The History Channel: Battle for the Pacific

"Follow me, soldier ... to hell!"

The History Channel: Battle for the Pacific is the follow up to the poorly received History Channel: Civil War game, both developed for Activision by Cauldron (the same team that works on Soldier of Fortune). To be fair, I am one of the few that actually enjoyed Civil War. I was well aware of the slower pace going in, but I enjoyed the relative variety in the missions and the historical context. Battle for the Pacific is NOTHING like Civil War.

Graphics:
The graphics are pretty good at times. The jungle looks like a jungle, and the trenches look like trenches. While there is no interactivity with the backgrounds, it's enough to draw you into the setting. There was even one moment where you come upon a stream in a jungle clearing where I thought, "Wow! That looks great." During the one cave level, the lighting actually looks pretty cool, as muzzle flashes illuminate the darkness.

On the down side, ground textures are pretty blurry, and the character graphics are much more towards the beginning of the console generation. Think along the lines of COD2 -- with less variety in the surrounds. However, for a "budget" title ... the team did a good job, especially with the jungle.

Sound:
Another mixed bag ... some ambient sound effects sound great, especially in the jungle, hearing birds and bugs. The vocalizations of both the American and Japanese soldiers are very clear, and the explosions are nice and overwhelming.

However, the few lines the soldiers have are repeated ad nauseum. I wanted to shoot them just to shut them up. Also, I have surround sound -- the directionality was very poor. So, not the best, not the worst sound overall. At least the History Channel announcer sounds impressive.

Gameplay:
To begin, it's a basic FPS -- I'm not going to go over those aspects other than the fact you can shoot, jump, and crouch. The gameplay for every level is EXACTLY the same -- you have a linear path you must run within a certain distance from your squad's officer (I like to call him my chaperone). What happens if you get too far away? Game over, man ... game over.

No, seriously. The game just ends. See that gun emplacement? Want to flank it so you can kill the soldier manning it without getting shot? The first thing you hear is, "You're not following orders!" The next thing you see is the game over screen. The game will simply not allow you to play the way you want to -- or even allow you to play smart.

The AI is atrocious. Let's go back to that machine gunner -- your fellow troops will stand in plain view of him, not getting shot once. You step out and you're dead, and they won't give you cover fire. Highly frustrating. Another time, you're in a trench forced to stay behind your Sgt ... and your squad kills EVERYONE, giving you nothing to do but tag along.

The Game never feels epic, and every level feels exactly the same after the first. You are literally forced down a road/path/canyon/trench until you reach the end of the level. That's it -- that's the whole gameplay aspect. Civil War would at least let you flank people!

Replayability:
None. No, seriously - none. The game can be beaten in a couple hours on hard -- we're talking about 11 levels at between 10 to 15 minutes each, if that. You may find a few spots where you get stuck dying over and over at no fault of your own, which could extend the play time a bit.

However, unlike Civil War, there are no documents or secrets to find -- nothing to get you to play it again, since you're required to play the level the exact same way every time. Even worse, the achievements seem to be bugged! I completed the game on Hard difficulty, only to find the single largest achievement in the game did not activate. So, if you're playing for that purpose, please be aware.

Online:
Who knows -- I couldn't find a single game in over two hours of trying over 3 days.

Closing:
The rating of 3 in appropriate for GameFAQs scoring. On other review sites, you might see something closer to a 5 or possibly a 6, but we're honest here and the game just isn't very enjoyable -- which is GameFAQs definition of a 3. Add in the poor replayability and bugs/glitches, and I have to recommend you don't purchase the game. You can find the Civil War game for $19.99 at places now ... I'd go with that over this any day. We can only hope that we'll have a good game set in the Pacific theater one day.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 12/03/07

Game Release: The History Channel: Battle for the Pacific (US, 12/04/07)