carries three to ten nuclear warheads, which means that a grand total of anywhere from 450 to 1,000 city-leveling nuclear warheads are ready to fly over our heads at a moment's notice. It gets worse. The deadly missiles are located deep underwater, are mobile, and can be launched from positions so close to shore that the flight time from ignition to impact can be less than ten minutes.

Map screens indicate the position of other ships in the game.

This doomsday scenario has been a real-world threat for more than 30 years now, as the development and production of ICBM-equipped submarines has made it a reality that continues to this day. Since the flight time for the submerged missiles is so short compared to the flight time for ICBMs that are based on land, an enemy submarine's nuclear payload requires a special defensive deterrent that counters it on its own turf: a "hunter/killer" submarine, which is designed specifically to hunt other submarines.

You become a captain of a hunter/killer submarine.

In Electronic Arts' upcoming submarine simulation, Sub Command, you will have the opportunity to take on the role of captain in one of three modern hunter/killer submarines in two independent campaigns across the world's oceans. Developed by Sonalysts, a military contractor that previously produced Jane's 688(I) Hunter/Killer in 1997, Sub Command promises to bring desk-driving civilians closer to the real world of directing a modern attack sub than previous genre attempts have done. Recently GameSpot had the opportunity to get some hands-on time with the latest alpha build of Sub Command, and now that we're back on dry land, we can report on the game's progress and specifics.

Being that the Sonalyst team includes more than a dozen former US Naval personnel (both enlisted and officer ranks), you'd expect that Sub Command's main menu after boot-up would feature an option to peruse a large amount of reference data and information regarding the world's seagoing forces. And you'd be right on, because the first thing you are greeted with after loading the game is the option to look around and see what real-world threats you'll be up against in the game's environment via a slick database propelled by info from the United States Naval Institute. More than 17 countries with 26 submarines and 92 weapons are profiled in the game's USNI database, along with corresponding pictures of what the platform or weapon looks like both in the game and in real life. It's a great tool to refer to for both new recruits and hardened seagoing veterans before heading out to sea for a specific mission.

After familiarizing ourselves with the opponents we'd likely see in the game, we proceeded to move to the training area, to partake in three staged scenarios designed to get us up to speed regarding the handling of each of the game's three sub classes. The three classes available to use in the game are the US Los Angeles, the US Seawolf, and the Russian Akula, which are all hunter/killer sub classes, meaning their primary role is to hunt down and kill other submarines. Hunter/killer subs don't carry the resources to launch a large-scale nuclear attack on a foreign country; that duty falls to a specific type of sub that is outfitted with full-sized long-range ICBMs. These ICBM-equipped sub classes (namely the US Ohio and the Russian Delta and Typhoon) are referred to as "boomers," and hunting them will be a recurring theme as you progress through Sub Command.

The game will provide a training scenario called Basic Sub Ops. Here, with the help of a narrator, over the course of a few minutes we learned the rudimentary controls used in the game to dive, raise, turn, and control our submarine. The control system provided in Sub Command is very straightforward and similar to the mouse controls found in 688(I) in that even novices will be able to clearly regulate their subs' motions within a minute of fooling with the dive planes and speed control. The tutorial was well scripted, and we executed the instructions easily.

After passing Basic Sub Ops, we proceeded to Basic Sonar Ops, in which we were directed to the sonar station on the Seawolf and given descriptions and narration regarding the operation of the advanced sonar suites on the three sub classes we were going to control. Aside from a few minor exceptions, the Los Angeles, Seawolf, and Akula class subs all use similar state-of-the-art equipment and controls, which means that once you go through the tutorial for the basic stations on one sub, you're ready to use all three. The look and feel of the stations within the three classes varies widely, however, because each sub has its own personality to the point where the advanced Seawolf stations look like they came straight out of a Star Trek bridge, while the Russian Akula controls made us wonder if they're still using vacuum tubes over there.