by Peter Robbins, 14 May 2026
Modern Naval Warfare is the estranged youngling of the detail level of Dangerous Waters, with the 1:1 sub-mariners walking around the ship from Silent Hunter V, mixed with a much improved next-gen modern graphics and simulation engine.
Think, DCS World, but for naval warfare!!
I mean, can it get any better than that? I’ve been waiting for something of this fidelity level since Dangerous Waters of Sonaltyst’s making of old1. If you are a Subsim.com-following fanatic, like my compadre Tom and myself, who play oodles of Harpoon 5 and Command: Modern Operations alike, then Modern Naval Warfare from Matrix Games is right up your alley.
This is THE wishlist game I’ve been very much awaiting for what feels like years now. I quite honestly thought this one might end up as vaporware; just being honest as it has been ages with no word on its impending release other than COMING SOON posted on STEAM, for what has been I think years. I popped a brain gasket when I heard we were being offered a press copy of this game. I have been as giddy as a school girl trying this puppy out. It’s been difficult with the gag order not to yell how good this is to the rafters, but alas, we’ve stayed mum until now as the moratorium on press releases expires.
The wait may have been long for this to reach a release state, but the wait has been well worth it. This is an extremely high fidelity simulation of the Virginia Class SSN. But don’t take my civvie word for it, view this trailer analysis by an ex-US Navy Engineer who had contributed to the designs of the original sensors found in the Virginia class sub! If he is as impressed as he sounds; then the wait has been worth it. In fact, MNW is scary level accurate, and for that I’ve just got to give a huge round of early applause to both Wave Ops as the development team, and Matrix Games as the producers of what I know will be a hit of a game.
Modern Naval Warfare is detailed, but approachable; again the royal duo of attributes for any great wargame that we review. There are plenty of AI-managed crew options to turn on and off as you learn the game.
From what I’ve been able to gather in the short period of time I’ve been tinkering with it (roughly 20 hours+ of game time ahead of writing this article), Modern Naval Warfare is a SOLID game. Nay, I shall say SIMULATION, as that truly is what you are getting here. This is scarily similar to reality, from what open source information is available on the Virginia class attack SSN, nuclear attack submarine of the US Navy.
Game Specs
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Homework? What Gives?!
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Big Shoes To Fill
It’s been a while since I’ve played them, but I’ve been a naval buff since childhood. I played Silent Service I and II (when they were first released), all of the Silent Hunters, as well as all of the Janes/Sonalysts milsims throughout the years. I’d put in about as much time in naval simulators as I’d done in flight simulators throughout my gaming decades2. Simulators were the mack-daddy of all computer games through the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s. Most gaming companies steered towards them as they were considered the pinnacle of the craft (and still are in many ways). Tastes widened over the decades of computer gaming, but simulators were definitely much more front and center in the first decade of home PCs and beyond.
The legacy I will be gauging Modern Naval Warfare against as a litmus is most likely going to be the Janes/EA/Sonalysts series of subsims. I don’t think anyone frequenting subsim.com will argue that case too strongly.
Now, the beauty of today is that you can still slide over to STEAM and experience that entire series of sub games in this one naval pack
click images to enlarge
The other titles I also still have in the back of my mind to compare this to are Cold Waters and its newer progeny Sea Power. Additionally, we might as well go ahead and give mention to Command, and a more recent title to the genre, Global Conflict Blue: Horizon (one to keep an eye on) as both offer simulation of submarine actions in their gaming experiences.
Cold Waters and Sea Power offer submarine warfare, but in a much more relaxed manner than what you will see below in Modern Naval Warfare. MNW is more along the lines of a DCS World for Naval Simulation. And that is a huge thing. It’s fantastic to see this as hopefully the start of a series of additional platforms added as a series of simulators.
Per uuuuuuge, I digress. Back to Modern Naval Warfare impressions.
What’s In The Box?!
Cautionary Note: What I state below is based upon what is present as of May 3rd 2026 in the Press Copy of the wargame.
So, the reason I showed all of those legacy sub sims is that it’s been 20 years since we’ve seen a “serious” or “near-serious” modern sub sim released for wargamers.
- Four Scenarios
- An 18 scenario Campaign.
- A Quick Play Mission Generator
Operational Area (Pre-Release Version)
Ok, so first complaint of none-too-many (the game is awesome, please take this with a grain of salt); but this level of fidelity for each station in the Virginia class submarine, absolutely BEGS for multiplayer coop. I can just imagine myself and all of my …. well, four friends 😕 can take a virtual seat in our virtual sub and take out enemies galore together, as one team of online droogs. One will have to dream until they hopefully make that a reality some day. There originally were rumours of multiplayer and tablet based apps acting as the consoles for a given station. Now that would be amazing, but alas, it is not present in the release version of the game.
Gameplay & Mechanics
I’m going to just dive in (pun intended) to gameplay and mechanics by way of each type of offered scenario type: Quick Play, Scenarios, and Campaigns. We’ll slowly roll our way around each “station” in the Conn or Control area of the sub. She’s an absolute joy to helm as captain. I think you are all going to really enjoy this simulator. It’s just the bees knees as we used to say.
Via Quick Play Sessions
First off, let’s take a look at some of the basic overall commands by way of the keyboard layout provided at the Command Station’s “mnw” folder under the Documents menu on the station panel monitor.
ECIDS
Typically manned by a QMOW or Quartermaster Of The Watch, they are mainly responsible for maintaining the ship’s position, monitoring the planned track and waypoints, and watching for navigation hazards (shoals, restricted zones, etc). You may find yourself hearing them advise the OOD (Officer Of the Deck) in real time with observations like “Recommend come left to course 255 to remain in safe water” or similar.
Command Station
The command station is typically manned by the OOD or Officer Of The Deck. At times it may be alternatively manned by a JOOD or Junior Offer Of The Deck if the OOD is training them during an appropriate lull of critical actions.
As shown above, there are several tabs worth of information available to the OOD. I would have to imagine in most situations each officer of the deck would likely keep one practical view on the left console, and another on the right. Otherwise, they’d be keeping a peripheral view of all of their officers on deck. Awaiting vocal call outs to speed up reaction to what would always be a likely immediate need for update at the Conn.
Information is relayed to the Conn, then the OOD makes a decision based upon all of that inbound call outs; then they are ultimately in overall command of the conn. They are the final judge of what commands to give to the remainder of the control room crew.
SPECIALISTS relay important intel ===> OOD ====> Issues Orders Accordingly.
Additional tabs available to the OOD on the Conn are shown below.
Tasking AI Crew
You can for many of the stations set them to an Auto-Manage mode. This is similar to for example in some RTS games setting certain functionality to be AI managed so that you can concentrate on bigger picture items. Similar here in Modern Naval Warfare, you are able to set a station to be tasked. One thing I’ve noticed is that the tasking list is a wee bit limited, but that is just a cursory evaluation. I need to try out each automated task to be sure if anything may be missing. I have a feeling that this may be added to in future patching post-release, but that is purely a guess. One key take-away here is, any overlay imagery that is RED tends to indicate that the station is currently set as Auto-Managed (AI Controlled). If it shows up as YELLOW, you are intended to perform manual tasks yourself.
Some Examples
In general, if a station appears occupied by an AI crewmate, then you may be able to right click on their station area, and give them a task to complete. Most stations you can Right-Click your mouse over, then have some immediate one-time AI driven tasks you can request. Or you can set the entire station to Auto-Manage mode. After you do that, it will change from a Yellow overlay image to a similar Red color one.
Above you see the Pilot station, the AI one, it had a RED icon as I hovered over it, so another right-click and I got the simple listing of tasks as provided in the below screen.
Below are the AI Task options available at the ECDIS Station.
Below are the tasking options at the Fire Control Station.
Below you see the option for setting the overall station to “Man Autocrew”, which is my assumption at this point (as there is no full manual describing each station’s entire functionality – yet). One criticism I’d give is, just give me a simple ? as an option that explains all of the buttons even in simple text would be helpful. I just want to know what I’m tasking the AI crewperson with and what to expect as a result at the least.
Not directly related but as you are zooming to and fro to this and that control station, it never hurts to look up at the tried and true Course / Speed / Depth / Time indicator.
Sonar Station
Above is the main sonar station. As you left-click on the station icon, you get taken to the nearest open seat that has access to the entirety of the controls for the station. In the case of the Sonar, this includes the infamous “waterfall” broadband and narrowband sonar analysis screens.
Any Dangerous Waters fans out there will feel at home here at MNW’s sonar station. It resembles it quite closely, but of course with a major graphics upgrade. Above is the primary view at this station, which is the broadband sonar readout. This is where you can switch between the main sonar sensors found on the Virginia class SSN.
Above is the narrowband sonar readout. I know that I can mouse-over the scan and a grey line will focus on the readout under the cursor. That is about all I can figure out without a full manual on the topic. There is the quick reference manual, which has some task related tutorial assistance, but it’s nowhere near the detail level I think a study sim should include upon release. I very much hope that is rectified by the full release. I’d really like to see Matrix ask their beta players to take on one single station each, and just write about it endlessly on how it works. Then by all means, take a chatbot and have it take all of those player notes and whip up a Player’s Guide out of it all in interim until we get a full on Manual. Gemini by Google is very good at this task by and by.
Scenario Gallery
Below is a quick gallery of screenshots from my first full Scenario play thru. As we move on to the first Campaign scenario, I’ll explain things in more detail but for now, we just want to show the game off a bit before moving on.
Final Thoughts & First Impressions
Matrix Games have a hit in the making here. Keep up the incredible work on this major leap forward in modern naval simulation. The game still feels like a “game” overall while still remaining a full on study simulator. It’s that marriage of full on fidelity similar to Dangerous Waters of old, mixed with a similar 3d-personas-vibe from Silent Hunter 5 that really makes Modern Naval Warfare absolutely shine. This deserves to be on the virtual shelf of all modern naval warfare enthusiasts, and milsim fans alike. I do wish it had a station by station full sized manual, and I pray that comes with the full release, OR soon after, or soon-ish after would be fine. I think the Quick Reference Manual for the Virginia class sub operations is “good” and it’s accurate for “most” actions, but not all of what you need to do, especially on the FIND side of the F2T2EA kill chain formula. Keep at it! This is an absolutely wonderful game, and I know you will like it. It’s got a few AI-managed crew task lists that need a little love, but other than that, the Jank-meter is low for this one. It’s a solid offering worth owning and PLAYING. Don’t let it collect virtual dust. Play every bit of it, and share the tactics that work for you with others.
Stay tuned for more coverage soon!
Book Resources
These are just a few more advanced underwater acoustics, submarine construction, and naval warfare tactics oriented books of note that I used while researching for this article. There are many many more to pick from “on the line” as Vince Vaughn would say (The Internship)
You can chat about this game in the Modern World section of our discussion forums
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