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Little-known fact: Before it was an abysmal Michael Bay/Ben Affleck vehicle, Pearl Harbor was an actual event -- one of the worst in our country's history, in fact. Not too familiar with it? Blame the higher death toll of September 11th, along with the fact that it's one of the few WWII-era goings-on that hasn't been beaten to death by video games. Eidos is fixing to change that with Battlestations: Midway on Xbox 360.

RTS In My Action

In an era where Japan seemed poised for global domination, Battlestations: Midway focuses on the little guys of the military conflict. Lt. Henry Walker and Major Donald Locklear are two everyday soldiers putting it all on the line for America and the entire Pacific. One hangs out with seaman; the other gets high all the time. This is their story.

Battlestations: Midway attempts to bring PC-skewed action/strategy to the console masses. Not only will you be piloting bombers, battleships, and submarines -- sometimes all in the same level, thanks to a sweet real-time swapping mechanic --but you'll also have to tend to vessel damage, dole out orders, and man the tactical map. It's a dizzying task list to be sure, so it's not altogether shocking that the tutorial takes longer than most History Channel documentaries. You'll sorely miss having a keyboard in front of you. Thankfully, the actually mission structure mercifully eases you into things on the battlefield. Even still, later levels will have you screaming to whatever deity or inanimate object you worship for hints on how to deploy those damn B-17s.

Game of Infamy

The scenarios in Battlestations: Midway are put together with the same creativity that went into the game design. Palawan Passage is the equivalent of a football game at sea: Your destroyer has to bust through the defensive line, only to find one more big, bad mo-fo waiting at the endzone. At Luzon, a precision bombing raid to decimate a sitting duck turns the tables -- charging you with switching between planes to chip away at a Japanese battleship before it sinks your immobile aircraft carrier. This is like trying to turn Bill O'Reilly liberal by using rainbow bumper stickers.

The missions feature some exciting stuff, to be sure; but don't confuse the premise for something action-intensive. There's a lot of plotting and plodding to be done here. Expect hour-long affairs to turn up with a game-over screen and no recourse but to start the mission all over. A quick-save feature would've done wonders. It takes a long time to adjust to waiting for your artillery to load while piloting your bulky boat, then sending subordinates to fix the leaky hull and fire on deck -- while at the same time protecting your homies. Onscreen indicators only provide so much aid. It's the kind of thing that may cause shellshock.

Reinforcements

While the single-player portion may be too RTS-heavy for some console gamers -- even the seemingly arcade-like challenges can be grueling -- multiplayer turns up the tempo. Portraying a mere cog in the works rather than the whole war machine, you're free to live fast and die hard like a good pilot should. Each of the nine matches are all-out warfare, complete with minimal lag, up to eight players, and bots filling in the roster spots. Dogfighting is especially satisfying, and the fact that heavily-armed behemoths watch from below only ups the ante.

For its ambition and tackling of two genres at once, Battlestations: Midway ain't half bad. Its duality means that not a lot of players will absolutely fall in love with it, but there's enough here for most gamers to find themselves happily immersed. The multiplayer is especially worth looking into, as next-gen owners have been patiently waiting for a decent dogfighting game. Being able to swap between vehicles in real-time has a coolness that can't be understated, but whether you have the patience to earn your wings is another story. Battlestations: Midway wins a few battles, but not the entire war.

Article by: Justin Leeper
Video produced by: Murderality