Battlestations Pacific Review

Battlestations Midway impressed wannabe midshipmen by giving them reigns of a navy and letting them orchestrate battles. For the rest of us, the lack of compelling combat had us praying for shore leave. Battlefield Pacific picks up where Midway left off, giving naval buffs the opportunity to put on their best Admiral Nimitz impersonation by directing and controlling fighter squadrons, battleships, and submarines.

Pacific features two unique campaigns: One focuses on the U.S. Navy's success against Japan in World War II. A second explores an alternate history that relives the bombing of Pearl Harbor from the eyes of the aggressors and subsequently follows a Japanese campaign, a peculiar direction I'm not sure many Americans are keen to experience save for giving a kamikaze plane a test run. The missions in both campaigns stick to basic military objectives - escort fleets, conduct bombing runs, defend bases - with secondary and hidden objectives that help boost your overall mission rating and unlock new naval and air units.

Players must juggle issuing orders to units while controlling individual units to aid in the onslaught. The tactical map helps you direct your army more quickly, but the user interface does a poor job of indicating which fleets you can control. Some missions include AI-controlled allies, and the game never differentiates clearly between those units and yours. Planes and ships typically follow orders, but occasional AI bugs derail the units, and the battles devolve into tedious micromanagement. AI-controlled destroyer ships have a hard time navigating around shallow island shores, and your aircraft often fly aimlessly after completing objectives rather than staying in the fray.

When the workload is split between four players in online multiplayer, it's much easier to keep units on task and take in battle from the view of a cockpit or battleship rather than the ugly tactical map. The five multiplayer modes and eight scaleable maps give fans a lot of replay value, but the game's fundamental flaw is still intact: boring gameplay. Bombing runs can be fun, but navigating slow ships with even slower ammo reloads and babysitting units doesn't add up to a riveting experience. Count this bored midshipman out.