It’s a submarine simulator! No wait, it’s an airplane game! No, no, no it’s a strategic battleship game! Astonishingly, Battlestations:Midway is all three of these. Not only does it avoid the “just another WWII game” label, but it incorporates three totally different simulator genres successfully, and all stout enough to be their own game. Aside from being very short, this game will leave you impressed, entertained and quite frankly amazed at how well these different play mechanics fit together.

Battlestations puts you in the role of Henry Walker, a low-ranking fighter who shows up oh-so-conveniently on the day of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The game begins with Henry driving a puny PT boat that is suddenly called upon to defend against swarms of Japanese war planes. If you successfully survive the first wave of attacks, you are next thrust into the hot seat of a depth-charge boat and challenged with blowing an ever-advancing submarine out of the water. Finally, the last part of the mission puts you in charge of an aircraft to take part in some fanatical criss-cross dogfights as bullets rip through the sky as thick as sand. Welcome to only the first level of Battlestations:Midway.

Strap yourself in for quite a ride after installing this surprisingly short, but remarkable game. Battlestations is broken down into 11 missions that exponentially grow in depth, complexity as well as difficulty. Each does a very good job at keeping the pace up and the monotony down by forcing you into a variety of vehicles and situations. (It also doesn’t hurt that almost all of them involve blowing stuff up). And you certainly aren’t short-handed on the job, because with each new situation you are provided with a new tool of the trade. These arsenals include many satisfying mobile methods of destruction including airplanes, battleships, and submarines; and each throw in small peculiarities and control differences to keep things challenging.

Progressing through the game will reward you with more units to control which introduces us to the strategic part of the game. Advancing in ranks will force you to spend less time steering individual vehicles and more time navigating groups on the map. What will your move be? Charge them head-on or distract and sneak around the back with subs? Or will you send planes at them head on with subs and ships close-behind for a brute-force attack? These are the wide open choices you have to make in the heat of the battle. But Battlestations also lets you combine different types of ships with certain airplanes each offering a variety of weapons. All of these will make or break your success and ultimately lead to an interesting game of Risk on the open sea.

As for the story, it is presented through cutscenes with the usual horrible voice acting and lip-syncing but since that is the only “major” gripe I can think of, I’m going to have to let it go. As your character progresses from manning wussy PT boats all the way up to giant battleships, he gains control of more than one vessel at a time, eventually commanding an entire fleet that climaxes at the Battle of Midway. Sadly, all of this takes place in about 6-7 hours …ouch. Midway provides one of the shortest game experiences I know of, but luckily picks up some points in multi-play. Nine maps are provided and up to eight players can play at once one a team-based system posing the U.S. against the Japanese. Each player is given control from as little one vehicle all the way up to fleets. This was probably the most fun part of the game because of the short single-player campaign. There are some serious LAN potential with your friends in this one.

My final two cents again this game will be about the graphics. I decided to place this last on the review because even though the graphics are mediocre, the gameplay isn’t. They aren’t bad by any means, but they don’t pop out with all the flash and pizzazz that some other current games have to offer. But in the end they do satisfy and for a mere $39.99, Battlestations:Midway goes out of its way to provide an experience worth every penny.

Gameplay: 9.0
Awesome gameplay, huge amount of variety; too bad it’s really short.

Graphics: 7.5
Nothing spectacular but gets the job done.

Sound: 7.8
Great music but mediocre sound effects.

Difficulty: Medium
The later missions will give you a run for your money; it’s just too bad there aren’t many.

Concept: 9.0
Great concept and even more impressively executed. The freedom of various vehicles each having tight controls is rare.

Multiplayer: 9.0
Probably the best part of the game: Intense, unique, fun and strategic; will fulfill hours of fun.

Overall: 8.2
Battlestations: Midway is more than “just another WWII game;” it meets other wanna-be WWII simulators 'Midway,' and then takes another step forward.