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Silent Hunter II

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Silent Hunter II
Developer(s)Aeon Electronic Entertainment
Ultimation Inc.
Publisher(s)Ubi Soft
Director(s)Troy Heere
Writer(s)Guy Usario
Composer(s)Kevin Manthei
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows
Release
Genre(s)Submarine simulator
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Silent Hunter II is a 2001 World War II U-boat combat simulation published by Ubi Soft for PCs with Windows 95/98/ME.

Gameplay

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Sound room of the U-boat

Silent Hunter II gives the player the command of German U-boats during the Battle of the Atlantic in World War II. The game offers single-player missions and multiplayer gameplay. The single-missions include sinking HMS Laurentic and HMS Patroclus as U-99, avoiding being sunk by HMS Fortune as U-44, sinking HMS Avenger as U-155, Operation Drumbeat against American shipping, retrieving the war diary from the German battleship Bismarck, the action in Tarrafal Bay, saving the German supply ship Python from HMS Dorsetshire (40) and attacking a task force as U-2511 as the last act of the Battle of the Atlantic. The campaign, which has the player being sent notes from Admiral Dönitz, spans 21 missions from the start of the war in 1939 to the end of the war in 1945, and includes attacking fleeing Polish navy destroyers during the invasion of Poland, hunting British shipping off the English coast, penetration into Scapa Flow, assisting in the invasion of Norway, Blitzkrieg and Dunkirk evacuation ("Dunkirk little ship" Sundowner appears in this mission), then battling in the North Atlantic, before passing through the Strait of Gibraltar to La Spezia, severing the British lifeline to Malta, Operation Drumbeat, attacking in the Caribbean, attacking Arctic convoys to the Allies ultimately gaining the upper hand in the Mid-Atlantic gap, repelling the D-Day invasion and finally escaping to Buenos Aires, Argentina at the end of the war, whereupon Dönitz sends a final message.[3][4]

German war veteran and U-boat commander Erich Topp was one of the game's technical advisers, and a series of interviews with him appears in the game.[5][6]

Silent Hunter II was developed with multi-player support as a notable feature. Players were able to connect with other players, and engage in sub vs. sub combat. Furthermore, connectivity to the separate game Destroyer Command (also released by Ubisoft) was available, which enabled sub and surface ship combat.[7]

History

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Silent Hunter II was first announced in 1999,[8] and originally developed by Aeon Electronic Entertainment, the developers of Silent Hunter, but they had to leave the project unfinished, and Ultimation Inc. finished it. After considerable delays it was released in November 2001 after three years of work.[9]

After release, instability with the multiplayer feature was found to be commonplace, yet Ubisoft never resolved this issue by releasing another official patch. While in 2002 Ubisoft had ended the official support, they authorized and enabled the game's community at Subsim.com to fix the game themselves by giving them the source code.[7] The fan community raised over $7000 for an unofficial patch development project called Projekt Messerwetzer which ultimately fixed the issues.[7][10] Since then, unofficial expansion packs like the World War II Pacific war theatre-based total conversation "Pacific Aces" were released by community.[11][12]

In June 2009, after many years of commercial non-availability, the game was re-released on the digital distributor gog.com.[13]

Reception

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Silent Hunter II received "average" reviews according to video game review aggregator Metacritic.[14] A Subsim review rated Silent Hunter II 80/100 in 2005 and named it "the new WWII subsim benchmark".[23][24]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Silent Hunter II sur PC". Jeuxvideo.com (in French). Archived from the original on 2020-11-26. Retrieved 2023-05-21.
  2. ^ "Silent Hunter II - Released". GameZone. 2012-05-04. Archived from the original on 2023-02-13. Retrieved 2023-05-21.
  3. ^ Admiral Dönitz: My U-boat men! Six years of U-boat war lie behind us. You have fought like lions. A crushing material superiority has forced us into a narrow area. A continuation of our fight from the remaining basis is no longer possible. U-boat men! Undefeated and spotless you lay down your arms after a heroic battle without equal. We remember in deep respect our fallen comrades, who have sealed with their death their loyalty to the Führer and Fatherland. Comrades! Preserve your U-boat spirit, with which you have fought courageously, stubbornly and imperturbably through the years for the good of the Fatherland. Long live Germany!
  4. ^ "Naval game tips hints submarine tactics cheats tips".
  5. ^ "Technical Advisor". Silent Hunter II. Archived from the original on 2007-10-12. Retrieved 2007-10-26.
  6. ^ Silent Hunter II: Interview Update with Rick Martinez, https://www.combatsim.com/review.php?id=548
  7. ^ a b c Trotter, William (May 1, 2003). "Submarine marries Destroyer: The long vaunted union of SSI naval-sims is complete - thanks to fans". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on 2016-06-10. Retrieved 2017-05-06. Gave source code to subsim.com [...] a fund raising drive netted more than $7000 to jump-start Project Messerwetzer [...] Skilled volunteers and playtesters rallied to the call [...] a free 5MB to 6MB patch that will be finally polished and playtested. The original crippling flaw, multiplayer instability, has been dramatically minimized.
  8. ^ "Silent Hunter II". 4 September 2001.
  9. ^ Special: Silent Hunter 2 - Interview Archived 2017-08-28 at the Wayback Machine on 4players.de (2001, in German)
  10. ^ Scott Parrino (24 May 2003). "Behind the LInes #5". The Wargamer. Archived from the original on 30 November 2005. Retrieved 2017-05-06. Subsim Review served as the gathering place for Projekt Messerwetzer, the project that brought Silent Hunter II - Destroyer Command computability to full fruition.
  11. ^ Najciekawsze modyfikacje (15/03/10) Archived 2016-08-03 at the Wayback Machine on gry-online.pl by Adrian Werner: "Silent hunter II: Pacific Aces - podstawowa wersja gry obsadzała nas w roli kapitana U-Boota na Atlantyku, podczas gdy ten mod dodaje okręty podwodne marynarki amerykańskiej i wody Pacyfiku. Poza tymi dodatkami Pacific Aces wzbogaca grafikę, dźwięk i strukturę misji w kampanii oraz wprowadza szereg poprawek do mechanizmów rozgrywki." (March 15, 2010, in Polish)
  12. ^ Silent Hunter 2: Pacific Aces Archived 2017-10-16 at the Wayback Machine on PC Games (February 19, 2004, in German)
  13. ^ silent_hunter_2 Archived 2016-12-11 at the Wayback Machine on gog.com (June 25, 2009)
  14. ^ a b "Silent Hunter II for PC Reviews". Metacritic. Fandom. Archived from the original on 2014-10-11. Retrieved 2014-12-22.
  15. ^ McDonald, Thomas L. (February 2002). "Silent Hunter II" (PDF). Computer Gaming World. No. 211. p. 91. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-04-24.
  16. ^ Chick, Tom (2001-11-14). "Silent Hunter II Review". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 2014-12-20. Retrieved 2014-12-22.
  17. ^ Hiles, Bill (2001-11-25). "Silent Hunter II (PC)". GameSpy. Archived from the original on 2005-02-17. Retrieved 2014-12-22.
  18. ^ Ovaldog (2001-12-03). "Silent Hunter II Review - PC". GameZone. Archived from the original on 2008-12-11. Retrieved 2014-12-22.
  19. ^ Butts, Steve (2001-11-14). "Silent Hunter II". IGN. Archived from the original on 2014-12-22. Retrieved 2014-12-22.
  20. ^ "Silent Hunter II". PC Gamer UK. February 2002.
  21. ^ Klett, Steve (February 2002). "Silent Hunter II". PC Gamer. p. 71. Archived from the original on 2006-03-15. Retrieved 2014-12-22.
  22. ^ "Silent Hunter II". PC Zone. 2002.
  23. ^ review silent hunter ii on subsim.com (June 1, 2005, archived)
  24. ^ "SILENT HUNTER II review by submarine game website". www.subsim.com. Retrieved 2024-07-04.
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