Battlestations: Midway Preview

3rd-person action meets real-time strategy.

Hybrid gaming can be a tough sell. With gaming making so much money these days, the people with the money to spend like things clear-cut. Easier to understand, and easier to sell. Battlezone tried the hybrid shooter/RTS deal a few years ago, and it was successful enough to spawn a solid sequel, but things never really took off. The bright side is that this still gives developers plenty of space to explore, and that's exactly what Mithis is doing--the makers of Nexus: The Jupiter Incident (AKA Imperium Galactica III) and the upcoming Creature Conflict: The Clan Wars.

Battlestations: Midway, scheduled for an early summer release on the PC, PS2 and Xbox, will begin during the attack on Pearl Harbor, according to Gareth Ramsay of SCi, who walked us through the demo. As the title indicates, it will focus on the Pacific Theater. He says they're shooting for a "big bang" opening as Medal of Honor: Allied Assault did with the Normandy invasion. At this point in the game, you'll only be controlling one boat, but you'll eventually graduate to a fairly large fleet, with submarines and aircraft carriers.

The vessels and vehicles will be historically modeled, and there will be historical missions as well, such as rescuing McArthur in the Philippines, the Battle of Coral Sea, and Operation Bluebird. Naval guns won't be a point-and-click affair, but will have to rotate in real-time. If you're aiming from the fore of a destroyer, you won't be able to use all your guns. The interface is still under construction, but for now, the targeting reticule is circled with small dots representing each gun, and they'll change from red to yellow to green, according to when the guns have fully come around to fire. You have unlimited ammunition, but the guns can overheat.

Each vessel and vehicle in the game also uses sim-like damage modeling. You can damage an aircraft carrier such that it lists too much to one side to allow for successful takeoff, you can destroy individual guns and kill the engines. To combat these problems, the player can distribute resources according to several different factors: crew, hull and pump, firefighting, engine, steering, and devices. The hull is compartmentalized, and fires can break out in individual sections, and things might also need repairs in the thick of battle.

Aircraft carriers will be able to launch dive bombers, torpedo planes, and spotters, and the dive bombers in particular look like a lot of fun. You get up to a high altitude, then make your dive, and the screen starts shaking, the wind is whining in your ears, and the tracers start flying all around you--it's pretty visceral. If you hit the target and don't get shot down, you can watch the impact from a reverse-angle camera. Big explosions are fun.

The torpedo guys don't fare as well. Ramsay says that, in WWII, if fifteen planes went out and only two came back, that was considered successful, and they will model this statistic in the game as well. You can see why it was so deadly, because you have to fly low and slow, making yourself an easy target for…well, just about anybody. However, if your torpedo does hit, you can do an incredible amount of damage to the target, often crippling them.

The AI will control the units while you're not in the driver's seat, but you can set each one to use or not use guns, torpedoes, and torpedo avoidance. Although you'll need to manually direct planes for the attack, they'll work out a safe return route on their own and you can set formations to maximize effectiveness.

The tactics are handled from an overhead, nautical-style map, and it's extensive such that you could do an entire operation from it. Click on a vessel, and a menu will come up where you can launch specific planes, and select targets and routes. In order to keep performance at a reasonable level, you'll only be able to have a dozen planes for each carrier in the air, although you'll be able to draw from a large pool as your planes get shot down. You'll also be able to commandeer terrestrial landing strips and operate them like a carrier, although they can also be damaged and destroyed.

You'll miss out on some impressive detail, however. The complexity of the crew character models is amazing, considering how much is going on at any moment. Every ship we saw was modeled with amazing detail, right down to the rivets. Also, the crew will react dynamically to what's going on with their ship. If a torpedo hits or some attack planes start firing on them, they'll scatter across the deck or attempt to escape on emergency boats. Seeing actual people walking the deck, instead of empty-looking vessels, looks like it will add a satisfying layer to an attack.

Multiplayer is still under wraps, although they're aiming for at least sixteen players and it will be pitched as the biggest feature. In that context, we expect something along the lines of Savage, with players controlling individual units, since it wouldn't be feasible to have at least sixteen players each controlling a fleet.

While certainly an ambitious endeavor, Mithis looks like they have things well in hand so far, with only information handling being the open question. Being able to understand what's going on from moment to moment in a complex arena will be the make-or-break, since they already have solid visuals, a 50x50 square mile operation area, missions that can last up to two hours (although the MP missions will be much shorter), and genuine flight mechanics.

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