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Dangerous Waters isn't for children. But it's not what you think! There's no "hot saline" patch that makes the game nasty. It's just the opposite, in fact. Dangerous Waters is a realistic simulation of submarine and anti-submarine warfare. It's the best you'll be able to find at its price. But it's also deep enough and difficult enough to master that it's a game that requires some degree of obsession with the topic in order to keep it from becoming more like work than play.
A word of advice to prospective buyers: spend the extra $10 at battlefront.com for the spiral-bound 400+ page manual. If you don't you'll end up having to read it online which is adequate but not nearly helpful as having this nice manual that you can refer to when playing. It's a throwback to the days of EA's Jane's simulations when nicely organized and formatted manuals were standard. Those were the days. The last time sim fans got to visit those days in the naval warfare space was with the last title Sonalysts did for Electronic Arts, a submarine simulation called Sub Command. In many ways, Dangerous Waters is a sequel to Sub Command, but it's also considerably more. The submarine component is still the strongest part of the game featuring several classes of controllable modern submarines. The addition of aviation and surface craft like the P3-Orion and the guided missile frigates, however, dramatically expands the game's scope and nearly turns it into three different games in one. This takes what started as a submarine game into a deep study of all the major players in submarine warfare.  Dangerous Waters isn't like most airplane or racing simulations, however. While players do command the vehicles in the game, playing it requires patience on two levels. The first is the learning curve. Each vehicle has several stations that a player can man, including piloting, sonar, and electronic warfare stations. Mastering each requires some study time with the documentation and also some practice. The second level of patience comes from the natural pace of the game. Unlike a race, where each moment of time in the simulation tends to be fairly exciting, play in this game simulates the measured and methodical existence of submarine hunting. If you're commanding a submarine, finding the enemy sub means moving quietly and cautiously to identify the contact before it identifies you. If you're in the frigate, you're going to have to use deployed sonar devices and careful classification of contacts to catch your prey, prey that could easily strike back at you. Submarine hunters in the aircraft like the P3-Orion or the MH-60 Seahawk helicopter, are agile and less vulnerable to torpedoes, but still have to cover vast reaches of ocean to deploy sonar buoys and track the data. Those willing to invest in the game will reap great rewards. This is a simulation where patience is a must but finally catching a lurking sub is worth it. Gamerparents will be happy to know that if their child does have an interest in the modern submarine world, getting through the documentation requires literacy. Tasks like manual target motion analysis (TMA) require some basic mathematical ability.  The strong realism in the game means that there is little in the way of breakneck excitement. There is a time compression feature for single-player gaming, but it otherwise is very realistic in depicting this type of warfare as boredom punctuated by moments of terror. The lack of flashy graphics won't help the game's lack of mass-market appeal, either. However, those are all superficial concerns. Where it counts, in the categories of technical details, variety, and overall quality, this is a fine title. Those looking for a game with a more arcade-like pace or looking for high-end graphics may want to consider Enigma: Rising Tide or Silent Hunter III. But anyone with an interest in a serious modern submarine warfare sim will be pleased with Dangerous Waters. 
The game is available only online from battlefront.com. It is a non-retail release and doesn't have an official ESRB rating. But if it did, it would probably be like the one Sub Command earned, an E for Everyone with violence as the noted caution. There is some very simple violence involved in launching weapons but in many cases you don't even get to see the resulting explosion. As I indicated earlier, it's not likely the average child will have the patience for the game, but teens with an interest in potential navy service will find this simulation an excellent educational tool.
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