Battlestations :Midway
We spent some time down at Eidos HQ to get to grips with the 3rd person action game that blends epic air, sea and undersea battles with a tactical aspect and a superb looking online multiplayer mode.
Battlestations: Midway follows the story of naval recruit Henry Walker, whose first assignment as a gunner at Pearl Harbour is the starting point of an incredible career at the heart of the US Pacific Fleet in 1942, in what was to become one of the most inspirational military campaigns in history.
Battlestations: Midway is a vehicle-based game that allows you to switch between each unit and take full control of the action or sit back and order your units around the battlefield while watching the war play out in real-time. The mixture of action and strategy means that fans of both action and strategy genres will be able to pick up the gameplay extremely quickly and pick and choose the times when they want to sit back and tactically ponder over the next move or jump straight into the cockpit of a torpedo bomber or the control room of a ship.
Click for larger imageWe played a mission called 'Strike on Tulagi' which begins, as all missions do, with deploying and plotting the path of your units ready for the battle ahead. The dynamic map system allows you to survey the opposition and send out planes, submarines and ships to attack enemy units or defend friendly units. It's simply a case of choosing which vehicles you wish to deploy and then clicking on an area of the map to send them to that location. The strategical aspect of the gameplay is totally down to you, so sending 4 fighter planes to attack a single enemy and leaving your own vehicles open to attack may not be a wise move. You'll need to constantly use the map to keep on eye on all movements. The beauty of the game is that you can click on any of your vehicles and jump straight into the action.
Click for larger imageSwitching to and fro between the map screen and the action is never a problem as each vehicle continues on the path that was originally set on deployment. Switching between vehicles is also crucial as it's often necessary to jump into a ship or a plane that is under attack from the enemy and attempt to get them out of a situation. You can then issue commands via the resource-allotment screen, such as adding more crew members to ships to repair any damage that may have been caused, or just to take control of firing the vehicle's weapon. (This can also be done without taking control of a unit, via the map).
Click for larger imageInitially, we struggled to control the units due to the extremely responsive controls. If you press down too hard on your thumbstick you'll find yourself hurtling towards the sea and need to pull up extremely quickly to ensure you don't make a premature landing. Switching between the controls of a ship and a plane does take a bit of getting used to. The controls obviously differ and the crosshair for each vehicle is different. Targeting an enemy with a plane is far more difficult than with a sea based vehicle due to its constant movement, but once you get the hang of it (it took us about 15-20 minutes) the results are spectacular as you move in formation with other friendly planes and send a barrage of bullets at oncoming enemies and swoop low to send torpedoes at enemy ships. We certainly need more practice to be able to pull-off some of the fancy manoeuvres, such as loop-the-loop and barrel rolls, but Battlestations : Midway does have an academy where new recruits can practise to their hearts content.
