Released on the Xbox 360 and PC, this wartime combat game centres on the Battle of Midway. It blends strategy and arcade combat, but doesn't fall victim to the impenetrable or repetitive nature of hardcore titles in either genre.
The game's core is a solitary single-player campaign that's broken down into 11 missions, each consisting of several smaller objectives. You're called upon to take down Japanese warships, and fend off enemy bombers and invasion forces.
After opening with the intense attack on Pearl Harbor, things settle down a bit, so that you can get to grips with the controls and the game's map screen. This is its main strategic element and is where you direct each of your units.
You can observe the computer-controlled action by selecting a unit and closing the map. Move the mouse and you take command of the vehicle, which is where Battlestations' arcade elements come to the fore, especially with the immediate rush of planes - plummeting from a high altitude results in a rising pitch of whistling wind, as in old war films.
Others on its wing will follow your lead to take down enemy fighters or strafe carriers. You have to return to the map screen throughout the battle to make adjustments, ensure events are still unfolding to plan and send bombers back to base to rearm.
Where planes feel a little disposable, the excitement of controlling ships and submarines comes from tactical decisions. You often have to ensure that a particular unit survives and prioritise targets such as fortresses that guard a coastline or a hanger that's launching patrol boats. They can, however, be difficult to control, even with the mouse sensitivity set to maximum.
With water-based vehicles, you also have a repairs screen that you'll visit when ships spring a leak and fire spews from the deck. However, it only involves allocating crewmen to fixing each task, while you return to the action to evade further attacks and avoid destruction.
Simulation is a strangely mixed affair and if you're dead set on expectations of fuel limits, then the toned-down detail will be off-putting. Submarines have to surface to replenish oxygen and certain kinds of ammo - bombs, torpedoes and the like - are limited, though bullets are unlimited.
There's a good sense of scale, but the illusion is spoilt if you look too closely. The sinking of ships at the end of a mission, for example, rendered with the in-game engine, show crewmen patiently strolling the deck, seemingly unaware of their fate.
Action was smooth enough for the most part on a current iMac at full resolution and with 4x anti-aliasing enabled, even in later missions with many planes dogfighting. Cut-scenes are decorated with a popular film grain effect that's available as an ingame option. It's a little cheesy and distracting though, and the alternative bloom lighting is a better option, as it brightens the colours to what you might expect of beautiful Pacific atolls.
The camera shake option is also worth enabling, and the combination of visual and aural feedback is a nice touch. The sound of flak, bomb explosions and gunfire do well to alert you to threats.
A few missions in, and the dialogue becomes repetitive after you've heard a wingmate declare 'she's heading for the coral' for the umpteenth time. Cut-scenes document the campaign's progress, but their narration fails to produce much sense of tension, and the music soon blends into the background, too.
Submarine missions are claustrophobic, but sorely lack detail. Bubbles drift by and beams of light penetrate the deep, but things aren't quite as pretty here. Nevertheless, the action is no less intense when depth charges are exploding all around you.
The comfortable balance of genres is quite enjoyable if you don't want to be bogged down in hardcore strategy games. The single-player campaign is just the right length, although we'd like to have played a Japanese campaign. Instead, they can only be played in the intense and appropriately named challenge and multiplayer modes, which really extend the game's life.
Verdict
Needs Mac OS X 10.4.8 or later + 1.8GHz Intel Mac + 512MB Ram + 128MB non-integrated graphics card
Author: Alan Stonebridge
MacUser Online