''Battlestations: Pacific'' is an

action Action may refer to: * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video game Film * Action film, a genre of film * ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford * ''Action'' (1980 fil ...

and

real-time tactics Real-time tactics (RTT)(Article at IGN discussing their perception of RTS and related genres as of 2006. RTT is discussed as a new and not yet established genre from the publisher's perspective, so currently all RTT possible titles are still con ...

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published by

Eidos Interactive Square Enix Limited (formerly Domark Limited and Eidos Interactive Limited) is a British subsidiary of the Japanese video game company Square Enix, acting as their European publishing arm. The company formerly owned ''Tomb Raider'', which was in ...

and developed by

Eidos Hungary Eidos Hungary (formerly Mithis Entertainment) was a Hungarian video game developer based in Budapest, Hungary. History The company was founded as Mithis Entertainment in March 2002 by former Philos Laboratories employees. Between 2002 and 20 ...

. It is also the sequel to the 2007 video game '' Battlestations: Midway''. It was released for

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and

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worldwide in May 2009. The

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version of the game was developed by Robosoft Technologies and released on October 8, 2010, by

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Square Enix Europe Square Enix Limited (formerly Domark Limited and Eidos Interactive Limited) is a British subsidiary of the Japanese video game company Square Enix, acting as their European publishing arm. The company formerly owned ''Tomb Raider'', which was in ...

closed the game's developer,

, in April 2010.

Gameplay

''Battlestations: Pacific'' expands on '' Battlestations: Midway'' in several ways, adding new combat features such as more advanced submarine combat, more easily customizable planes and ordinance loads, island invasions, which have effects on the battle at hand. New weapons, planes, and ships were added, such as HVAR Rockets and experimental fighters, including the Kikka and

Shinden Shinden may refer to: *Kyushu J7W Shinden, an interceptor airplane *, the main building of a shinden-zukuri, a Heian period mansion in Japan * , or ''honden In Shinto shrine architecture, the , also called , or sometimes as in Ise Shrine's case, ...

, along with

kamikaze , officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending to d ...

units, such as the

Ohka The Yokosuka MXY-7 was a purpose-built, rocket-powered human-guided ''kamikaze'' attack aircraft employed by Japan against Allied ships towards the end of the Pacific War during World War II. Although extremely fast, the very short range of t ...

and

Kaiten were crewed torpedoes and suicide craft, used by the Imperial Japanese Navy in the final stages of World War II. History In recognition of the unfavorable progress of the war, towards the end of 1943 the Japanese high command considered s ...

; there are also some more conventional aircraft and ship additions. ''Battlestations: Pacific'' shifts events beyond the

Battle of Midway The Battle of Midway was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II that took place on 4–7 June 1942, six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea. The U.S. Navy under Adm ...

for the American forces as they continue the war onwards to

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...

and final victory. The most drastic addition is that of the Japanese campaign, which tells a "what if" story in which Japan is victorious at the Battle of Midway and continues their war effort beyond that point to invade

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

, trade technology with

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, and defeat the United States of America, with an ending cinematic of General

Douglas MacArthur Douglas MacArthur (26 January 18805 April 1964) was an American military leader who served as General of the Army for the United States, as well as a field marshal to the Philippine Army. He had served with distinction in World War I, was C ...

signing a peace treaty on the ''

Yamato was originally the area around today's Sakurai City in Nara Prefecture of Japan, which became Yamato Province and by extension a name for the whole of Japan. Yamato is also the dynastic name of the ruling Imperial House of Japan. Japanese his ...

'' in

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland. San Francisco Bay drains water from a ...

, meant to echo the

surrender of Japan The surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II was announced by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally signed on 2 September 1945, bringing the war's hostilities to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy ...

on the deck of the . It is also possible to, at the start of the

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, j ...

, "kill" the two main characters of ''Battlestations: Midway''. If the player managed to sink Henry's

PT boat A PT boat (short for patrol torpedo boat) was a motor torpedo boat used by the United States Navy in World War II. It was small, fast, and inexpensive to build, valued for its maneuverability and speed but hampered at the beginning of the wa ...

, the pilot would comment "His name was Henry. This is not his story." After shooting down Donald's more advanced plane, he would go on to comment that "Fighter ace, huh? At least you died in the air", pointing back to Donald's death on the USS ''Yorktown'' at

Coral Sea The Coral Sea () is a marginal sea of the South Pacific off the northeast coast of Australia, and classified as an interim Australian bioregion. The Coral Sea extends down the Australian northeast coast. Most of it is protected by the Fre ...

Multiplayer

''Battlestations: Pacific'' features five new multiplayer modes that can be played with or against other humans or AI-controlled characters online or offline: * Island capture - Each team starts with one or two Headquarters as their main bases to launch units from. Units are brought into the battle by spending Command Points on each unit. There are numerous islands scattered around the map and each one's base can be captured either by paratroopers or seaborne assault. Capturing a base can unlock different unit types or Naval Supplies which are single use items that can enhance your fleet for example arming your ships with more effective ammunition. By holding bases they accumulate points and the game ends when either the time runs out, one team reaches the designated score or one team runs out of bases. * Duel - This mode allows to fight against other players or the AI in a chosen unit class, last team with a unit left wins. * Competitive - All players are on the same side with a specific objective to complete but the main goal is to score more than the other players. * Siege - One team must defend an island with their specific set of units while the other team is in an attacking position. The game ends when one team has drained their resource pool. * Escort - A key unit (or units) must be protected by one team up to a certain point while the other team is set on destroying the said objective.

Development

In 2008, ''Battlestations: Midway''s main site battlestations.net reported a sequel in development and later that year ''Battlestations: Pacific'' was confirmed. The game's graphics engine has been overhauled. Details now include such things as foliage upon islands, water becoming transparent at shallow depths and a new cockpit view mode. The game's damage

model A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the Plan_(drawing), plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a mea ...

and

physics engine A physics engine is computer software that provides an approximate simulation of certain physical systems, such as rigid body dynamics (including collision detection), soft body dynamics, and fluid dynamics, of use in the domains of computer gr ...

, specifically the water based physics, have been redeveloped to a much higher level of realism than that of its predecessor. Ships split in two, smokestacks and crewmen could be blasted overboard. The wings, tails and engines can be shot off planes. The game now includes several different types of environment effects, most notably the addition of night, day and other weather effects. Over 100 playable units are included. A Japanese campaign which reflects plans that the Japanese had constructed if the Pacific War had turned in their favour is included alongside the historical US campaign. The playability of the game has gained developer attention, with the learning-curve being shortened and the tabs for launching units and repairs was simplified.

Release

''Battlestations: Pacific'' was released worldwide in May 2009. A demo for Battlestations: Pacific was released on the April 30 for the PC and Xbox 360. The demo contained a mission from the US single player campaign (Divine Winds of Leyte) as well as two multiplayer modes to play in Skirmish mode. ''Battlestations: Pacific'' was added to the Xbox One Backward Compatibility program on January 10, 2019. The digital re-release on Xbox One came with a price tag of $24.99.

Reception

The Xbox 360 version received "generally favorable reviews", while the PC version received "average" reviews, according to the

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website

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

. ''

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'' said that the former "still has much to recommend underneath the flaws...the pleasures it does offer are enhanced by the knowledge that it's still the only game offering them". ''

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

'' summarised that the game "is a sequel done right: It's just as fun, but it's bigger, broader, and more fully realized". In Japan, where the game was ported and published by

Spike Spike, spikes, or spiking may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Books * ''The Spike'' (novel), a novel by Arnaud de Borchgrave * ''The Spike'' (book), a nonfiction book by Damien Broderick * ''The Spike'', a starship in Peter F. Hamilto ...

on May 28, 2009 (the same release date as the Australian version), ''

Famitsu formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the fo ...

'' and ''Famitsu X360'' gave it a score of 29 out of 40. ''411Mania'' gave the Xbox 360 version 8.2 out of 10, saying that it "exceeds in almost all the areas ''Midway'' did not. It creates a new kind of action-strategy hybrid, and goes places most games don't." ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'' gave the same Xbox 360 version a B, saying, "The waters are choppy at first, but ''Pacific'' is deeper than it looks." Eidos acknowledged some small technical issues, resulting in developing a patch to fix said issues which was released before any other downloadable content.

Expansion packs

''Battlestations Pacific'' has seen the release of three expansion packs after release. These expansion packs could be downloaded from

Xbox Live Marketplace Xbox Games Store (formerly Xbox Live Marketplace) is a digital distribution platform used by Microsoft's Xbox Series X, S, Xbox One and Xbox 360 video game consoles. The service allows users to download or purchase video games (including both ...

. These DLCs can be found inside a few user-compiled mod packs for the PC version at

Mod DB Mod DB is a website that focuses on general video game modding. It was founded in 2002 by Scott "INtense!" Reismanis. As of September 2015, the Mod DB site has received over 604 million views, has more than 12,500 modifications registered, and ...

. * Battlestations: Pacific - Volcano Map Pack (1st DLC) Release date: Jun 11, 2009. 2 maps: Volcano Map, Choke Point Map. * Battlestations: Pacific - Mustang Pack (2nd DLC) Release date: Jul 2, 2009. 6 units; 9 US pin-up nose arts & 9 Japanese nose arts for vehicles. Included units:

P-51 Mustang The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang is an American long-range, single-seat fighter and fighter-bomber used during World War II and the Korean War, among other conflicts. The Mustang was designed in April 1940 by a team headed by James ...

, G5N Liz long range bomber,

Alaska-class cruiser The ''Alaska'' class were six very large cruisers ordered before World War II for the United States Navy, of which only two were completed and saw service late in the war. The US Navy designation for the ships of this class was 'large cruiser ...

Montana-class battleship The ''Montana''-class battleships were planned as successors of the for the United States Navy, to be slower but larger, better armored, and with superior firepower. Five were approved for construction during World War II, but changes in wartime ...

, Kuma torpedo cruiser,

Super Yamato-class battleship Design A-150, popularly known as the ''Super Yamato'' class, was a planned ship class, class of battleships for the Imperial Japanese Navy. In keeping with longstanding Japanese naval strategy, the A-150s would have carried six guns to ensure th ...

. * Battlestations: Pacific - Carrier Battles Map Pack (3rd DLC) Release date: Jul 23, 2009. 4 maps: they are set in Midway, Philippine Island, Leyte Gulf, Aleutian Islands.

References

External links