Rating: 
Summary: Major Disappointment
Review: I loved playing the original Silent Hunter. Silent Hunter II has all of the features to be a good game but falls way short of the mark. It is very buggy and locks up a lot. I ran it on three different new systems and had the same problems. The Graphics are stunning. I especially liked some of the realistic paint schemes that you can see on the ships. The realism of this game was another problem. Submarines (either American or German) NEVER fought it out with destroyers or patrol boats unless they had to (damage or whatnot). It is totally unrealistic to sink a destoyer by guns. I have always wondered why the developers of military simulations feel that they have to make a game have action on EVERY mission. I come from a large family and have a lot of WWII vets in it from my father to many uncles. I am a Navy Vet myself. A fighter pilot or a soldier and even a submarine DID NOT make contact on every mission, patrol or voyage. UbiSoft does not have a patch or fix for any of the bug problems as of yet. My advice is to safe the money.
Rating: 
Summary: no
Review: This for one is not a bad game.As the other gamer said it takes 20+ seconds to rotate the periscope. Well it only take 3-6 seconds.The games is fun in just about every way from stalking and waiting to pounce on a ship to battle damage and haveing you crew re-pairng it.Now some of the out side graphics arent top notch but they work for the game. Wacthing a ships sink then diving near the reck to shooting down aircraft tocrash diving.All the gauges are also good.From depth, speed to batterie levels, sonar and torpedoe statues.
If you injoy sea or submarine combate you'll enjoy this game !!
Rating: 
Summary: Incredible replacement for Command: Aces of the Deep
Review: Being a fan of the Sierra game "Command: Aces of the Deep", I have been patiently waiting for this game to be released for the past two years. I can tell you that the wait has been (mostly) worth it! While this game isn't a true "replacement" for C:AoD, this game does fill in its shoes better than I had hoped. The sea animation is better, the realism is better, and the fun value is better. While there are a few minor things I would have changed/added, for the most part I find this a great WWII sub sim. As for bugs, there were only a few minor issues I've found while running it under Win2k. The first problem (which might just be hardware related) was that I had to copy the entire contents of the CD to the HD and install from that copied data (I later deleted those files). Secondly, a bug occurs when I'm in the damage control room, and with a certain key combination the game displays a blank screen and causes the game to crash. Also, I've noticed that when I crash dive, sometimes I decend to 50m in only a few seconds. Other than these 3, though, I've found it to be more stable than C:AoD. Overall, this sim is great and really gives you an appreciation for what WWII submariners went through (both the allies and axis powers). While some may say the graphics aren't that great, frankly I don't understand what they're talking about. Seeing how much time is spent underwater, overly complex graphics would just be a detriment to the game.
Rating:
Summary: Very fun game. I love it (so far!!)
Review: After reading some of the reviews in this site I regreted to have purchased SHII. It wasn't fun to read all those dissapointing messages about buggs and so on. With not much hope I installed SH and I am happy to say that so far everything is going well. I am following the training sessions and all I can say is that my 11-year old son and myself are really enjoying the game. We love the graphics and enjoy browsing through the helm controls and the many other controls of the submarine. I think this game is very fun and now I don't regret to have purchase it.
Rating: 
Summary: A Huge Disappointment
Review: Like many of you subsim-lovers, I have also been anxiously waiting for this game for years. What a huge disappointment!!! Except the quality of the static graphics (which should be expected after so many years), nothing is new and nothing is above the old subsim of similar subject (i.e., Aces of the deep or Command: aces of the deep), but those are the games of 5 years ago. I returned my copy the same very day. Let's just be patient and wait for another 2 years for a better game of same subject to appear.
Rating:
Summary: really enjoy this game
Review: Well, have seen some poor review of this game here at Amazon. Find this unfortunate because this is really a good game. The graphics are wonderful, and don't understand the complaints about bugs. I did not have any until I upgraded to Windows XP, and then had a crash problem when switching views. However, the tech support at Ultimation sent me a patch and that cleared things right up. Other than that, no problem. There have also been those complaining about the lack of a Dynamic Campaign ala Silent Hunter I. To be truthful, I was also worried about that, however, my worries have gone away, there is more than enough to keep you busy the way the game is lined up. Other additions, such as manning the AA guns and shooting at Sutherlands is really exciting. The addition of the passive sonar is great. crusing along at 1/3 throttle in Scapa Flow looking to be a new Gunther Prien, hearing the waves slap the ship in the 3d rolling enviorment is absoultely great! Try this game if you are at all into World War Two or Subs in general, the folks at Ultimation did a really good job with this one.
Thanks,
william
Rating:
Summary: Too Many Bugs
Review: This game has some real promise but currently seems to have more bugs than a bee hive. I purchased a copy through Amazon.com and, after waiting several months for the game to be completed, was really excited about playing it. I have been toying with it for about 2 weeks now and simply cannot get it to work. I even purchased a new video card to give the game a better chance, but it still hangs up and malfunctions at almost every sitting. I have a 64meg video card, 256 megs of system memory, and a 500 mhz CPU and am not able to get the game to function properly. Although what I have been able to see of the game makes me really want it to work, I am sorry I purchased it in the first place. My best advice would be to wait until UBI Soft works out all the many kinks in this game before you buy it.
Rating:
Summary: Software Testing, What a concept
Review: What a roach motel of bugs. Shame on SSI for releasing a poorly tested game to try in and capitalize on the Christmas rush. Wait six more months and one of two things will happen. They will either fix this software or a competitor will release a better one, so we can throw this disc in the trash where it rightly belongs. Save your money
Rating:
Summary: Change masquerading as progress
Review: If you fell in love with the original Silent Hunter you will be very disappointed with this version. Controls are clumsy.
Want the periscope up? Click on the up lever and HOLD THE MOUSE BUTTON DOWN until the scope is where you want it!! It takes 20+ seconds to sweep the periscope 360 degrees. Time compression does automatically slow to 1x in dangerous situations but usually keeps ticking at the faster speed just long enough to get you into trouble. If you choose to use the mouse for viewing you will constantly be picking up the mouse and stroking the pad to get a fast traverse. Also, if you enable mouse panning, you will also get mouse elevation control by default and you end up looking at the sky or the ocean unless you move slowly and carefully. Also the mouse elevation control has no provisions for reversing the default input (whether moving the mouse forward looks up or looks down) I found the graphics to be a disappointment. The manual stresses repeatedly what the minimum requirements are for full enjoyment of the experience. My system far exceeds their requirements. I don't believe the game would even had made use of all the capabilities of my old computer.
Might as well say: "This game plays best on a Cray computer with 3400 gB of RAM and a 152 inch monitor" Well, yea. I would suppose so, but it wouldn't look any better. There are other quirks but I tired of playing this game so quickly that I leave it to you to find them on your own. If you have seen your other favorites get trashed when re-issued you will know what to expect with this one. This game reminds me of how GOD Games screwed up tracklaying in their release of RR Tycoon II. Hey guys, there's a torpedo camera Mode!! I remember that. Wasn't it declassified in 1944? Intense realism? Wow! You can watch a ship hit the bottom when it sinks. Again. So what? Attention SSI, Ultimation and UBI Soft. I will no longer be the fool who's first to buy your new releases and I definitely will not waste my time pre-ordering your titles and anticipating their arrival only to be unhappy with the result. I especially will not get suckered into buying a title just because it had a II, III or MCMXXLII stuck on the end of the name. Destroyer command will have to fall in my lap before I bother playing it. Lucky for me a friend who loves SH-I had purchased a copy of SH-II. He said not to buy it and mailed me his for free. Now I know why. And I'm giving it back.
Rating:
Summary: Very Disappointed
Review: I have played Aces of the Deep DOS, and Win 95. They were very good games. I loved Silent Hunter. However Silent Hunter II is a disappointment. I expected better graphics and got Silent Hunter I quality. It is no where as smooth as SH I was.
SH I was also easy to operate even in DOS. After 4 years, I would call this a failure. On the other hand, playing up against destroyer command may just be something unique for sub sims. We shall see. All In All-Aces of the Deep for Win 95 was the Best U-Boat Game ever. If this game could be updated instead, I would buy that.
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