Battlestations: Pacific

"You Sunk My Battleship!"

All hands report to battlestations!

Battlestations Pacific picks up from where Battlestations Midway ends after the successful victory for the U.S. at Midway. Battlestations Pacific will send you flying for the Wikipedia entries of all the next major battles following Midway as you perform operations against either the U.S. or Japan in the single player mode or wage war against some AI or online opponents in the skirmish multiplayer. The game play, controls, and even music to the game have not changed at all from the first game, but the improvements to the Battlestations series is the addition of a two-sided campaign mode, amphibious assaults, a new skirmish mode, and a better and more active online community with ranks and loads of multiplayer options.

The single player campaigns have do not follow a particular group or person throughout the game. In fact, there is not much of a story to follow beyond the progression of the war. You will encounter simple voiceovers commenting on the next operation followed by some short clips of on going operations. As the campaigns progress so do the complexity of the missions so you will end up cycling through a whole bunch of units to achieve a needed objective like taking out particular enemy targets or capturing a land base. The missions relive many famous battles and the operations of many more navy vessels so the emphasis stays directly focused on the historical aspects of this game. This is actually refreshing compared to the wild plot of Battlestations Midway where a PT Boat commander goes on to command an aircraft carrier by the end of the game.

The game play will be easy to get back into if you played Battlestations Midway all the way through because the controls are very much the same as they were. You can control one unit during a battle with the ability to cycle through numerous units engaged in the battle (if they are available) but you can also control all of them through the overhead map. For the newcomers, a tutorial free play mode is included along with a Navy Academy, which explains everything you need to know about the controls of the game. The controls are not as complicated as they may seem, but they are very complex. Both of the campaigns are very long and the difficulty only increases as they battles progress. You also get more complex objectives to complete while using multiple units as the game moves on so prepare to dig in because it is going to be a long war on both sides.

The skirmish mode allows you to practice completing various objectives or to take time out and deal out the damage and the options this mode gives you allows for a fun mix of action. Online has plenty of fun things to try out between ranked and unranked matches. Most of the time you will run into death match games where you have to deal out the most damage to your enemy while working with a team. Some of the game types may include only battling with certain units like the airplanes in this game and the mechanics of the dog fighting add that much more to what Battlestations Pacific has to offer. The online community is large and getting into a game is very easy so hopefully the online play will last for a long time.

In terms of graphics and sound, the only big complaint I have against Battlestations Pacific is that the voiceovers in the game are a bit overrated. The dialogue works very well in some areas such as the Pearl Harbor mission in the Japanese campaign where you can overhear the American radio transmissions, but in other areas you have an arrogant admiral having an argument with a lieutenant in a couple of U.S. missions. What would have been awesome is for the individual ships and planes and everything else have their own distinct voiceovers during the missions because you cannot distinguish from where the chatter is coming from.

The graphics work really well from the scenes in the game to the use of vintage footage to accommodate the mission briefings. The introduction scenes of both campaigns are very impressive and the scenes between missions show the in game operations in the same type of vintage film reel setting. Also included was plenty of vintage footage from the Pacific theater showing the real life operations being conducted. The only odd thing that stands out are that the ships usually have sailors on board during fights that are just manning a particular random post or are walking around like nothing is going on. No gun crews are shown, but the unit models look great. Other great graphical features are being able to switch views with a particular unit like the periscope of the submarines or following a torpedo after you launch it from your plane.

Battlestations Pacific is no rental when it comes to the value that this game brings. The campaigns are very long and extensive and take some time to finish. Once you do get past all of the missions in the campaigns however, the online play is just as much fun and even more competitive so this game has a long replay value life to it. The achievements are just as easy to get as well considering you get 10 points just for putting the disc in!

Final Recommendation 8/10

While there are still a few bugs in the series, Battlestations Pacific makes for an excellent sequel to a series that puts you through many perspectives of the Pacific theater of WW2. Battlestations Pacific does a tremendous job in respect to both sides of this part of the war and you get an excellent single player experience as well as a great online experience with this game. If you are into WW2 anything, you will like this game from the air combat to the naval warfare. A lot of errors from the first game were corrected with this game and made even better with the additional features that Battlestations Pacific has to offer. All in all, this is a great and well-rounded game to play.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/18/09

Game Release: Battlestations: Pacific (US, 05/12/09)