Pacific Storm: Allies game preview - Page 1 of 1

Pacific Storm: Allies
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Lesta Studios' swimmy action/strategy hybrid isn't watered down, and back for some more maritimery.

The action/strategy blend is becoming a popular one among PC developers. Eidos' Battlestations: Midway proved to be a breakout effort for the genre, but nearly a year previous, Pacific Storm was already tearing up the western waterways by merging tactical and real-time elements. The title's expansion, Pacific Storm: Allies, adds another faction to fight as, more planes and ships to wage war with, as well as additional gameplay options to resurface the experience.

The United Kingdom's naval prowess is available to players for the first time in the series, and there's also three non-playable nations on hand for players to make friends (or enemies) with. In some game modes, diplomatic relations are totally up to the player -- make a good enough offer (for trades or proeection), and the Soviets might warm up to Japan and provide support. It's this blend of sandbox play alongside campaign modes that could grant the expansion some distinction among other strategy titles, and this approach extends to other aspects of Allies.

The interfacing in third-person combat is kept to a minimum, with unit formations cornered in the upper left of the screen.

In the campaign, you'll mostly move at your own pace, distributing existing forces while adding reinforcements across the pacific while receiving orders from your home government. These tasks usually take the form of capturing or defending specific territories within a certain number of days, giving players some flexibility to accomplish their own goals while approaching that of the game's at their own pace.

There's good interfacing for this throughout Allies; the "Homeland" menu hosts resource management, a ship editor, a technology tree, and keeps track of troop strength across different regions of the ocean. Otherwise, you'll find a training section and some stand-off tactical missions on the disc: a handful of individual skirmishes like Pearl Harbor, Okinawa, and the Philippines.

Gameplay-wise, hit location and damage modeling was nicely represented in the build we played -- you'll want to avoid flooding and put out any fires that find their way to your vessels, and in the air, individual propellers will break down if they're damaged, limiting your bird's mobility. This level of detail extends to targeting, as ships can aim artillery independently to lob rounds at multiple targets at once. Allies' AI seemed relatively competent -- in seafaring strategy titles have a tendency to make players babysit their boats by allocating repairs and making individual maneuvers, but we found ourselves having fun directing an overall battle plan as much as we did isolating a specific enemy patrol for bombardment.

Generic, one-size-fits-all bases aren't what you'll find in Allies: the game supplies everything from radar towers, to barracks, to individual training schools in the construction menu.

Base-building is another welcome focus of Allies, with players now able to construct outposts at a variety of new locations. Beyond that, you'll find new, era-accurate technologies to research and upgrade your war machine with, expanding the addition of dozens of new units by letting commanders construct their own with added modifications.

We also had a good look at the game's multiplayer, which features cooperative modes, historical missions, as well as an airborne-only dogfighting config for up to eight players. The only concern here was the limited settings available to customize: aside from the map and some basic objective configuring (survive, defend, destroy all enemies, etc.), there didn't seem like there was enough dials to tweak, so to speak.

A well-executed bombing run can turn the tide...just don't forget to send along an escort.

With Allies, Pacific Storm's emphasis remains on battle development and paced pacific warfare over action-laden gameplay, though the expansion should continues to scatter moments of hands-on fun amid the strategery. The game's separate "strategy" and "tactical" modes enable a number of ways to attack battles too -- like a sports game, if you'd rather simply simulate the messy affair at Midway and read a box score of what forces were lost on either side, it's available. Giving the player different avenues to conduct their tactics is always welcome, and along with some fresh content, Allies should be a solid second-edition of Pacific Storm when it washes ashore later this month.

Preview by Evan Lahti.