I saw this game on sale for a few bucks and figured I'd give it a try. It reminded me of the old History Channel show, Battle 360, so I was predisposed to like this. I will say off that bat, getting this game to boot up took a little more doing than just hitting play. The game relies on the defunct Windows for Games Live system to play online mode, so be prepared to get a work around for that.

The Steam page made me think this game was going to be a Total War type of deal. I figured there'd be an over world game of managing resources and capturing territories. The game is actually a pretty straight forward, level based, affair. There's two campaigns; one follows the US Navy, the other Japanese. As a good patriot, I played through the American campaign. I would've tried the Japanese campaign, but the 1st mission was the attack on Pearl Harbor, and I just felt kinda hinkey at the idea of playing on the Japanese side of that Day of Infamy.

Playing as the US, you get to follow the 7th and 3rd fleet from the Solomon Islands all the way to Okinawa. As someone who's seen Battle 360 more times than I care to admit, it was neat seeing how close these missions follow the real history of the war. You're there for when the Enterprise's rudder gets stuck in the Battle of the Eastern Solomons and the scuttling the USS Hornet during Bloody Santa Cruz. Towards the end you get to be the one that sinks the Japanese carriers, Shokaku & Zuikaku. This game is a history buff's dream in regards to experiencing the Pacific theater.

The gameplay of Battlestations is pretty varied. You can control both sea and air vehicles. Now, boats control a little different than planes so the controls are simplified, but not so simple they are boring. The dogfighting is simple fun. It can be a little hard hitting those Zeroes, but the game helps you the best it can by telling you where to aim to lead your target. As a fan of Navy planes, it was super cool to zip around in Hellcat fighters and sink Japanese carriers with Avenger torpedo planes. I ended up playing this on PC with my PS4 controller, because having those analog sticks is much more intuitive for flying planes.

When you aren't in the sky, there's a bevy of ships you can control, from little PT boats to massive aircraft carriers. Again, as a fan of Battle 360, I kinda geeked out when I got to helm the USS Enterprise. It was also too much fun to unleash the full broadside of a battleship and watch the Japanese cruisers sink below the waves behind a cloud of gun smoke. The ships all do move a little slow, which while realistic, does make it hard sometimes to have an engaging battle. As you get towards the endgame you have to start defending yourself against Kamikazes as well, and the Japanese carriers love to spam Kamikaze fighters.

There's a very basic tactical command mode. During most levels you have several units you are in control of. While they are relatively self-sufficient, you can give them orders to focus on certain enemy formations or scour certain areas. It's by no means Total War levels of tactical control, but it makes the game feel like more than just a simple action shooter.

The graphics are not bad for a late 2000's game. It's helped by the fact there aren't any people the game has to render, besides the opening cutscenes, and let's say it's a good thing they don't show up anymore. The planes and boats look good enough and the landscapes look nice. It is really impressive when you're in a large battle with bullets filling the air and your tail gunner is animated, firing away at enemy planes. At first I wondered if this game was what was used in a History Channel show for one of their digital reconstructions, I know a Total War Rome game filled that role once.

The guns and planes all sound good and there is some voice acting in this game as you hear your soldiers and commanders barking over the radio. The voice acting is kind of hilarious, I think the actors had a lot of fun. They all talk like super macho, patriotic men almost to the point of being a little tongue-in-cheek. My favorite banter is between the macho commander of Enterprise and his snarky, put-upon 2nd in command.

With the Games for Live server being defunct, I don't think you can get online matches anymore. That's a shame, because I think playing online with others would be a fun experience. I can imagine how fun the game would be with everyone following the tactics and creating strike forces, softening up targets with air power before the ships get in to range.

All in all, if you are a student of the Pacific theater of WWII and a fan of naval combat or dogfights, I would recommend this game for the low price it goes for.