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As follow-up to the world's best naval simulation ever, Harpoon 2 is a big disappointment to fans of the original. Its impressive graphics, sounds, a larger database of ships, and more varied missions can't hide the fact that the AI is seriously flawed, and that the game shipped with an inexcusable amount of bugs. Although it became playable after the last series of patches, by then many fans have already turned their backs. Even in its patched incarnation, the game failed to live up to its predecessor-- the additions of more ships and painstakingly researched scenarios were curiously balanced by simplifying many gameplay elements, such as the radar. Perhaps this was an effort to lure newcomers to the genre, but the lower realism quotient and quirky AI did nothing to keep hard-core fans happy. Overall, an interesting naval sim that is above average, if one forgets its pedigree. Not until Interactive Magic's 1997 Harpoon Classic release did fans cheer once more to the return of realism and solid AI-- something Harpoon 2 should have been, but sadly was not. Note: The download has been removed at the request of Advanced Gaming Systems Inc., current copyright holder of Harpoon games. Harpoon 3 is finished, as well as Harpoon Classic 2002 Gold Edition, the most current and up-to-date version of Harpoon Classic (also reviewed on this site). Reviewed by: Underdogs | 
