I was actually excited to play a tactical (though still arcade-ish) simulation mainly due to the fact that it was naval warfare, though admittedly it was World War II naval warfare. I figured that of all the people qualified to find some sense of value and fun in a game such as this I was the veteran to do it.

I was mistaken.

Now don't get me wrong, the game is well done and there are probably those out there that might consider it fun but I am not one of them. It starts innocently enough. You load into a nicely rendered world of blue oceans and fairly detailed ships and planes expecting to jump into battle and fight off the "Axis of Evil" from the waters of the Pacific. But you end up micro managing a drawn out battle with less than good mechanics and a barely passable plotline.

The nuts and bolts of this are explained to you in a somewhat decent tutorial which would have been made better with a less stereotypical "drill sergeant" voiceover. The various missions of the tutorial give you details on how to pilot the various craft from your boats and ships to your aircraft carriers and submarines. In these missions you find that each craft has different weapons that are anything from anti-aircraft guns to depth charges and even torpedoes (not as fun as I imagined they would be).

At this point I would like to say that piloting the airplanes is the most fun I had in the game. There are a couple different types with a few payload options for fighting your fights, such as bombs and torpedoes (still not all that fun even when dropped from a plane). If it was left at that it might be somewhat entertaining to drive your single vessel around and blow up Japanese military ships but the added tactical element doesn't seem to help the game play. As you progress you will find yourself commanding small fleets of ships through various checkpoints in attempts to move on to the next chapter.

The commanding aspect takes place on the tactical map. You get a good map view of the area and the key points as well as the objectives which are usually a few main ones and some optional secondary ones. You select the ships and fighter squadrons and then select the targets to have them attack through various means. This is where the game starts becoming tedious as you will spend most of your time watching the battle and giving a few orders and less of your time controlling the different units directly although you still can if you want.

The controls are easy to use and there are some nice AI options that you can set on the different units to make things a bit easier when you don't have direct control. To maintain your ships in working order you have a "crew" that you can assign to different tasks such as putting out fires and repairing the propulsion systems to keep the ship going. This all adds to the micro management element of the game.

Your ships move at what could be considered a snail's pace. I know it is realistic in the sense of how a naval vessel of the time period would move but to make the game more engaging and the missions a bit more approachable a speed option would have been a great thing.

Visually the game is good but nothing impressive. The water effects are nice but relatively simple overall. I can only assume that some of this is to keep from degrading the performance when there are larger battles. The ship and plane models are nicely done and from what I can tell fairly accurate. The smoke and fire effects are good and add to the battles well. The visuals in the cut scenes are done well enough but animations seemed rushed a bit.

The game sounds good with the exception of the voice acting in the cut scenes. The music is a nice period piece score that changes throughout and the mood of the music fits the various missions. The effects sound great and sound very impressive during the bigger battles. The various sounds of the ships give you audible clues as to the status of the unit.

The plot is by far the worst part of the game. You are essentially following two main characters throughout the entire ordeal though you are primarily following Henry Walker as he gets promoted. The plot was so bland that I stopped listening after a short period of time.

All in all the game failed to let me relive any part of my naval career (which is probably for the best as I'm not sure I could handle reliving too much of my naval career) and failed to entertain me much more than a few "oooh cool" moments in the dogfights and most of those were had during the somewhat more redeeming multiplayer fights. Battlestations: Midway is not a bad game but is very far from being a good game as well. Multiplayer seems to be the only "fun" factor as it allows you to play the more action oriented part rather than the slow paced tactical part.