Dive, dive, dive!
Although Gato might once have been impressive stuff, time has not been kind to it, and no one but the most forgiving of retro heads is likely to find anything of interest here. It was one of the first of its kind but now it's just too basic and awkward to provide much fun and you're better off with Silent Service or Das Boot if you want some old-school submarine action. The game is essentially a real time sub simulator, where you are the commander of US sub in the Pacific during World War II. As is fairly typical for the genre, you play through a series of missions where you must navigate hostile waters with the goal of seeking out and destroying enemy ships and subs. As commander, you have to worry about pretty much every aspect of the sub's control, from navigation to weapons and everything in between. Everything happens in real time, including combat, so you need to keep your wits about you at all times, juggling the various aspects cleverly in order to keep your crew alive. Gato deserves some points simply from a historical perspective, as it is one of the earliest examples of the genre. However, looking at it today, it hasn't aged well, unlike many games from the period and now turns out to be quite insufferably frustrating. Without instructions, it's very hard to figure out what you're actually doing, thanks to a poor interface which is confusing and less than intuitive. The minimalist graphics and sound can easily be forgiven but the awkward gameplay can't, so unless you're a diehard sub fan, steer well clear of this.
