For six months following its surprise attack on the American fleet at Pearl Harbor, the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) had dominated the war in the Pacific. But 4 June 1942 would see the tide turn, with three US Navy (USN) aircraft carriers waiting in ambush for the IJN near a tiny atoll whose name would become immortalized in history: Midway. Naval Campaigns: Midway covers not only this action but also other major carrier battles of World War Two, including Midway, Pearl Harbor, Coral Sea, Eastern Solomon's, Santa Cruz and Philippine Sea.The previous three titles in the Naval Campaigns series examined various surface actions in detail from World Wars One and Two, but with the addition of aircraft the complexity of the battles increases drastically. Now, players must not only maneuver their fleets, but also conduct air operations. This means dealing with search results, wind direction and speed, and coordinating multiple carriers and their air wings. This is a true challenge for any naval commander.Midway features the familiar Naval Campaigns interface with its real-time environment that can be paused or run up to 10x normal speed. 19 different landmasses are included to model a wide variety of actions. Historical and hypothetical OOB's are also in the game giving plenty of material for would-be scenario designers to exercise their skills.
B**Y
A great game but not for everybody.
As with all of the HPS titles, this is a finely crafted war game. Nothing too flashy here, juts lots of historical detailed and challenging game play. A nice assortment of scenarios too, covering almost every major carrier engagement of the Pacific War. This game plays in real time (you can stop, slow, or speed up the time as needed during those long dull hauls across empty water) but is nothing like what is generally called RTS. This is a serious war game developed for the people who like to exercise their brains, not their mouse clickers.If you're not sure what I mean by a serious war game, you might want to reconsider purchasing this and pick up a copy of Battlestations Pacific (a decent RTS - drive the ships and planes around in the pretty environment and blow stuff up- that has something to do with the Pacific War, sort of, somehow...). At the very least check out some of the screenshots on the HPS web site before putting down any hard earned cash for this title. HPS games are great games but they're not for everybody.This is a game where it is the game-play alone that counts. Graphics are functional but nothing to write home about. Sound effects are minimal. Everything is very basic in the show and tell department. But the actual game-play is hard to top; it is rich and complex and highly fulfilling; and educational, as well. If you ever wanted to know what it would be like to manage the flight deck of a WWII aircraft carrier and then slug it out with the Japanese Imperial Navy, well, this is your dream come through on a CD. But if you just want to jockey ships around on a pretty ocean and blow stuff up, I recommend you check out the RTSs; this game may disappoint you.
R**M
Great Game
Naval Campaigns: Midway is an excellent historical simulation of naval battles during WW2 in the Pacific. It is an operational level game where you control task forces and strike groups. The game is intuitively laid out and very easy to learn using the tutorial provided. There is allot of historical information, scenarios both historical and what if. There is a scenario editor included which vastly increases the replay value of the game. There is no eye candy in this game. The graphics and audio are simple. The emphasis is on realism which the games comes very close to achieving without having to time travel back to WW2. This game is for serious war gamers.
K**D
Fun game.
This is a pretty fun, historical game. Don't expect a lot of action but once the battle starts it gets pretty fast paced.
Trustpilot
4 days ago
1 month ago
