Written by: Ian

 

 

 

The original Battlestations game was an innovative take on the RTS genre, enabling you to build units (although without the resource gathering) and then direct them either from a tactical map, or by controlling an individual unit of your won choice, from a wide choice of planes, boats, submarines and ground bases.

 

However, there were problems, such as difficult controls, only 1 campaign that was fairly short and some dodgy graphics. Have these been resolved to create a superior sequel with "Battlestations: Pacific" ?

 

 

Last time round there was a full-featured CGI storyline of a couple of American officers. Oddly, this approach has been dropped completely in favour of some strong CGI scenes that merely introduce the conflict and some generic officers (who are nameless) that you seem to possibly fill the shoes of.

 

Whilst technically more realistic, and less cheesy than last time, a similar approach would perhaps have favoured the slightly more arcade style gameplay that is found in this sequel. However, the fact that there is a Japanese campaign and the option to re-write history is a cool option, and the lack of a central character really doesn’t harm the mission-based structure of the game too much.

 

 

 

The best part of "Midway" was its wonderful gameplay. With fairly simple strategy elements and plenty of action, it was a great prospect, although it was hampered frequently by dodgy, unresponsive controls.

 

Thankfully, the controls have been mostly fixed. Whilst the flight controls may take some getting used to, they are at least relatively responsive, and boats, subs, bases, and building controls all feel much lighter and less sluggish, whilst still retaining some sense of realism.

 

However, the game has taken on a more arcadey feel. Some missions now focus much less on the strategy elements, and will have specific checkpointed sections where you will start in a plane, then move to a boat or sub etc, which to me, whilst simplifying the game, takes away quite a bit of the fun. When you get a single unit to control, you start to realise that if that was it for the game, it wouldn’t be quite as good as a specific game in that genre. However, when you do get to play with the full sum of the parts in the game, thankfully, the game retains the core strategy approach, which is still as fun as ever to play through.

 

Additionally, the chance to change history by playing as the Japanese is also an excellent gameplay initiative that was sorely missing last time. It also really helps bulk out the campaign, which has in excess of 20 missions, and each one will take up to 45 minutes to complete. It’s a good 12 hour or so campaign, which was pleasing, and the addition of checkpoints does help to remove some of the frustration from the previous game’s structure, although you do normally get only 2-3 per mission.