The History Channel: Battle for the Pacific

"It's like being Raiden all over again, but this is a WWII Shooter."

History Channel: Battle for the Pacific is Cauldron`s follow-up to History Channel Civil War: A Nation Divided.

Unlike most World War II FPSs Battle for the Pacific is a relatively short single player experience, which can be beaten in roughly three (3) hours. The game is based on the idea that you traverse though the Islands off Japan, taking control and eventually making it to the Pacific WWII FPS shooter levels for Iwo Jima.

The graphics in the game are pretty bland and awfully bright at times. The character model details are pretty basic and not very well detailed at all. It presents you with bare bones graphics, nothing up to the Call off Duty standards.

The music and sounds that are available to immerse your experience are quite generic. You will find your cliche gun turret sounds, same old bullets sounds going by. Cauldron did a great job in making use of the Xbox 360 sound channels. Unfortunately, outside of the battlefield is where you will only be greeted by musical scores. This game is quite serious that way.

The gameplay is quite cliche, you get the same old Call of Duty 2 (CoD2) style energy recovery system. You get the same cliche WWII weapon acquirements capabilities, just name a CoD2 cliche, you get it here at worse quality. The best part of the experience is that you basically have been given the role of Metal Gear Solid 2's Raiden, in a WWII setting of all things. You must simply follow your platoon or leader throughout the campaign levels and you will make it to the end quite easily.

The key gameplay element to this FPS experience is that you don't have to actually shoot at anyone all that often in Battle for the Pacific, because your group & group leader will take care of most of the battle for you. You will always be shouted at with the "You will follow orders!" by your awsome platoon's leader. You will simply end up respecting how awsome your leader of the platoon truly is, as you are nothing more then a Raiden like character in a WWII setting being led by an awsome Solid Snake.

Hopefully in Battle for the Pacific 2 you will finally not be a green Private, and instead be able to lead your very own platoon into mainland Japan. The sequel will truly be awsome. This game simply leaves you anticipating so much for the sequel.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 08/25/08

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