# Silent Shark

9 Hacker News commenters recommended Silent Shark and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 0.01 years (3 owners).

**Verdict:** People praise its minimalist, realistic dials and procedures, its detailed design and its tutorial for a rare niche of submarine sims. Critics say the UI and visuals look AI-generated and slightly off.

## Why people recommend it

- Realistic, detailed submarine design (3 comments): "Till now at least from sub sim fans I've heard nearly only praise for the design." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49310297)) "the sweet spot of minimalism meeting realism of dials and procedures" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49236055)) "This is pretty cool and very detailed" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49309614))
- Rare good submarine sim niche (2 comments): "Submarine sim games are truly a special niche, and I’m so excited to try this one out!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49310782)) "Good submarine sims are hard to find." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49309880))
- Good tutorial (2 comments): "So far, it's really fun and the tutorial is great!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49309301)) "I did the tutorial, it was good" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49308981))
- Active developer, responsive to feedback (2 comments): "It's been an absolute blast getting feedback from Navy geeks on Discord" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48092628)) "Love it! I'm looking forward to every update" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49309332))

## What people warn about

- UI and visuals look AI-generated (2 comments): "I think the UI elements and layout look very similar to how LLMs like to create them." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49309962)) "The game has quite the AI smell, which I think does it a disservice." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49309073))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Dwarf Fortress](https://hackerapproved.com/p/dwarf-fortress.md): 74 recommend
- [Airport Simulator](https://hackerapproved.com/p/airport-simulator.md): 41 recommend
- [Firewood Splitting Simulator](https://hackerapproved.com/p/firewood-splitting-simulator.md): 32 recommend
- [RollerCoaster Tycoon](https://hackerapproved.com/p/rollercoaster-tycoon.md): 21 recommend
- [RimWorld](https://hackerapproved.com/p/rimworld.md): 19 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Silent Shark", https://hackerapproved.com/p/silent-shark/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).