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pass on this

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 20, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I had a very hard time getting into this game. It sounds cool, got good reviews, but just didnt work for me. I think they tried to do too much with this and it ends up being a mosh of controls and a strange mix between tactical execution and strategic planning.

Fun Game - needs more features

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: December 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I purchased this game a little over a year after it came out. I've been pretty satisfied with it. The graphics are good and the realism is as good or better than any movie I've seen. Watching planes fly by from a ship is a pretty exciting experience. The Naval Academy is a bit tedious, but it does a good job of teaching you how to play. The "challenge" missions become pretty hard after the second one and the friendly AI is not as good as the enemy AI. The campaign battles are pretty realistic too. I was pleasantly surprised that the Battle of the Coral Sea went much like the historical one did. I heavily damaged a Japanese carrier but couldn't sink it.
There are a few features that could be added to the game, such as instant replay. I'm horrible with both air launched and surface torpedos and a replay would help immensely to tell me what I'm doing wrong. It would also be useful if there were more single player missions or a practice sandbox.
Two things about the game are disappointments. First, there is no tech support available at all. That's probably what kept this game from being more popular. Secondly, when you try to play multiplayer and don't have a gold membership, the game gives you some cryptic error about multiplayer priveleges not being enabled. And there's no tech support to call to ask what that means.

Great Concept but Way Too Short

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: June 13, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Battlestations Midway lets you relive WWII as both an airplane pilot, submarine commander and naval tactician. There are a variety of ships, planes and vehicles to work with as you fight on the Pacific.

The graphics are quite nice, as you would expect from an XBox 360 generation of game. The water ripples, the clouds float lazily in the sky. The planes' flaps move as you turn, and the smoke and fire pouring from a damaged ship look convincingly real.

There could still have been improvements, though. The radar / compass is stuck at one size, which just doesn't work well for some missions.

The AI is a mixed bag. You can create a multi-stage move order for your allies, so that they take an indirect route to a target. However, they can't attack once they get there. They just sit and get sunk. If you leave a friend alone for .3 seconds, even the largest ship will somehow get destroyed by a tiny PT boat. Your enemies seem to be relatively smart - but your friends are all dunces.

This can become really challenging if you have, for example, 8 different squadrons of planes in the air that you are juggling, and if you take a moment to help one of them out of a jam, the rest all seem to completely lose their brain cells and die sudden, horrible deaths.

I'm not asking for your pals to win the war for you - but they should at least defend themselves semi-ably.

There are hidden objectives, and ribbons you earn - but they never tell you why you got the ribbon. It wouldn't be that hard for them to fill that detail in.

We didn't find the game "complicated" at all. They have an academy, a bit tedious to be sure, to teach you how to play. There's Campaign mode which walks you through a series of missions - it takes maybe 4 hours to play through them all if you're good. There are also challenges focused on ship, plane and submarine tasks, which let you play as both sides.

So the real question is, is 4 hours plus a few challenges going to make you a happy camper? Sure, you can replay those missions over and over again - but in this day and age, having a game with a main line that can be won in a single afternoon seems unreasonable to me.

A great idea - but they should have spent MUCH more time on developing a robust storyline to go with it.

It's OK, strategy better than game play

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: June 03, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The strategic parts of the game are better than some of the game play, especially the flying. The naval simulation parts are better, and feel more realistic. The flying simulation has a high amount of lag (even a 747 is more responsive in real life than these fighters). Airplanes are not like ships, and there is not this much overshoot. There are better flying sims than this. The ships do have a realistic amount of fluidity. Having to manage resources in the ship while fighting is nice. The graphics are fairly good, but not outstanding. The learning curve is a little higher than some games, and I agree with the other review that states it's tough when you are playing the games between taking care of kids, etc (or bouncing between games and don't play some games for a while)...

Great strategy game.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 5
Date: March 09, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game is great if you want a little more thinking power involved in your game.

Absolutely Worth It!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: March 04, 2007
Author: Amazon User

While other reviews constantly bring up the complexity, I have to disagree. First, most people who would buy this game are used to handling and switching between different troops. Second, they bring you along slowly, so you have time to get acclimated to the commands. Finally, the most important thing is: you don't HAVE to switch between every unit in action in every battle. The computer will do a decent job. However, your level of fun (and success) will increase the more you are involved in your units' actions.

The fact the game does not pause when you are accessing repair, launch, and command options only adds to how cool this game really is. The battles get to become very large, the graphics are beautiful, and even the AI character banter doesn't make you cringe. Overall, this is a fantastic game, and one to make 360 owners proud they have one. My only complaint is that it seems fairly short. However, there is an awful lot in this game, so it is to be expected. Highly recommended.

Long Learning Curve

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 8 / 12
Date: March 03, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I'm a Dad with a nine month old baby and I need a game that I can sit down and play. The learning curve is to long and I don't have the time for it. That is just me, other wise the game looks like it would be fun once you learned how to do everything. Hope this was helpful and good luck.

good, but short

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: March 03, 2007
Author: Amazon User

i love naval simulation games, and ive been waiting for another good one since the original battle stations for PS1. i was counting down the days for this one.
first, ive heard some complaints about the complexity of it and the learning curve. i dont know why. the naval academy feature is a little tedious, but it takes an hour tops and teaches you all you need to know. its not that complicated-actually its a near perfect balance of simple controls with an in-depth experience.
the one problem with the game is there's only a campaign thats like 10 scenarios then 10 more challenge scenarios. once you beat it all thats it. there is no melee/arena type option like the original PS1 game. all you can do is just replay old missions. this gets pretty old pretty quick.
id buy it-graphics are great, gameplay is great. i just wish they had a more open, repeatable portion to the game

it's just fun

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 5
Date: March 01, 2007
Author: Amazon User

it's been a long time since i've played a strategy game that was this fun and let you have this much control, the control layout is well planned and easy to use once you get the hang of it, which only takes about a half hour. i've mostly played the one player mode so far but the online has amazing potential

Great game with good downloads to come, graphics could have been better.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: March 01, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is a great game. The idea is great, the story is historically right, and the cut movies are really cool looking. With that said I'm a little bit disappointed in the graphics. In the flying missions the graphics shine with very realistic looking clouds, sky, and sun. However in the missions were you command ships the sea looks a little 2 dimensional and the graphics on the ships decks could have been a little better. That being said I love to play this game. There is nothing cooler than coming in low and torpedo bombing a Japanese Aircraft carrier. There are downloads coming with another single player mission, another multi-player map, and 5 new vehicles including the USS Iowa, and the P-38 fighter. If you like WWII get it, if you like strategy games get it, if not rent it and see what you think. I recommend it highly.

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