It's 1941 and it's dark down here in the sea - but this is the job of a submarine commander; this is my mission. The submarine is at depth level two - it's not the deepest of levels, but the first depth level makes the submarine visible and is only generally good for refilling the sub with air. At depth level two, our submarines are invisible to the human eye, unless that human eye is trained and especially good at spotting the periscope that we use to target enemy ships before firing the torpedoes. The first two levels can be used to fire torpedoes and the last two are to dodge attacks and become completely invisible. Depth level three renders my periscope useless, but I can't be fired at with an enemy torpedo - although the sub is still at risk of getting blown up by depth charges. Depth level four eliminates that depth charge risk and stops the sub appearing on the enemy sonar too - but at such a deep level, the sub can only last so long before imploding due to those dangerous pressures, so it's wise not to stay down there too long. We're almost out of air, so it's time to submerge for a refill. The coast is clear. Depth level one, here we come!

Air?

A few fluffy clouds are scattered across the azure skies and the aircraft carrier below has just dispatched a few of its finest flying machines. The aircraft carrier can launch three formations of aircraft into the sky, and depending on how many units that aircraft carrier has, you can normally set the amount of aeroplanes per formation too. Sometimes it's best to send out solo bombers to do the job - more stealthy and agile - but sometimes more firepower can be great for taking out airborne nuisances. Taking control of the aeroplanes is fantastic fun and providing they're equipped with useful tools such as carpet bombs, torpedoes and machine guns, you're going to make light work of your enemies. Not only can you shoot and blow things up, but you can also perform stunts, pulling back on the controller to loop the loop or get upside down and then roll your plane over again - it's all very intuitive and well executed. And as you blow up enemy aircrafts and give ships some grief from above with your carpet bombs, the finest flying moment has to be sweeping dangerously close to the deep blue sea, so close that droplets of water are being thrown onto your windshield from your propeller. A ship is in sight and at precisely the right moment you drop a torpedo into the water, which then propels itself towards the ship, slowly but surely. You pull up, flying above and beyond your target before panning the camera around while you're still airborne to see that torpedo hit and sink its target. Yep, it's no longer a floater!

Floaters?

While submarines go under and aeroplanes go above, the ship stays firmly in the middle - and would seem, on first glance, to be an easy target for both of the other combat vehicles in the game. The truth is, yes, both an aircraft and a submarine can take out a ship if they persist, but the ships here are equipped to take both the submarines and the aeroplanes down with ease - making the other two choices risky ones and the ship the most powerful piece of machinery in the game. Our ships are equipped with deck-mounted machine guns and flak cannons for gunning down planes, torpedoes and bombs that they can launch to destroy enemy ships and wonderful depth charges that can be thrown overboard to take out submarines. Equipped with a sonar, ships can easily spot submarines in close range, providing that they're not at the lowest depth level - yes, the lowest depth level makes the submarine almost invincible to depth charges and undetectable to sonar, but remember, they can only last so long down there, so if you're in charge of a ship and have a sneaking suspicion that a submarine is still close by, just keep on circling until it comes up a depth level, then depth charges can be dropped and that pesky sea stealth master will be destroyed.

As well as being the most powerful, the ship is probably the most complicated to control, but it's definitely not without its rewards. One thing you have to factor in when playing as a ship is repairing it. If you take damage from a torpedo, you have to quickly go into the repair screen and assign your deck crew to go and seal that hole. In sealing the hole (which involves your crew closing doors down below) your ship will stop taking on water, but will still retain the water that it has accumulated so far. Too much water will result in you sinking. If you get bombed from above, be on your guard for deck fires; these can be devastating to your ship's health and some attacks can even disable your weapons until they're repaired. Get your men extinguishing that fire ASAP! There are other things to repair too, such as the engine, leaving your ship stationary until she is repaired. Your ship and your crew can survive a large number of attacks if you're any good at repair management, but if you come under attack from multiple directions and you find yourself taking on water with fires on deck and fuel tanks damaged then you're not going to have enough men to assign to all of the different repair categories to overcome the attacks. In short, you're screwed.

The graphics in Battlestations: Midway aren't really what you'd call next generation. Some of the water effects look nice, but they're a far cry from, well, Far Cry for example. The ships, subs and aircraft look quite detailed though and are well replicated, with rust around the ships and battle scars on the aeroplanes. It all looks authentic - more specifically, it all looks weathered. Probably the best thing about Battlestations is where the sea meets the sky when you look ahead. You've seen it yourself on the beach when you look as far as your eye can see - where the clear sea meets the clear sky, two contrasts of blue - and it's breathtaking. Although not quite as breathtaking as real life, Battlestations does a great job of joining the sea with the sky and giving you a great sense of realism, leaving you believing that you actually are there, in the middle of the sea. Part of Battlestations' charm is the fact that everything does look old - unfortunately that does include some of the graphics, which look as old as regular Xbox graphics sometimes, but to prove that old does sometimes look better than new, the interface here is simple but effective, and effective but quite rusty. When controlling your ship, sub or plane, the HUD has little handles, pressure gauges, MPH indicators and even the repair panel looks very basic. But it's functional. And old. And we really are in the 1940s!

Battlestations has a massive hour long tutorial rewards you with a measly 40 gamer score points upon completion. Going thorough the tutorial is almost patronising, as the commander holds your hand through every step - even though any regular gamer would be able to pick up the basics in no time. However, everyone will have to take the tutorial, as the hidden parts such as the repairing and the commanding have to be taught from the commander himself. It's just a shame you have to persevere through the basics for each section to find the complex parts that are mixed in. The game has a rather short but interesting single player campaign mode that I won't spoil in this review, but online is where it truly shines, with single games sometimes lasting for hours at a time.

Even though you can directly control your ships, subs and planes, you can also issue commands to them through the map, telling them where to go, or sending units such as planes to circle ships and protect them. Setting everything up can sometimes be crucial to winning the game, but when everything is set up it just leaves you watching the AI take control of your lovely units and doing the fighting for you. Watching is only fun for so long though, which is why I tend not to play as either ships or subs when it comes to online games. The aeroplanes are nice to control, because not only can you go fast, explore the large maps and have the beautiful sense of being free, but you can cause havoc from the word go - bombing enemy ships before they even have time to get their act together. Awesome.

Some great voice acting from the commander in the tutorial as well as some really old sound effects make Battlestations feel even more authentic - sounds of aeroplanes stuttering along, diving and looping, sounds of ships crawling through the water and sounds of submarines beeping in time to let you know everything is fine; you couldn't really ask for any more. But there is more, as you've got a really inspiring 'this means war' theme tune too, almost good enough to rival Call of Duty, another game that sports music which makes you want to go to war!

When you strip away the rust, take away the propellers and hide the periscopes, you've got a glorified game of paper, rock, and scissors with a few exceptions - Submarines > Ships > Aircrafts > Ships > Submarines. It's the combination of real time strategy and simulation action that makes Battlestations: Midway so unique though. It's a slow paced game, so those who shy away from games like chess will probably want to turn a blind eye, but anybody with an ounce of patience and a lust for either piloting a plane, commanding a ship or steering a submarine should sail down to their local game shop and pick up a copy!

Reviewed by Dexter Pearson for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).