f you played Battlestations: Midway, you know that the series is a hodgepodge of game genres. It delves into action and strategy, and also features flight and RTS elements. Battlestations: Pacific takes place right after the end of Battlestations: Midway, and aims to recreate the biggest battles in the Pacific during WWII. The game is twice the size of its predecessor, offers 28 single player missions, and allows the user to play as the Japanese and alter to course of history. There is also a new skirmish mode, which allows multiplayer maps to be played offline with AI opponents. In addition, the user interface has been revamped, there is a first-person cockpit mode for the flight segments, and over 100 war machines can be controlled throughout the game.

I had a chance to sit down with Botond Szalcsi – one of the lead designers on the title – and he demoed a mission at Port Moresby. In reality the Japanese were stopped before they ever reached Port Moresby during WWII, but as the team highlighted, Battlestations: Pacific allows you act out the war as you see fit. Szalcsi’s mission was to stay alive long enough to capture a radar station, which he did through giving orders to his fleet both in the water and in the air. By switching to a command screen, he was able to check the health and stats of his arsenal, and even take over the cockpit or bridge of a ship at any moment. When his fleet reached land, he deployed troops onto the beach and directed them towards the radar station. As this is not an infantry game, you can’t take over the view of a single soldier, but he did aid them with fire from the shore nearby. Each mission has a time limit, which you can almost forget about when enjoying the scenery. The graphics look fantastic, and it is apparent that much work went into the detail of the land, trees, water and clouds. You can even see reefs and underwater structures in shallow water when flying overhead.

Battlestations: Pacific is in development for the Xbox 360 and Games for Windows. Look for it the quarter one of 2009.