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