Harpoon

Three-Sixty

1989

commercial

English

1989 classic Amiga game -

Harpoon is one of those games, whithout which the life is probably possible, but be so much worse. Harpoon is strategy that for some time was used to teach the cadets of US Navy, which in itself should give a sense of what kind of complexity we are dealing here.

In a nutshell we could say the this game simulates the scenarios for World War III for naval forces, but this would be a simplification since all the modern kinds of warfare (modern in the time of game premiere) - surface warships, submarines, helicopters and planes, also sometimes the nuclear weapon. Each of the scenario disks contained maps and missions for different part of the world - North Atlantic, Mediterranean Sea, Indian Ocean or GIUK triangle (Greenland, Iceland, United Kingdom). On each we can choose from numerous scenarios and in each of them we can play as NATO forces or Warsaw Pact (yes, those were the days when USSR was still alive and kicking). In some of the scenarios we are put in command of small units, in others whole fleets with air support.

The game is also filled with whole encyclopedia on modern warfare, which is important since many of those parameters are vital during the missions and can determine what your next step should be. Also the sides of the conflict sometimes change slightly - in some scenarios we can play the French and Italian forces against Libya, in others Iran versus Iraq, etc. To make it even more interesting there is a random element while assigning enemy units, which means that each game could be slightly different.

The gameplay is somewhere between classic strategy and real time strategy (RTS) - we can control the time speed (obviously, since some of the battles take few days). The whole game is played on the maps, but the depth of the simulation puts Harpoon high above the competition and makes it one of the best games in history. Here you can face the problem of each commander - making tough decisions based on limited or outdated informations and trying to figure out what the enemy is up to.

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