Previewed: December 5, 2005
Previewed by: Jeff Gedgaud

Publisher
Buka Entertainment

Developer
Lesta Studio

Release Date: Q4, 2006
Genre: Strategy
Players: 1
ESRB: Teen

Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)

The game is played as both a real time strategy in two different modes and a flight simulator with the addition of an arcade type shooter for a little added fun. You start playing as a strategy game by building your forces and readying for the inevitable war to come. Supplying your troops and developing new technologies are all a part of the strategy mode. You can automate much of this but you will need to ensure certain required tasks are performed. This is all done from a map of the Pacific Ocean going from the West coast of the US to the Eastern Continent of Asia using different screens to perform various tasks.

Much of what you do in the strategy of battle planning and preparing for war sets the outcome of any specific battles. Like in any battle what forces you combine together in each division and group during your strategy setup will decide what specific ships and airplanes you can use in the tactical battles. This will be a major benefit if you plan correctly with what varying types and strengths of ships you assign to each sea division and group. During game play you can exit the tactical mode and enter the strategic mode to bring other units into the fight if they are close enough.

You will also have to plan ahead and develop technologies and produce war materials during the strategic phase of the game. This is done automatically for the general war materials but the different new technologies you produce will be entirely up to you. You can move toward better and newer things like the atomic bomb or follow the games recommendations and slowly develop the types that are quicker to design and develop.

During your war preparations you will have to decide where to put forces by deploying to established bases or creating new ones on available islands. Other groups such as subs or reconnaissance planes can be placed as search and destroy hunters or used in patrols to find enemy resupply convoys or protection of your territories. Much of what you do in the strategy of the game affects what happens in the battles you will fight.

When war is started by either side and battles commence you then move to a tactical mode where you control individual forces such as ships, subs and airplanes. This is done in a real environment with some excellent graphics of the ships, planes and buildings. You must fight and perform any specific tasks in the battle that is necessary to the tactics of your country to win the fight.

You control forces easily using both an interface of icons in a corner of the screen and small control screens in the other corners of the desktop. A status symbol will show health and weapons indicators for each unit including several types of airplanes, destroyers, submarines, aircraft carriers, and even transport ships. You can quickly choose individual units using either the mouse or keyboard and even switch to simulator for any aircraft or the arcade shooter for ships with anti-aircraft guns.

The simulator lets you perform specific strikes against targets or protect your ships or fellow aviators from attack. This part of Pacific Storm plays just like a flight simulator and runs very well considering there is still a full RTS game going on in the background. The transition from RTS in tactical mode to flight simulator and shooter works very smoothly. When your flying using the simulator you can actually drop your bomb toward a target, switch to the tactical mode and take a good snapshot of the explosion from your bomb run. The camera and game does not flinch transitioning from simulator to tactical real time simulation and is very seamless.

The flight simulator allows you to fly in both first person and third person views with some very highly detailed cockpit interiors. One thing that I noticed quickly is the high level of detail of ships, airplanes and even buildings in both the tactical and simulator modes. I read that the game started out as a project to record and digitize World War II combat ships and then they took this over to a video game project. They did exceptionally well with the details of the ships and airplanes.

During the fighting you can also switch to the ships and defend them against airplane attacks in an arcade style shooter using an anti-aircraft gun. Just like in the aircraft with numerous seats you can easily switch from one position on the ship to another depending on where the planes are attacking from using your keyboard.

There are four separate sections of game play; training, campaigns, tactical missions and battle planner. The training is just a help to get you started and a definite benefit for getting used to the game controls and interface. The campaigns are broken down into two separate types, historical and free campaign.

The historical campaign follows the real life setup of the US and Japan about a year before the attack on Pearl Harbor. You must prepare for the war you know is coming but may not start with an attack on Pearl. In the historical campaign the US is the more powerful with bases throughout the Pacific and many resources but with few experienced soldiers and airmen. The Japanese have fewer resources but their men are more experienced and ready to fight.

The free campaign has both sides about equal with their bases only on their home soil. You must expand your bases and forces across the Pacific and prepare for war. This campaign is more open for choosing how you will build your forces and where you will concentrate your resupply and defense lines.

The tactical missions are historical missions from World War II such as the attack on Pearl Harbor or preparing for the nuclear bombing of Osaka. You must perform the tasks set by the mission in the battle to win. There are some non-historical missions where you perform tasks in a general battle on whichever side you choose. There is even one mission that pits you as the new owner of jet fighters against an adversary with propeller driven planes.

The Battle Planner section allows you to create any type of battle you wish using any of the maps, ships and other resources of the game and create your own mission. This section is kind of like a mission editor with easy to use controls and interfaces allowing you to customize a battle mission.

Pacific Storm is a great strategy and flight simulator game. The best things about the game are how easily it switches from one mode of the strategy to the other and to the flight simulator. The graphics are very good looking with highly detailed models from historical documents and pictures of the original ships and aircraft. History buffs will find a great wealth of information and fun in the game as many of the historical parts of the game have been detailed with descriptions of battles and even historical figures of both sides included for you to use in the game.

While we anxiously await the release of this amazing new title, check out our collection of exciting screenshots in our Preview Gallery.