Simulator type games in general are sustained by what can undoubtedly be viewed as reduced number of players, this being mainly because of the complexity found in simulators, which isn’t for everyone. So this genre doesn’t have many titles, you can count good airplane, naval or submarine simulation games on your fingers. Battlestations Midway is a title that tries to change the standard simulator recipe: besides combining three types of simulation games into one, it offers a relatively easy to learn gameplay for the new comers to the genre, while keeping a part of the complexity for the more hardcore players.
        As the titles suggests, the single-player campaign takes place during World War 2, over the course of 11 missions, offering you the possibility of reliving some of the most intense battles fought in the Pacific. You will take the role of Henry Walker, who arrives at Pearl Harbor exactly on the day of the well known Japanese attack, an attack which also meant the beginning of hostilities between Japan and United States of America. In the first mission everything will happen pretty fast, so you won’t have the time to admire the views too much, since you are put in the middle of the action in a boat so little that it can’t seem too safe compared to the magnitude of the explosions that takes place all over the harbor. So the first part of the game that you’ll come in contact with will be the naval simulator.
        Right off the bat you’ll notice the simplicity of the controls.Regardless of how big the ships you come to control will become over time (or how slow they’ll move) moving them around is always easy, using no more than 4 buttons for it. Things get a little more complicated regarding the way ships handle in combat, more exactly when they start taking damage. Ships can take damage on the engine or weapons so that they become incapacitated, a fire can start aboard or the hull can be breached so that the ship will take on water, requiring you to handle it fast before it causes more damage. Damage sustained during engagements can be fixed by the crew, being able to priorities for each in the repair screen.


        But by far, the hardest part to master are the airplane controls (even more so if you try to fly them using the mouse). Maintaining the flight direction won’t be a problem, this can be done by anyone, the difficult part comes when you try to actually shoot something and blow it out of the sky, not just kamikaze in the water. On the opposite side stands the submarine, which has the simplest control. When you’ll play with the submarine things get a little more complicated because of the different tactics and perspective and even more so by the fact that you’ll have to exit from the protection of the deep waters to refill your air supply.
        As you progress in the game you’ll be given control over more and more units in the same battle, thus discovering the utility of the strategic map. Here the game makes the difference between the players who want some depth and continue with the action part of the game and the ones that prefer to stay mostly in the strategy map and give orders, letting the AI control their units. Nevertheless, after giving an attack order you can take control at any time take of that unit and complete the mission yourself. And, I may say that you have much to miss if you quit on playing the action part. You’ll get a bigger satisfaction when you personally launch 3 torpedoes that sink the enemy battleship without it even knowing what happened.
        Battlestations Midway has not less than 60 different units, from boats to big ships like aircraft carriers and from little combat airplanes to true flying fortresses when it comes to bombers. The ships, submarines and airplanes are worked in detail so that they have real advantages and disadvantages, depending on the model. To get used to these strengths and weaknesses, you can consult an in game tactical chart which will tell you exactly what to hit and from what to keep your distance.