Pacific Storm (PC)

CNET editors' rating: 2.5 stars OK
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Overall score: 5.4 (2.5 stars)
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Gamespot editors' review

• Reviewed by: Brett Todd
• Reviewed on: 10/16/2006
• Released on: 10/02/2006

One thing's for sure--Pacific Storm is not for the faint of heart. Although Russian developer Lesta Studio and its North American publishing partner CDV are billing the game as a real-time take on the Pacific theater of World War II, it actually has a lot more in common with hardcore war sims like Hearts of Iron than an RTS in the tradition of Command & Conquer. But even though grognards will love the tremendous scope of the game, too much unnecessary micromanagement, subpar artificial intelligence, and a host of quirks and bugs sink this overly ambitious effort just before it reaches port.

Being able to climb into the cockpit of a Japanese Zero is a nice frill, but a frill nonetheless.

As usual with such complex games, the biggest issue here is learning how to play. While Pacific Storm includes a reasonable suite of training missions that go over most in-game situations, they have all been done in a dry style where a succession of text boxes prompts you to hit buttons. It's tough to learn anything in this fashion, especially in a complex game like this one. You really need interactive help during the first stages of the campaigns, as well as a walk-through that guides you through the initial economic setup and gets you started with the various tasks you'll have to juggle throughout the game. Here, though, you're basically given a detailed explanation of a shovel and pail and then plopped into a sandbox.

And boy, it's quite a sandbox. The two campaigns--a free mode that balances US and Japanese resources, and an historical one that attempts to present the balance of power as it actually was in 1940 (although it sure seems way off, with a crazy number of US and Japanese vessels in the Pacific when the game gets going)--play out in similar fashion to those in Hearts of Iron. You start off on a global strategic map representing the Pacific Ocean from the Japanese-controlled Far East to the American West Coast, and from there you must move fleets around like in a nautical Risk, conquering zones by setting up bases. You have almost total control over your nation's war effort, so you must manage resources like money, aluminum, iron, and oil, and deal with researching tech, ordering up soldiers, ships, and planes, and, of course, sending fleets into battle.

Unfortunately, the grand scale of Pacific Storm is undercut with too much bookkeeping. While there is certainly something majestic about overseeing the entire Pacific war effort of either the United States or Japan, it's hard to feel like a great general when you're stuck shuffling soldiers, ammo, and fuel on and off supply ships, and erecting base buildings like oil storage tanks and industrial buildings to gather resources. While the game has automatic options to cover management tasks, they don't work very well. Ammo often isn't loaded onto ships. Oil sometimes doesn't get moved around properly. Transports frequently won't transfer goods between ports or will use a dozen or more ships to move items that could have been packed into one or two. You can of course bypass these quirks and do everything yourself through the fairly intuitive menu system, but the AI often seems to override your decisions and order stuff that you don't want or need. Expect to spend more time playing supply clerk than you do playing Admiral Halsey.

It might be a futile effort, but there's still something fun about blasting Japanese Zeros from the decks of battleships at Pearl Harbor.

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