Battlestations: Pacific - Japanese Campaign

Earlier this year, I played Battlestations: Midway. With its combination of real-time strategy and direct unit control, I liked it quite a lot. Now I'm playing its sequel, Battlestations: Pacific. As in the previous game, you control air, land, and sea units. There is a map view where you can control an entire task force and plot your strategy and tactics. Most of the time, however, you will take control of a particular unit (plane, ship, or sub) and direct its actions as you would in a 3D simulation game. There are several additions to the gameplay beyond what the first game offered. Perhaps the most significant change is that there are two campaigns instead of one. The setting is still World War II but a Japanese campaign is available in addition to the US campaign.

I decided to play the Japanese campaign first, which started with the attack on Pearl Harbour. It took me a while to become familiar with the controls again. After a few battles, I felt pretty good and was finally enjoying it. As with Battlestations: Midway, I prefer ship combat to aerial combat. Thankfully, there are a variety of battles with plenty of units to control. By far, the most difficult battle for me was Meeting the Germans. You had a Japanese submarine and a German submarine up against an American force consisting of an aircraft carrier and four destroyers. That was battle 12 out of 14. I almost gave up on it but I hated to quit so close to the end. After playing it over and over, I finally achieved victory. Eventually, you get to mount an invasion of Hawaii to close out the Japanese campaign.

One thing I was pleased with is you get to play with the biggest and baddest battleship of all time —the Yamato with its 18 inch guns. With an upgrade, you even get access to a Super Yamato class ship and its 20.1 inch guns. That ship was designed but never produced. It was great to have it as an available option in the game.


Mitsubishi A6M "Zero" over Pearl Harbor