The Wargamer

Pacific Storm

There are no typos in “Related Categories” in the above headnote! Pacific Storm really is a multi-genre extravaganza. It could also be a watershed title for Moscow-based Buka – the opening wedge that finally allows this doughty Russian developer to grab a respectable share of the U.S. market, something that’s been maddeningly just-out-of-reach hitherto.

But if the game biz were a horse race, you might be advised not to laugh when your bookie suggests betting a wad on Buka; this is a company that may come up fast on the outside. The Muscovites may not yet have the “game-play thing” nailed (remember: back in the mid-Eighties when computer gaming first got big, the only computers you could find in the USSR were the big underground ones dedicated to playing 1:1-scale Missile Command), but their titles are ambitious, imaginative, and graced with superior graphics.

The designers of Pacific Storm are going for a Grand Slam: a wargame that seamlessly blends operational/grand strategic scale, tactical air/sea battle scale, AND a robust FPS element, all in the same program. For obvious reasons, not many games have successfully done that (although wargamers have fantasized about such a “scale-able game-play” title for many years). The handful of games that have aspired to such a layered design have either suffered from serious balance problems, or were governed by so ponderous an interface that they proved to be virtually unplayable (anybody remember Jim Dunnigan’s beached-whale of an Amiga game, Victory at Sea?).

Individual tactical modules in Pacific Storm comprise a list of the Pacific War’s Greatest Hits (Midway, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, etc), but the three-story design really blossoms in the gigantic campaign games. Playing either for the American or for the Japanese side, you take supreme command some six or seven months before December, 1942. The game’s initial phase is a base-building, troop-recruiting, resource-gathering, weapons-developing marathon. The U.S. player never knows exactly when the Japanese will attack, but at some point, when either your human opponent or the seemingly competent AI decides Japan’s window of opportunity is as wide open as it will get, the surprise attack is launched. It may or may not be against Pearl Harbor; it may or may not comprise a single strike force – you have to plan your defensive strategy with built-in flexibility.

When two opposing forces enter the same map-zone, tactical combat breaks out. It can take the form of a single submarine raid or it can be a Midway-sized monster involving up to forty fully detailed ships and hundreds of aircraft. At any time during an engagement – but only if you want to – you can snuggle-up to the armrests of an Oerlikon or jump into the cockpit of a Zero and actually participate. The flight-sim aspect is generic, of course, but we found it surprisingly agreeable – it’s great fun to dodge through a cloud of flak and slam a torpedo into an enemy capital ship.

Okay, so the FPS element isn’t “realistic” (in the sense that, while Admiral Yamamoto undoubtedly could operate a machine gun, that’s not a very efficient way to use a talented fleet commander!)

There is realism a-plenty, though, in the richly detailed renderings of naval vessels. The Russian art department apparently consists mainly of historical hardware freaks who revel in reproducing every rivet and recoil-spring. Besides looking authentic, the animated ships present an almost palpable sense of weight, mass, and momentum. The in-game graphics aren’t all that inferior to those displayed in the introductory cinematic – which is, hands-down, one of the most intense and vivid such episodes we’ve ever seen!

In short, we were impressed – by the look of the game and by the fanatical care for historical detail evident in every scene. Will this triple-decker design actually play as smooth as it looks? We hope so. Pacific Storm is an enormously ambitious design; if the title hits big, it will give Buka something they’re hungry for: a respectable presence in the North American market. More importantly (in the long run), these friendly and talented Russians will gain something else, something that quite eluded them with Entente, their most visible U.S. title so far: respect.

About the Author

William R. Trotter was born and raised in Charlotte, North Carolina, and is a graduate of Davidson College. Since 1980, he has supported himself entirely by his freelance writing. In 1987, he became Senior Writer for Imagine Media. His monthly column on war and strategy gaming, "The Desktop General" ran for 15 years and was ultimately read by approximately 1.2 million people, in 13 languages.  Bill's journalistic work has appeared in more than 30 newspapers and magazines -- approximately 1,800 by-lined pieces. His 16 published books run the gamut from true crime, biography, history, to mainstream fiction; his most recent novel is "Warrener's Beastie" (due out in late June), about which Publishers Weekly recently said: "Trotter's sprawling novel successfully straddles the line between fantasy, science fiction, and adventure-thriller; it will find a sizable readership in all three camps." Or, as another reviewer quipped: "An oversimplified description might be 'Ship of Fools Goes to Loch Ness' ..."  For more on all his books, visit TrotterBooks.com.

Trotter lives in Greensboro, N.C., with his wife, fantasy writer and editor Elizabeth Lustig, and their three sons. When not busy writing or parenting, he spends lots of time trying to figure out how to organize and store his 7000-piece classical music collection.