HARPOON

 Military simulations today seem decidedly limited by marketing philosophies.
Tactical combat simulations, usually presented from a you-are-there cockpit
perspective, lack the all-important feel of detail and intricacy, thanks to the
notion that too much realism can take the fun out of the "game." Strategic
wargames, on the other hand, with their common reliance on the overhead
perspective, are visually dull, and diminished in realism by the omniscient
options they offer. Three-Sixty Pacific's HARPOON is a vibrant promise of better
things to come. (This review is based on the IBM-PC version; BattleSet notes for
the IBM-PC version of NORTH ATLANTIC CONVOY follow.)

 Detail, intricacy, realism: Each is a hallmark of HARPOON. Evolved from the
highly successful miniature boardgame, HARPOON is the most current and accurate
simulation in its field. Its great graphics and lack of a copy-protection scheme
make HARPOON a wargame enthusiast's dream.

 HARPOON is a naval simulation at the commander level, depicting the final
confrontation between the USSR and NATO forces. As Commander of NATO's North
Atlantic Task Force (or perhaps as the Soviet Northern Fleet's counterpart), you
have at your disposal a massive database of more than 100 Soviet and NATO weapon
systems: aircraft, surface ships, as well as submarines -- everything that would
be brought to bear in a naval confrontation of such grand magnitude.

 You'll find the strengths and weaknesses of the different weapon systems an
important facet of HARPOON. Naval simulation no longer consists of old
broadsides. Victory depends not as much on who fires first, but on who spots
whom first, and who efficiently husbands able resources to launch an offensive
force while dealing with the missile group that's heading closer at 1500 knots
per hour. With the limitations imposed by weather conditions at sea, inaccurate
intelligence, and the constant threat of the preying submarines, you'll waste no
time chewing on your nails and scanning the map, wondering where the enemy fleet
might be on this desolate expanse of water.

 HARPOON includes GIUK, the first in a series of BattleSets (or mission modules,
if you will). This BattleSet consists of 12 Scenarios that take place within the
boundaries of Greenland, Iceland, and the United Kingdom Gap. It's interesting
to note is that each consecutive scenario is more difficult than the previous
one, although there's a lot you need to appreciate regarding HARPOON's idea of
"difficulty." You may command an entire Carrier Task Force in one scenario, and
a miniscule group of missile boats in another; in either case, the scenario's
difficulty is by no means a gauge of your fleet's quality. Rather, difficulty
depends on how hard it becomes for the Task Force Commander to keep the fleet
straightened out -- a factor affected by the fleet's size, which increases in
proportion to the difficulty level of the scenario.

 HARPOON is described as a commander-level naval simulation, and rightly so, I
believe. The game effectively balances the player's role as Commander with some
simple limitations that many strategic simulations often forget. Commanders
direct their troops, and the troops direct the machinations: Air defense is
handled automatically, among other things; and though you may determine what to
dispatch to an unidentified group of air contacts, you are far from deciding its
tactical outcome. This leaves you with a Commander's sense of controlling not
just a fleet of ships, but a fleet of people as well.

 The HARPOON package contains a 16-page booklet on "Tactics" by Larry Bond, and
an eight-page documentary by Tom Clancy that describes his visit aboard two
Soviet warships. The 100-page HARPOON Operations Manual offers interesting
points and comments, although I'm happy to say that novice players truly can be
up and running without consulting the documentation. However, I expected a
detailed manual to complement such a detailed system, and HARPOON's lack of sam
could produce a small sigh of disappointment in others. Users unfamiliar with
naval/military terms, as well as the few of us who fail to comprehend the sensor
charts and their varying horizontal bars, will want more.

 HARPOON's huge arsenal of options is greatly enhanced by its mouse support;
keyboard commands are available, but rather clumsy. Currently, HARPOON also
supports a number of sound cards, and Three-Sixty has plans to add Roland MT-32
support in the future. The program requires 640K of RAM, as well as a hard
drive; the files on the 360K distribution disks are compressed and must be
decompressed in order to run. As of this writing, Three-Sixty is scheduled to
deliver free upgrades to all registered owners, in order to correct game bugs
found in the first commercial version; users may specify a disk format for their
upgrades. After having devoted three years and substantial resources to the
development and realization of HARPOON, Three-Sixty's support policies and
exclusion of copy protection are exemplary and unique. Thanks, Three-Sixty!

 The game displays Hi-Resolution 640x350 EGA, VGA/MCGA 16-color, Low-Resolution
320x200 EGA, Tandy 16-color, and CGA 4-color graphics. Although all of these are
enjoyable, it's the "Hi-Res" EGA mode that allows the program to flaunt its
quality graphics.

 HARPOON is nothing less than an excellent electronic interpretation of a
constantly evolving and fascinating miniature boardgame.

 NORTH ATLANTIC CONVOY BATTLESET NOTES

 HARPOON: NORTH ATLANTIC CONVOY (NACV) is the first in a projected series of
BattleSets for owners of the landmark naval simulation HARPOON. NACV adds two
countries and 16 scenarios to those included with the original game (GUIK:
BattleSet 1). In NACV, the scope of play broadens dramatically to encompass the
entire North Atlantic ranging from the Norwegian and Barents seas down to
Gibraltar and west to the southern United States.

 NACV is an expansion to HARPOON. Players must already have the game to make use
of NACV. Also, you must have version 1.1 or later of HARPOON to be able to use
NACV. To check this, bring up the "About Harpoon" window under the PC menu. If a
version number is displayed in the window, it should say 1.1 (or higher). If it
doesn't (or if no version number is given), send your disks to Three-Sixty, who
will upgrade them to version 1.1 free of charge.

 From the beginning scenarios on in NACV, players face greater challenges than
they did in GUIK. First, even the beginning scenarios present a broader range of
platforms and more numerous forces than the early scenarios in GUIK. Second,
play in NACV is dominated by submarine forces, particularly on the Soviet side.
Anti-Submarine Warfare is a chancy, tense affair at best. In NACV, the
uncertainty and anxiety of this type of warfare is made very real.

 For the NATO player, a large portion of many of the NACV scenarios is spent
gnawing on your fingernails while waiting for the next enemy contact. You can
attempt to ferret out the enemy by launching patrols, both around bases and over
remote areas of the sea. However, nothing is certain, and your first indication
of the presence of an enemy sub may be its incoming torpedo track.

 On the Soviet side, life is no less grim. Playing hide and seek with
high-flying NATO ASW aircraft is definitely a good way to develop an ulcer.
Worse, there is often no way for the Soviet forces to strike against NATO
aircraft. Patience and some luck are required for the Soviet forces to reap
their harvest of NATO convoys ships.

 One of the interesting ways in which NACV lets you what-if different situations
is in the setup of several scenarios. In NACV, there are some scenarios that
differ mainly in the side that controls an important area. For instance, in one
scenario, NATO may be given control of Keflavik (Iceland). In another, Keflavik
has been captured by the Soviets. You can play either side in both scenarios and
obtain first-person experience of the importance of this strategic airbase and
port.

 There are some minor problems with NACV and version 1.1 of HARPOON. First, it
is still possible to hang the machine or to exit suddenly to DOS. Frequent saves
are advised. Second, Soviet subs seem to be uncannily hard to spot for NATO
subs, despite their greater noise level. Thus, scenarios featuring only subs for
both sides tend to be heavily slanted toward the Soviet side.

 Finally, scenarios in NACV are rather long. Add to this the fact that, for long
stretches in many scenarios, there are no enemy contacts and very little for the
you to do. Thus, even at the maximum time compression, time can drag on
seemingly forever (10-20 minutes in real-time is not unusual). This does not
occur in all scenarios. And for those who do have a problem with it, there's
usually some fast and furious action to break up the long lulls.

 Despite the anomalies, NACV is a worthy successor to GUIK. In fact, with its
greater number of scenarios and the increased number of forces involved, NACV
delivers potentially more playing time than GUIK. The situations are varied,
though perhaps not quite as much as those in GUIK. Now if only there were some
way to compress the playing time!

 NACV supports all of the original graphics modes of HARPOON, including EGA
(640x350x16 and 320x200x16), Tandy Graphics (320x200x16), and CGA (320x200x4).
It requires 640K of RAM and may be installed on a hard driv; there is no copy
protection. NACV makes heavy and intelligent use of the mouse, and keyboard
equivalents are provided for every action. NACV comes on three (360K) 5-1/4"
diskettes. 3-1/2" disks are available for $5.00

 NACV is highly recommended for HARPOON owners. Those who don't own HARPOON yet
should give it a _serious_ look.

 HARPOON and NORTH ATLANTIC CONVOY are published by Three-Sixty Pacific and
distributed by Electronic Arts.

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