“Battlestations Midway” Merges RTS and Action Games; Could a New Sub-Genre Be Far Behind?
by Louis Bedigian 

“There are many situations which require different approaches from the player, based on the forces available to them – ships, planes, airfields – and of course it depends on the opposing forces.” 

Man your battle station. Prepare your army. Ready your troops. Sound the alarm-y!

Okay, so my attempt at cutting-edge war rhymes weren’t exactly phat. Excuse my silliness as I am anticipating the release of Battlestations Midway. Pieced together like an RTS but designed to be a third-person action game, Battlestations Midway is one of the year’s standout titles. 

See those planes? You control them. When one dies, you’re automatically converted to the next. But you don’t have to wait for one for one to tank before moving on – you can switch between any plane, ship, or submarine available at any time. It’s unprecedented, and it looks fantastic.

To learn more about this anticipated title, GameZone Online spoke with Botond Szalacsi, Lead Designer at Eidos Budapest. 

Battlestations Midway is an action game and a strategy game rolled into one. Players can switch between a wide array of military units and take full control of each one at any time. Tell us all about this. 

Botond Szalacsi: You are always controlling one of your units, for example a battleship or a fighter squadron. You can drive or fly it, use all of its abilities, fire all the guns, drop bombs or torpedoes, engage in dogfights etc. Switching units is very simple, just press the D-pad or the switch unit key on PC, and you will be transferred to the next controllable unit on your side.

How many different types of vehicles / ships / aircraft will you be able to control?

BS: In Battlestations: Midway you can find 34 different ship classes ranging from tiny patrol boats up to more than 800 feet long carriers and mighty battleships. There are 24 different types of planes including fighters, dive and torpedo bombers, flying boats and more and you can encounter three different submarine classes in the game.  

It goes without saying that an aircraft's controls will be different from a submarine. But will the game also control differently from ship to ship, plane-to-plane, etc.?

BS: The control of different types of ships is almost identical. The only difference is that your ship - let’s say a destroyer – is equipped with torpedoes and depth charges, and your other unit, a heavy cruiser isn’t. Steering, acceleration, and firing the guns works exactly the same way but you have two more weapon systems on your destroyer. 

The same goes for planes: with a heavy bomber it’s better if you don’t try to perform aerial show elements – but you can do it with a fighter easily using the same controls.

What are the goals of each mission? Is the primary objective to wipe out the enemy? 

BS: The challenge missions have simple objectives: you destroy a specific ship or hunt enemy planes. The main campaign, however, has more detailed missions. Your main objective can be to capture an island, find and destroy enemy carriers, or at a later stage to defend Midway. Almost every objective can be completed in more than one way and the wide range of available units gives the players dozens of tactics and strategies to try out. When you are capturing an island, you can rely on your carrier group, bomb the airfield and provide air cover for the landing ships with fighters, or you might close in on the island with your destroyers, shelling the fortifications and providing close fire-support to the landing forces. All this and I haven’t talked about the subs yet and of course there are secondary and hidden objectives for each mission – challenge and campaign too! 

Can you give us an example of a coordinated attack between the different units you're controlling?

BS: Okay, let’s say my goal is to sink a specific Japanese battleship which threatens the operations in my area. I order my destroyer squadron to join each other in a formation and engage the enemy battleship, after that I’ll switch to my carrier or airfield, and send up fighters, torpedo and dive bomber squads. When the fighters are airborne they are ordered to attack the enemy air force, and they will soon be followed by the strike group, who will attack the battleship. I’m sure that I would switch to the fighters and do the dogfighting myself, and when the destroyers are close, take control over them and launch waves of torpedoes against the battleship.

If everything goes well, and the planning is right, the destroyer squadron and the air attack will strike down on the enemy at the same time. The enemy battleship can barely dodge the dozens of torpedoes nor evade all of the bombs, and will receive fatal damage. If it isn’t sinking yet, I can find a nearby submarine and finish off the job.

This is just a quick example, there are many situations which require different approaches from the player, based on the forces available to them – ships, planes, airfields – and of course it depends on the opposing forces, too.

Are there going to be situations where the player must be in a control of a specific unit to win the mission?
 

BS: Generally speaking, it makes the missions easier if the player directly controls key unit(s). The player will usually perform certain tasks – and tricks! – better than the AI.

Will there be any secondary objectives?

BS: The short answer is: yes. And hidden objectives too, but they are quite hard to find and complete.  

 
Are the planned weather effects going to have an impact on the gameplay, or just the visuals?

BS: No, all effects are plain visuals, they have no effect on the gameplay at all.
AI is a tricky thing. In other multi-unit games, it seems like the game becomes easier when you let your units move on their own. In other games the enemy crushes AI-controlled units. How is it being handled with Battlestations Midway?
 

BS: The AI-controlled units can obey your basic orders, and do their job in the battle, but the tactical planning is the battle-winner: if you send just one ship or plane squadron to the battle, it will be easily destroyed by the concentrated fire, but if you assemble a strike group, plan your attack you are much closer to the victory. 

If you just let the AI do the battle, you can expect average performance, so it’s your decision where you want to help your forces – switching to a submarine or a battleship can make considerable difference, but you can win battles commanding both of them. Completing a mission without switching into the units requires a lot of planning and deep knowledge of the game, but in theory a player can do it – it’s just easier to directly handle multiple units.

Do you plan to include a reward system that rates performance and gives players bonuses for doing well? 

BS: Of course, Battlestations: Midway has a wide range of rewards, the players can earn specific medals based on their skill and performance, as well as dozens of interesting unlocks. The player who excels in dogfights has the chance to earn an Air Medal and the player who is excellent at all aspects of the game, can earn the Distinguished Service Medal.

Thank you for your time.