Spontaneous Sunday: Battlestations: Pacific

Welcome to another week of Spontaneous Sunday. This will be the final Spontaneous Sunday of 2016 as next week is Christmas and after that, New Year, and this Friday was my last day of semester 1 MA Games Design, so it seems like a good idea to have a break until the New Year!

Today I have played Battlestations: Pacific (2009, Eidos Hungary, Eidos, Xbox 360). This game had been sat unplayed on my Xbox 360 since September 2015, when it was one of the free games available through Games With Gold.

"Battlestations: Pacific is an action and real-time tactics video game published by Eidos Interactive and developed by Eidos Hungary. It is also the sequel to the 2007 video game Battlestations: Midway. It was released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 on May 12, 2009 in North America, and on May 15, 2009 in Europe and Australia."

- Wikipedia on Battlestations: Pacific.

What do I expect from the game?

I knew a little bit about the game before playing it today, such as the premise/concept and the gameplay format, but not much else, and I couldn't remember ever seeing any gameplay footage or anything like that, so I was going into it relatively blind. I expected it to involve aerial and naval battles and taking command of planes and ships in recreated WW2 battles in the Pacific theatre. I expected it to have decent graphics, to be dramatic and action-packed, and to have a certain level of historical accuracy and content.

Being a big fan of all things WW2, I expected to enjoy the game. I haven't played many games involving flying and naval combat - the only ones I can think of right now are GTA, Star Wars Battlefront, Battlefield 2 and Assassin's Creed: Black Flag, though I'm sure theres more - so I was excited to see how Battlestations: Pacific played out.

First Impressions - What did I think of the game in its first few minutes?

The game's front end is high energy, dramatic and visually appealing, with options and a map of the Pacific displayed on the left and clips of in-engine battles on the right that show off whats in store in the game and makes a positive first impression. I was interested by the "tactical library" option so I quickly checked it out. Its a library of loads of information about the Pacific theatre including the different aircraft and ships in service on both sides, and you can also see a 3D view of each vehicle which is pretty cool. This feature really offered a lot of interesting information and I could have spent a long time reading it but it was time to get into the game!

A shot of the 3D aircraft view in the tactical library.

I chose Single Player and decided to enter the "training grounds", assuming that this would be equivalent to a tutorial level, but I was mistaken and after about 15 minutes of failing to understand what I was doing and crashing a few planes, I began to realise that this feature was most likely a practice tool for players who already knew what they were doing. My thoughts at this point were that the UI was quite unclear, and the controls of deploying and managing units was fiddly and awkward, but actually flying was pretty satisfying. I then crashed my plane into an island and clipped through the terrain which caused my Xbox to crash... not a great start!

My first view of the game: the aerial combat training grounds.

First flight, in a Hawker Hurricane.

Undeterred, I rebooted and entered the naval combat training grounds which I managed to complete with more ease and no crash!

At this point I still felt pretty lost so decided to just jump into the US campaign. A cinematic played showing a montage of land, air and sea battles. This cinematic set the scene well and was dramatic. The game does cinematics very well indeed.

I discovered that the first missions of the campaign are, in fact, the tutorial levels. I completed these and gained a better grasp of the core gameplay systems and controls. Then I waged on into the campaign proper.

What do I like about the game? What does it do well?

A shot from the US campaign opening cinematic

After the shaky and confusing start in the training grounds, the campaign was a lot more entertaining and action-packed. I completed 3 of the US campaign missions. Mission one was to defeat some fighter planes and escort some bombers as a fighter plane unit. Mission two was a night time naval mission. Mission three involved both air and naval combat and sinking several enemy aircraft carriers. It wasn't until mission three that I began to feel competent in playing the game and could fully get into it. It is an interesting game concept and the core gameplay is enjoyable. Being able to fly planes and pilot naval ships in the WW2 Pacific is a gameplay experience that I've never had before and it felt new and unique. It is fun and engaging one you settle into it, but this takes a while.

Available missions are displayed on a map.

The game is part straight-up action in that you can control individual aircraft and ships, and also part real-time strategy, because you also have AI controlled units at your disposal which you can deploy and give orders to. This marriage of gameplay formats is interesting and unique and once I'd gotten used to it, it was fun to experience. This really shone in the 3rd mission, where I was in control of both air and naval forces and could command them simultaneous to achieve my objectives.

The graphics and general aesthetic of the game are strong positive points. The graphics are quite realistic for the games 2009 release date. The game is visually appealing and consistent in its aesthetic, thought the UI is not quite as attractive as the rest of it.

The historical setting and content is also a positive point. Medal of Honor: Rising Sun is the only other game that I have played that is set in the Pacific theatre of WW2, which really is a huge part of history and often underrepresented in games and other media. The tactical library feature is really cool and will appeal to WW2 fans like myself. The missions themselves also offer some insight into the events and battles. I always enjoy when a WW2 game offers information - I find that it nicely grounds and legitimises the game.

What don't I like about the game?

So, once I'd gotten the hang of Battlestations: Pacific, it became pretty fun and tactical, and its also a nice-looking game with historical content, but its not without its flaws.

I think that the game isn't very easy to get into on your first time playing. I kind of expected this to be the case when I chose it for Spontaneous Sunday and I was proved right! It is firmly within the category of the more "difficult to grasp" Spontaneous Sunday games. It also lacks a bit of polish in many areas, the UI being one of them. It also must be stated that this is the only Spontaneous Sunday where the my entire console has crashed!

The information messages in the early-game were not very informative and important things were not disclosed, such as the colour of the dots around the reticle signifying whether or not a target was in range of your guns (see picture below). For someone who didn't know what to expect, it was hard to really tell what the game was, because of its joined action and strategy elements. It took me a while to realise that I needed to be commanding my units as well as controlling my own unit at the same time, mostly because this wasn't really explained.

Also, the pace of the game can make it a bit tedious and slow, especially in less action-packed missions such as mission 2, the night-time naval battle, that just involved a handful of ships. A lot of time is spent simply travelling to your target which takes a while. Battles usually take 25-30 minutes to finish. I would have liked if the whole pace of gameplay was increased a bit to make it more quick-fire and frantic, and have less moments of waiting. The slow pace could scare off more casual players.

However, in mission 3, which involved both air and sea combat and many units, the pacing problem wasn't quite as bad, so I suppose it depends on the mission!

Final Thoughts

Battlestations: Pacific is a game with an interesting concept and core gameplay, set in an underrepresented but rather fascinating and very important era of WW2. The opportunity to fly aircraft and pilot ships in recreated sea battles is really cool and as a WW2 fan, there were many moments that I felt somewhat in awe. It's also a good looking game which adds to the realism and experience.

It does have its flaws, such as its lack of accessibility and dense learning process, but having played and gotten the hang of it, I'm sure that in future sessions I will enjoy it more. I think that it may not have been best suited to the Spontaneous Sunday treatment, as it demands to be played for a longer time than I played it for to get the full effect. Because I'm interested in the setting and the unique gameplay, I will definitely be returning to Battlestations: Pacific in the future.