Review: Battlestations Pacific

Chainsaws fitted to assault rifles are all very well. But real men go into battle armed with something like the Japanese navy's Yamato and its nine 18.1-inch main guns. But that's for starters. How about rocket-powered Kamikazi flying bombs? Or B-29 superfortress bombers? It may seem like we're overburdened with World War II games. But Battlestations Pacific proves what we're overburdened with is with a succession of dull shooters. This sequel doesn't feel like yet another boring iteration of an increasingly bankrupt franchise but a breath a fresh air, a divine wind even.

Here you are able to directly control fighters, bombers, recon planes, submarines, battleships, carriers and land-based artillery, give orders to other units via a simple strategy map and even team up with friends for massive battles. And all this takes place with some spectacular graphics, action packed missions and tough but rewarding challenges. If that hasn't piqued your interest Just take a look at the release trailer for the game. It looks rather awesome doesn't it?

It's a shame then that the game doesn't always look that good. Much of the time the screen is awash with garish targeting brackets and information. In providing these large brightly-coloured symbols the game does lose something, it lessens the challenge - one can just fire between these brackets even if it's too dark and stormy to see the enemy ship/plane itself.

You've a screen full of enemy aircraft, it should look epic - not full of coloured brackets. Hopefully this might be patched - a toggle would be good, or at least the target type, distance and damage indicator moved to the HUD on the bottom right rather than over the target itself.

Aces High

Be honest. You think I'm nitpicking about the target indicators don't you? You're right. Those little coloured targeting brackets are the only thing about Battlestations Pacific that really bug me. The rest? Well it's a game made from a skip full of win and a few barrels of awesome.

Battlestations Pacific takes the excitement, strategy and chaos of Battlestations Midway, ramps it up a notch, adds some gorgeous graphics, tons of new content and spits you into the Pacific Theatre for one hell of a blend of action and strategy.

This sequel deals with the first game's major flaw - a lack of single player content. Now we have two campaigns to enjoy. The conventional option is there, to play through the Pacific campaign as the US forces. However it's much more entertaining to take control of Japanese forces and rewrite history. Unlike many games which spend half a campaign teaching you the controls in pretty basic missions by the third or fourth Pacific will have you directing major conflicts. Campaign missions are interesting enough that you'll want to replay them, not least to try different strategies or concentrate on controlling a different weapons platform. Some can be a little fiddly though but on the whole the good missions outweigh the more awkward ones.

I suggested in my review of Midway that the game was crying out for a skirmish mode. The good news is we've got one this time. There are five modes of play to enjoy with plenty of maps, weapons and scenarios. These are also the modes and scenarios you'll take online.

At the time of writing this review the online servers were not populated enough to correctly judge how well the netcode works. However the offline skirmish and multiplayer modes are the same. Having played the skirmish mode extensively I predict we're in for an awful lot of fun online. Once the servers are populated I will update the review to reflect in issues with the netcode I encounter. But it terms of modes and gameplay the multiplayer part of Pacific is very well served. My only gripe in both skirmish and online modes is that the mission briefs don't always explain clearly enough what type of weapon platform you'll be using.

Afraid to Shoot Strangers

One could argue that the complexity of the single player campaign ramps up rather steeply for some gamers, but then not all games should be created for the lowest common denominator surely? If things get too tough - and I'd argue some of the submarine-based missions lean on the tough side - you can alter the difficulty during the campaign.

Switching between planes, bases, boats and subs will be familiar to anyone who played the original but there are some new features that really add to the experience. You are now tasked with taking islands from the enemy. This is achieved by launching landing craft onto enemy beaches and supporting them by bombarding shore positions via naval artillery or aircraft. Capturing islands does come across as a little simplistic - take out an island control centre and the defences are laid bare to your marines - but it's a small quibble in the scheme of things. Expanded too is the range of weaponry at your disposal. Battlestations Pacific will give you control of land artillery, kamikaze rocket planes, heavy bombers and all manner of experimental and interesting methods of destroying the enemy.

Any initial quibbles with control methods are easily dealt with in the options menu and are worth getting past for a game that doesn't treat the player like a complete tool. This may be a blend of action and strategy rather than a simulation but we get a proper throttle on the aircraft rather than the usual boost/brake you get in lesser games (such as Tom Clancy's HAWX) and you can stall the aircraft too.

The Longest Day

Controlling all this chaos is much more refined than Battlestations Midway. Launching planes and boats is achieved via a pop-up menu opened with LB and ship damage control requires pressing R3. That's much handier than looking at another menu. The practical upshot is that while Battlestations Pacific is more sophisticated than Midway you'll have fewer screens to contend with. And you won't spend much time staring at an empty carrier deck or airfield as you did in the previous release.

The real joy to be had in Battlestations Pacific is getting involved in some really huge battles. Eidos Hungary really does let you throw everything in including the kitchen sink. Watching tens of aircraft battle with each other through flak so thick you could walk across it recalls some of the best of Hollywood's depictions of the conflict. Add some massive warships firing their main artillery in brutal ship-to-ship skirmishes underneath the air war is a site to behold. Shame there's no replay recorder.

The feel of the multi-stage missions - yes with checkpoints thankfully - recalls the golden age of Microprose simulations. BS Pacific isn't a sim, but it's much more than your average dumb shooter. There's plenty of thought and strategy required for success. Weaponry works convincingly if not realistically, gun ranges may be much lower than real life but the game gives you a taste of the real power in these epic warships aided by wonderfully noisy surround sound.

One big move away from reality has worked particularly well - aircraft weapons such as bombs, torpedoes and rockets now recharge rather than being finite. Purists may quibble, but the result is more action with less time spent bringing aircraft back to re-arm. Sensibly the option of finite weapon loads has been retained for skirmish/multiplayer games if you want to make things a little more authentic. My view is that recharging weapons is neat for the single player campaign, but online, finite weapons are the way to go.

Dance of Death

A fun game Battlestations Midmay may have been but it wasn't exactly pretty. Pacific is a much more attractive game. The water is particularly impressive. The storm wave effects are some of the best you'll see in a game. Gorgeous it may be but the more realistic water has a payoff in gameplay terms too - submarines are easier to see in shallow water.

The textures are vastly improved across the board as are explosions and damage modelling. Ships break apart and sink to the seabed - endangering subs trying to pass under them. If the sea is shallow enough wrecks remain protruding from the sea for the remainder of the mission.

Weather and lighting effects are really lovely. Night ship artillery duels are gorgeous, especially when lit by lightning. Islands atolls rise realistically from the seabed and are covered in trees. There's a polish to the game's visual aspects that really does impress. This isn't one of those games that plays well, so you put up with it looking a bit ropey as you may have done with Midway. There's eye candy aplenty here.

Fortunes of War

Battlestations Pacific is a celebration classic gameplay over the current crop of me-too shooters. It recalls the glory days of sim-lite games from Microprose and Digital Image Design. This isn't like the same old crap we're peddled every week by publishers who target the same idiotic demographic again and again. This isn't a game designed for bigoted ten year old boys from Ohio.

What Battlestations Pacific delivers is something that is all too rare these days. This is a game that's fun and action-packed without treating the customer like a fool. The blend of realism and arcade fun is beautifully balanced - think of this as the warfare equivalent of Project Gotham Racing.

This game is packed with variety and more fun than anything I've played this year so far. There are tweaks I would make here or there but on the whole Pacific delivers big time. You owe it to your Xbox 360 to feed it this disk.