Battlestations Pacific
Eidos Inc. and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.

Passed Inspection: Beautiful 3D Environments. Fun mix of strategy and arcade play.

Failed Basic: Some tedious campaign missions. Slow frame rates in big battles.

Battlestations Pacific is a refreshing and compelling shoot-’em-up that is easy to recommend.

After a hard day working to pay the rent, even hardened PC grognards like to sit down for some mind-freeing carnage. No number crunching or need for much historical accuracy, just pull the trigger and watch the bad guys go "boom." Battlestations Pacific, published by Eidos, is just that sort of game: an easy-to-play, hearty, arcade game, with gorgeous graphics, served in a compelling strategy wrapper.

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Battlestations Pacific is all about the pure joy of shooting down enemy aircraft, dropping bombs on their ships, and pounding them with your ship’s heavy guns. In each scenario, the player takes control of a WWII Pacific task force of ships, aircraft and land bases. He can direct his forces from a strategy screen or take direct control of one of his units.

The strategic element takes the game from a run-of-the-mill shoot-’em-up to something with more compelling depth. The strategy map is a quick key press away. From this screen, the player can see all of his ships and flying squadrons, along with spotted enemy units. From here the player can direct his units to attack the enemy, protect his own ships, or go out to search for enemy units. When the player’s trigger finger starts to itch, he can easily select any of his units, and then jump into the cockpit to join the action.

The sound and graphics are good enough to have come from Hollywood. Aircraft and ships are beautifully and accurately detailed. You can almost taste the salt in the air as you skim the waves in your Japanese B5N Kate torpedo bomber. When you shoot at an enemy aircraft, you see your shots make the engine smoke. Then the wing gives, and the target is engulfed in a satisfying fireball. Voice acting can sometimes be a little hammy, but the explosion and engine sound effects nicely complement the environment.

The game comes with a US and a Japanese campaign, a series of tutorial missions, and plenty of multi-player and solo skirmish battles. There are so many missions out of the box that players will definitely feel they are getting their money’s worth.

Campaign missions are based on historical events, and there are plenty of history lessons in these canned fights. For example, early in the Japanese campaign, the player is given the historic mission to sink two British battleships, the Prince of Wales and the Repulse, off of Malaysia in 1941. Each of the campaign missions follows the actual historic flow of the war.

Missions have a set of goals that must be accomplished to win and advance. These goals could be to sink a particular enemy ship or take an enemy held island. In many missions, the player has a pool of aircraft squadrons or ships he can launch. The player makes the choice of what type of plane and armament to use from a set of bombers or fighters. Trying to stop an enemy land invasion? Fighters armed with rockets may be better than dive-bombers when it comes to taking out the small landing craft. Trying to sink an enemy battleship? Torpedo bombers do the job best.

In the game, the player can fight from ship or aircraft. In many scenarios, the player moves back and forth from surface to air combat constantly. From the captain’s chair, the player can fire the ship’s big guns, launch torpedoes or defend the ship from air attack with AA guns. One nice feature is that the player’s units are competent on their own. When the player wants a break, he can direct the action from the strategy screen and stay out of the fray.

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