ACG: Tell us a bit about the game’s five multiplayer modes.

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Szalacsi: Battlestations: Pacific features five all-new multiplayer modes, each offering a completly different game experience. In Siege mode, the two teams are fighting in a large-scale battle where the goal is to capture an island with naval and air support for one team, and the other team’s job is to protect the island at all costs, and repel the invaders.

Escort maps are attack-defense scenarios where one team is tasked with a protection of a key unit – this can be an aircraft carrier, a battleship, or even paratroop carrier planes – and the other team has to destroy that specific unit by any means.

Competitive mode is a really challenging mode where all players are on the same side with the same goal: destroy more units than the other players. Imagine a mission where you are all playing with US destroyers and the task is to shoot down more planes, sink more ships than your teammates. These maps are fast-paced and action packed, ideal for cooperative play.

Duel mode is a quick tactical action against the other team – the players are facing an enemy having the same unit classes as they have, for example battleships, destroyers or fighters. Superior dogfighting and artillery skills doesn’t guarantee a win – the team with better coordination and tactcs will triumph over players who ignore teamwork.

And finally, there is Island Capture – this is our biggest and most complex game mode, and the one we are really excited about. In this mode, players are fighting for the control of an area dotted with islands and bases, and each captured base has something useful to offer, such as airfields, radar stations, shipyards and so on. Players can capture these islands with landing ships or paratroopers, or just by keeping a big fleet close to it. This mode offers unlimited tactical and strategical options for players who love the blend of action and strategy. The other modes are a little bit more action oriented, however you can still issue orders on the tactical map screen, and make higher-level decisions with your team.
 

ACG: Some of the new elements include the addition of experimental jet fighters. How do these affect play?

Szalacsi: We were always really excited about the idea of including early jet and experimental airplanes in the game, so we decided to put them in. These are extremely hard to get, so don’t expect that everybody will fly jets while playing online. One of them is the P-80 Shooting Star which is the fastest fighter plane in the game, and the other is the Nakajima Kikka for the Japanese side – this plane was basically the Japanese copy of the German Messerschmitt Me-262. Their biggest advantage is their high speed – they reach the combat zone faster than any other plane, but they are still vulnerable to AA fire and other piston-engined fighters. And because their high speed and average maneuvrability they are not as useful in dogfights as other planes – mastering hit-and-run tactics is the way to use them.

They are the only special units which you can unlock by playing online – the other units will be unlocked while progressing through the single-player missions.

ACG: Will there be an editor released with the launch or at some time in the future?

Szalacsi: We really wanted to ship the game with a complete editor and this was very high on our priority list; however, for development reasons, we finally had to remove this feature from the game as the editor wasn’t up for our standards and for us the overall quality of the game was more important.

We’d still like to support the game in the future, but unfortunately this is all that I can say at the moment.

ACG Intel:

Battlestations: Pacific

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