By Ned Jordan
Battlestations: Pacific is certainly an ambitious game. It combines elements
of real-time strategy gaming with the control-everything style of action
gameplay of the Battlefield games in large-scale battles between the Imperial
Japanese Navy and US Navy. When it works, it really works, providing some
intense and enjoyable gameplay. The problem is, it doesn't always work, and
those times of gaming joy are tempered with too many frustrating moments.
On the strategy side of the coin, Battlestations provides you with an
overhead map of the battle area from which you can direct the forces at your
disposal. If you've ever played a real-time strategy game before, controlling
your forces in Battlestations will be second nature to you. You can select
individual ships or aircraft squadrons, set movement destinations and waypoints,
issue attack orders, and more from the map screen. You can also issue unit
specific orders such as ordering a carrier to launch a squadron of planes or a
battleship to send its scout plane into the fog-of-war to look for enemy ships.
You can also select any unit on the map and jump right into direct control of
that unit.
Once you're in control of a unit, the game sheds its strategic side and
becomes an action game. There's an amazing number of units available in the game
– naval units range from submarines to PT Boats to aircraft carriers and
everything in-between while air units include scouts, heavy bombers, torpedo
planes, and fighters. Every type of ship or plane that took part in combat in
the Pacific Theater is represented here and in a number of variants and classes.
Each unit feels and controls differently as appropriate so flying a B-24 is a
lot different than a Corsair, but the game definitely sits firmly on the arcade
side of the arcade-sim fence.
Switching between units is a snap and can be done on the fly using the D-pad.
If you go down, you're not necessarily out as the game will automatically switch
you to the next unit if you are shot out of the sky or sunk to the bottom of the
briny deep. While this keeps the action going it can also be a bit disorienting
as you can be dogfighting Zeroes one moment and then suddenly find yourself just
above the deck on the final approach of a torpedo run before you realize that
you've been shot down. Each unit type has its own unique features and weapons,
and part of the initial fun of the game is trying out all of the various weapons
stations on the ships. You can man the antiaircraft guns of a carrier to fend
off torpedo bombers, drop depth charges at submarines, or let loose a deafening
and satisfying broadside from a battleship's main guns, to name a few. You'll
need to properly arc your shots and lead your targets with the ship-based
weapons, but like with the plane combat things go light on the sim aspects of
naval gunnery. Of course you'll have full control over the engines and rudder,
and on the larger ships you'll be able to direct damage control teams to
specific systems in an effort to keep these ships in the fight. You'll also have
the opportunity to take control of submarines in the game, but the amount of
micromanagement and patience required make your sub an effective weapon will
turn off most gamers – especially since the other units provide a lot more, and
more continuous, action. In spite of the variety of ships available in the game,
in practice you'll probably spend most of your time in aircraft. Part of this is
due to the fact that the ships are very slow in comparison and spend large
chunks of battles just trying to get to the action, but the reality of the
situation is that it's air power that ultimately wins battles.
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