There’s very little of World War II left that can still be plundered for videogames and the Pacific Theatre is no exception. We’re not sure if the entire campaign has been put in one game before but various parts of it certainly have been. For example, Medal Of Honor: Rising Sun began with a typically bombastic portrayal of the attack on Pearl Harbor and, unsurprisingly, that’s exactly where Battlestations kicks off.

The game follows the naval career of one Henry Walker who narrowly misses going down on the USS Phoenix because he was out on the lash the night before and turned up late – see, booze does have its uses. From then on he gradually takes control of a number of different sea vessels while being promoted through the ranks. Much of the American campaign in the Pacific was fought in the sky and on the open sea so that’s where the action in the game takes place. You’ll have a multitude of vehicles at your disposal, from small transport craft to huge battleships and everything in between, including the odd submarine. Depending on the mission, you will get to man a number of these vessels in one level, with some allowing you to change at will, while others switch to different vehicles at certain points.

Not only are you in command of your own vessel but you can also give out orders to allies, which is sometimes essential to success, particularly in sea-based excursions. This is where Battlestations: Midway separates itself from games like Blazing Angels with the tactics involved in completing a mission, rather than just swooping in and shooting anything that moves. However, don’t start thinking that this is more a strategy game than anything else, because it isn’t. The tactics on offer are all very basic, which is either a good thing or a bad thing depending on your predilection. To be honest though, we found the tactics somewhat lacking, as they never really let you delve deep enough to be particularly engaging.

The other part of the game is very much an arcade experience, with the flying sections feeling akin to the aforementioned Blazing Angels. However, unlike Ubisoft’s so-so shooter, Battlestations’ combat has very little pizzazz, shall we say. Likewise, the sea-based activities leave something to be desired in the excitement stakes too. We mentioned Medal Of Honor: Rising Sun earlier, well, that had more exhilaration in its first five-minute level than pretty much anything that Battlestations has to offer, and that was on rails.

To compound this further still is the actual length of some of the missions. While we’re not against missions that take up lots of your time, we are adverse to those that see you doing the same thing over and over again the entire time. Case in point, we tried one of the ship challenges that put us in command of a Japanese battleship, in which we had to fend off incoming American ships until a friendly boat arrived to lend a hand. Once we’d got the hang of firing artillery shells at the incoming ships and using the binoculars to get a more accurate bearing on them, we actually started to enjoy ourselves. “Hey, this is alright,” we thought, until we were still doing the same thing 15 minutes later. Eventually our ship sank and this paragraph began to form in our mind.

Situations such as this aren’t helped by visuals that are frankly underwhelming. There’s the odd flash of ‘next gen’ about them but much of the environment is bland and many of the explosion effects are disappointing, which is a cardinal sin in a war game if you ask us. You’ll be firing a large number of torpedoes throughout the game, so it would be nice if something exciting happened when they hit their target; instead, a jet of water erupts from the hapless boat in a wholly unsatisfying manner. There’s not even any visible damage to the ship and you’re sometimes left wondering if it has actually caused any until the boat starts to sink, which, by the way, sees the surrounding water produce not even a ripple. This lack of visual flair may have something to do with the fact that Midway was originally being developed for the Xbox and its past life is easy to spot up on screen, especially next to what we’ve come accustomed to seeing on the 360 these days.

It’s not all bad though, as piloting the submarines is quite cool – except when you smash your pretty much indispensable periscope on the underside of a ship on the surface. We’ll give the game a break and put that one down to human error, though. Oh, and as we’re feeling generous, the cut-scenes are quite good too, if that matters to you.

Battlestations: Midway tries to be a jack of all trades by offering a mixture of strategy and action. Unfortunately though, it ends up being a master of neither with an unconvincing performance in both areas. A real shame, as there was definitely some potential here.

Simon Griffin