SH2: A Classic or Simply Nostalgia?

[Blarg]

SH2.

Strange to admit it, but I am playing it happily, more often than SH3 and SH4 at present. To explain, it seems that SH2 calls upon the imagination in a way that I find appealing. The iconic Hitman and Horsa as you can easily gather from reading here, rstill support players with questions, and Pacific Aces is a wonderful variation. I play it alternately with SH2, and consider it the best, personally.

Why do I still play SH2? Quirky reasons I guess.

The unseen crew seems more "real" in my mind than the disturbingly odd and puppetlike simulacra that represent the current representations of crew in the later iterations. How compromised these are will only truly be clear in some years, when computer graphics will fulfill its promised potential, offering modeling so lifelike as to appear cinematic,and the illusion breaking dissonance of this level of rendering will be an artifact chuckled over by digital historians. And no doubt remembered fondly by many members of the SUBSIM forums.

Granted, the subs and ships etc. are better looking by far in the more recent versions, and they are overall in many ways better, but in SH2 I still very much enjoy the atmospheric scoring of the music and the tone or "feel" of the GUI. It sets a nice mood, and I find the this game always comfortable and enjoyable on a second screen while plugging away at other tasks, map view on, and waiting for the cry of "Ship Spotted!"