All Hands, Man Your Stations! There's War to be Had in the Pacific!

"December 7th, 1941 - a day which will live in infamy" - Franklin D. Roosevelt, on the attack of Pearl Harbour


On May 15, 2009 Battlestations: Pacific appeared in Europe, to no great hype or excitement. Although its predecessor, Battlestations: Midway had been reasonable it had not been awesome. A limited amount of missions and scenarios meant the replayability wasn't too good, and so personally my expectations for its sequel weren't too high.

However, having played the game itself, Battlestations: Pacific has proved to cure most of the ailments that afflicted its older brother, sister, mutant, disc, or whatever you want to refer to it as. Straight from the off, there is now a Japanese Campaign, much to my delight, as we can all assume the Japanese Battleship Yamato will make an appearance, and where there is a Yamato Class Battleship, there will be carnage... and lots of dead US sailors. Fact.

Of course, where there's foreign voices, there is a possibility of bad voice acting, and this plague has visited BS:P. The Japanese voice acting, is now in English, so rather than hearing a Japanese person shouting at you “Torpedoes in the water” in a language you don't understand, you now have some awful voice acting telling you the important information of your impending doom. This for me though, makes the game that little bit better, as it gives me a chance to evade and carry on playing, rather than encouraging me to learn how to swear at fellow crewmen in Japanese.

Another detail I have noticed is that game balance has been restored. No longer can you spam Torpedo bombers at everything that moves and hope to let the waterline do the rest. Torpedo damage is now reduced and water pumping more efficient, meaning if you leave that destroyer to die, it will slowly repair itself, and then destroy you. As its name suggests. Enemy AI has also been improved, reacting to your movements rather than moving in your fleets’ general direction and hoping for a kill.

The absolute best thing that helps haul this game from Midway to the Pacific is the new Skirmish mode. At last, once the campaigns have finally been completed (after surviving those really annoying Submarine and Plane missions), you now have a replayability factor in the form of several Skirmish modes, ranging from Take and Hold style maps to Protect the Invasion Fleet and Duel mode, improving the online experience tenfold, as gamers get to enjoy new competitive game modes to challenge their gunnery, strategy and general "blow-uppery" skills.

However, it's not all sunshine and lollipops for BS:P. There comes a time where you'll hit, as mentioned before, missions that are limited to Submarines, Planes, or something else you really don't like doing. Although there is slightly more mission variation than “kill this, move here, protect this” (including a raid against an Australian harbour in the Japanese Campaign), the time will come where you have to fight in a vehicle you don't like, or when the odds are so horribly stacked against you that you don't feel a chance of victory. Depth Charges still own Submarines... (hint hint) I hate Sub missions.

Strategic importance has also been pivotal to this games development, as with the reactive AI, players have to think of tactics rather than just getting Heavy Cruisers and Battleships in Skirmish modes. This is what truly makes the game brilliant. Unlockables and even interchangeable Nose-Art on Planes makes the game more in-depth than ever before, allowing you a certain amount of customisation in your forces.

So overall? BS:P has the right mix of tactics and 3^rd person Battleship Carnage that made the first game bearable. Although with a couple of annoying missions, BS:P is certainly a marked improvement, and definitely worth getting if you're interested in ship-to-ship warfare or general carnage. When all else fails, take command of the biggest ship you've got and turn the tide yourself. Sounds good right? All hands, Battlestations!