Review | Battlestations: Pacific

Format: Xbox360, PC | Genre: Action strategy | Publisher: Eidos | Developer: Eidos Hungary | Out now: £34.99 – £49.99

By Greg Giddens

Battlestations: Pacific takes us back to World War 2 – again, like every game and its dog – but adds something new to the tired mix of shoot, run, duck, and die. It instead provides an experience seldom seen in games nowadays, especially on the consoles: it allows players to not only experience the battles from a variety of different air and sea vehicles, but also to strategically control and manually switch between them seamlessly. What we have here is the old fashioned Beach Head from the Commodore 64 era, beautifully recreated for modern gamers. It’s quite a lot of fun, as well.

For those unfamiliar with the likes of Beach Head: imagine Battlefield 1942, but without the foot-soldier sections and land vehicles.  Battlestations: Pacific is simply that, and Beach Head obviously helped inspire both the Battlefield and Battlestations series, offering as they do a very similar experience.

//Staying in control
Battlestations: Pacific allows you to experience many battles from the World War 2 era, some with a degree of historical accuracy and others not so much. There are two campaigns, one Japanese and one American. The latter begins after the Battle of Midway – so following on from the end of the previous game – and takes you through to the end of the War. The Japanese campaign starts you off from the attack on Pearl Harbour and takes you thorough a fictitious “what if…” scenario of Japan crushing the American naval military and forcing a complete surrender. Each campaign plays through a variety of different battles and missions involving an impressive collection of different air and naval crafts, from fighters and dive bombers to destroyers and battleships, each delivering a different gaming style.

The missions requiring you to take control of aircrafts are the least enjoyable, and certainly the hardest, mainly because of the controls and the frailty of the planes. Eidos Hungary have managed to squeeze an incredible amount of controls into the one pad for the console versions, and the sheer number of buttons to press and options to use can be overwhelming. Thanks to a gradual introduction to the many controls via onscreen hints, the learning curve is slow and gentle, but despite that the aircraft are still tricky. Moving the left stick up or down controls speed, while direction is controlled with the right stick. Easy enough so far, but then to turn your aircraft right or left you can either dip your wings and turn with the right stick, a reasonably slow manoeuvre, or you can use right and left on the left stick to turn also whilst dipping your wings to pull the turn off quicker. Move down on the left stick whilst doing this, though, and your sure to stall your plane and may even crash as a result.

The main problem with the aircraft controls is targeting the enemy. Battlestations: Pacific helpfully provides a circular target to aim for when attempting to gun down other aircraft, but positioning your reticule in this circle is a tricky move. The times I could simply shoot down the enemy were numerous, but choosing instead to fly into the enemy proved just as effective. Aerial combat would greatly benefit from an assisted targeting system, something generally accepted in console shooters but absent here. Perhaps I’m being too critical of the plane controls – maybe I was the only one who couldn’t handle it well – but either way it damaged my enjoyment of the game to begin with. Luckily, the aircraft-only areas are limited, and I soon found myself controlling ships.

//In the navy
Naval combat is fantastic. It’s still fairly complex, but it works, and controlling a huge devastating craft of death is immensely satisfying. The naval battles are what make this game shine, and after the disappointment of the initial aerial combat, they’re what lift Battlestations: Pacific high above average. Naval combat makes up the majority of the game, and after playing a mission or two with some different ships you’re introduced to the final gameplay aspect: the strategic map.

As the name suggests, this provides a more tactical experience, allowing you to issue orders to each unit rather than manually controlling each of them. Once you’ve reached this point in the game, you’d be surprised by the amount of knowledge you’ve gained regarding the controls, and you should now be in a position to really experience what Battlestations: Pacific has to offer.

It’s not for everyone. This is certainly much slower than what the majority of us are used to these days, and is best compared to games like Silent Hunter on the PC. This is particularly evident for the naval units, where the battles are more drawn out and inherently tactical. However, this pace proves to be a great way of immersing the player, despite the arcade-style combat. The units feels like how I would imagine these vehicles are to control: they’re slow and cumbersome, but powerful.

Further adding to the immersion are some cinematic in-game cut-scenes with an old film footage effect, as well as actual black and white footage from the war on the mission briefing screen. But it’s spoiled somewhat by some areas of poor voice acting, especially from the Japanese voice actors, some of which perplexingly have English and American accents.

//Enter the chaos
It’s not always an issue, though, as the game itself requires your full attention. Despite the slow pace, make a wrong move and you will lose units quickly. Missions are surprisingly varied; the concept of a game based solely on air and sea battles may sound quite restricted, but Battlestations: Pacific proves this doesn’t need to be the case, and instead provides a good mix of different objectives and options. Most missions will begin with you controlling a small fleet and heading to a destination to investigate or engage the enemy, and soon after you will find yourself in a frantic battle against dozens of enemy crafts, a million miles away from the leisurely approach experienced earlier. It nearly always ends in a seemingly chaotic battle, with ships taking artillery fire, planes taking AA and flak, and subs dealing with depth charges. The entire screen will fill with bullets, bombs and bemusement, but with a quick look at the strategic map you’ll find your way through the chaos to emerge the other side, victorious.

While you make your approach you will have ample time to check out the impressive details of the crafts, the fantastic explosions and fire and some of the truly brilliant little effects. The droplets of water hitting the screen if you fly close to the surface or suffer a near miss are testament to the developers’ fine care and attention.

//Empty islands
Further care and attention has been made in the multiplayer, which is great fun, offering a good selection of different game modes. The Island Capture mode is the most dynamic and noteworthy, very similar to the Battlefield style of gameplay where you need to capture areas, in this case islands, and keep them from the enemy team. Capturing more islands provides more options for units you can deploy and control, potentially giving you an advantage over the other side. The pace of the single-player game is maintained in multiplayer, making the experience more tactical and really emphasizing the need for teamwork and strategy. There isn’t yet a dedicated community of players for Battlestations: Pacific, so filing up a lobby can take a while, add on the potential for a single game to take several hours, patient gamers are a must. There’s also a balancing issue due to the unlockable units that allow the lucky teams to far outclass the standard ones, a massive advantage that can completely suppress the other side. Despite these faults there’s no denying that the multiplayer experience has been lovingly crafted by Eidos Hungary, and is superb fun to play.

Battlestations: Pacific is certainly a niche title: you need to be patient, with unit movement and grasping of controls slowing things down considerably. But if you’re looking for a new kind of experience this one should meet your needs. All hands to Battlestations!

8/10

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