Review:
Battlestations: Pacific Review

Battlestations:  Pacific's hybrid of strategic warfare and aerial combat is an improvement on its predecessor, if not a revolution

From a Western perspective, Japan’s role in World War II is now portrayed far differently in modern movies and games than it was in post-war fiction. The Nazis are still very much the bad guys, while the Japanese military is increasingly played as honourable and courageous, if gunning for the wrong side. Maybe it’s due to the losses Japan suffered at Hiroshima, a modern infatuation with all Eastern culture, or perhaps contemporary society venturing to see beyond any war as a purely black and white conflict, favouring the individual above the nation.

Or… maybe it’s down to videogame developers, having drained the Allied missions of WWII dry, logically moving into Axis territory for their single player campaigns. Who wouldn’t want to re-enact a kamikaze strike? Virtually re-enact, of course.

Battlestations: Pacific, the sequel to Eidos’ 2007 Battlestations: Midway now offers you a chance to command the Japanese fleet, opening with the pivotal assault on Pearl Harbour, on 7th December 1941. Anyone with even the most rudimentary knowledge of WWII history will know that it didn’t end in Japan’s favour, and wonder why the game begins with this battle. Well, see, this campaign is set in a sort of “what if” alternate universe, and follows the (allegedly) genuine plans that would have been implemented had Japan’s attack on the Allies proven triumphant. It’s a neat idea, handled plausibly enough to feel authentic, and also allows for the inclusion of several cool prototype jet fighters.

The Pearl Harbour attack was explored from an American perspective in the first game, and the new American campaign takes place after the events of Midway, beginning with the 1942 Battle of The Eastern Solomons. While it offers a very similar experience to Midway, there’s enough unique units in the Japanese campaign, namely the aforementioned kamikaze planes and prototypes, to offer you something new. Additionally, you can now direct ground troops, though they aren’t actually controllable – one for the next instalment, then. Each campaign will take around the same time to complete as the original game’s one, and the skirmish mode alone offers immense return play value.

Those who have not played Battlestations: Midway would be well advised to leave the impenetrable Training Grounds and dip straight into one of these campaigns, as they do a far better job of easing you into what might initially seem a dauntingly intricate game. Both campaigns are introduced with some impressive cutscenes, though they feel more of an obligation than a necessity, and it’s a shame that the Japanese campaign features such appalling racial stereotyping, with voiceovers that would have been below par in a dubbed 70s kung fu movie. It’s difficult to appreciate the gravity of war and the men that sacrificed their lives from both sides when your superior sounds like the Confucius Lite narrator from The Water Margin.

These single player storylines will presumably be played by many as a warm up to the excellent and diverse multiplayer modes. And practise you will need, as Pacific’s relatively steep learning curve means that unless you’re playing with seven similarly skilled players, prepare to bawl “you sunk my battleship” on a regular basis. Multiplayer is as slick as can be expected, with up to 4 players per team and 8 maps to choose from; though given the open nature of the environmen