Submarines fill out this impressive variety of units at your command. Patrol boats may be fast little buggers, but they're no match for your fighters. And just as with aerial bombing runs, locking on to a torpedo and following it to its destination is a terrific way to experience the payoff for a well-aimed shot.
Watching a target battleship begin to flame and smoke during a protracted battle is rewarding, and the loud booms of volleyed artillery make these battles pack even more punch. Destroyers such as the Japanese Akizuki are equipped with artillery, antiaircraft turrets, and torpedoes during the heat of battle, you will find yourself switching between them often. Indeed, naval combat offers another satisfying slice of action, and the sheer variety of aircraft that you can pilot is matched by the large number of ships at your disposal. This lets you jump quickly into the hot spots in which you're most needed and exercise your combat prowess in the skies, amid the ocean waves, or underwater.
Flight combat is only one piece of this complex experience, and unless the mission shoehorns you into a single craft, you can switch between any active units at will. However, Battlestations: Pacific is not a one-trick pony. Likewise, the responsive controls make both aerial battles and bombing runs equally rewarding, especially when you lock the camera onto your payload and watch it slam into the target. From the B-25 bomber to the speedy F4U Corsair, each plane feels good to fly and appropriately powerful. However, once you get used to the controls, you'll find that Battlestations: Pacific offers a tight and enjoyable flight-combat experience that is as exciting as any arcade sim. It's a shame that a more standard flight-control scheme, such as that used in the Ace Combat series, isn't an available option. You'll spend a good amount of time in the cockpit of a fighter or bomber (perhaps enjoying the new cockpit view), laying waste to enemy aircraft, launching torpedoes into battleships, and pelleting PT boats with machine-gun fire. These are minor gripes in a game with such lofty ambitions, and it's a wonder that Battlestations: Pacific offers so many different types of gameplay and delivers them so well. This History Channel-inspired method of storytelling works just fine, though the accompanying dialogue, especially that of the American campaign, is stilted and awkward, and the voice acting is at best amateurish-and at worst, deeply embarrassing. Both the American campaign and its counterpart eschew an actual story, limiting narrative exposition to prebattle mission briefings and sepia-toned cutscenes made to look as if they were culled from old film footage. Actually, in the case of the Japanese campaign, you'll explore an alternate history in which the Japanese expand their empire across the greater Pacific after destroying Pearl Harbor. Now Playing: Battlestations: Pacific Video Reviewīattlestations: Pacific begins where its predecessor left off, depicting the United States' wartime operations in the Pacific Theater, though this time, it lets you experience history from both sides of the coin. By clicking 'enter', you agree to GameSpot's