Customer Reviews

Pacific Storm Allies

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

The AI is seriously messed up generating units and defense not possible using given economy. The game is also extremely buggy even after all the work done with Pacific Storm (I have Pacific Storm also). I've been waiting for a patch as the game is unplayable with constant crash to desktop errors when returning from tactical mode. The support site says one was on the way out for this a few weeks ago now.

Updated edit (5/29/2010)
CDV updated a workable patch (Pacific Storm Allies Pacific Storm: Allies Patch v1.52 (11.3MB, May 28, 2008)). It fixed the crash to desktops but made the AI even worse. I had the game shelved until now. Game modders have tweaked the game mechanics and units since patch v1.52 to make this game usable now. Luckily the game turns out to be very modable. A World War II modders dream in fact. Several years after buying this product (and several game player mods later) I'm finally enjoying this product emensly and have now just bought another copy. Another classic example of a game released which players fixed with mods. (updated the game rating based on player produced mods)

Just like the previous guy said. This game is half-baked. The feeling when you try to play this episode II is totally a mess. This is the first buggy game that attend unplayable level. Besides, even after four mothes since selling, there are none path for any bug. What can i say. Just try to download a cracked version through net. It's not hard to find and even less bug than official. You don't have to waste money on this crap.

I'm holding onto my copy in case I am desperate again, but next I am going to try some of the meatier titles such as Pacific War Matrix, War in the Pacific, War Plan Pacific or Uncommon Valor. I studied the rules for about a week and played through all the tutorials prior to playing a campaign game so I was well versed prior to playing.

I played only in a strategic mode and did not use any of the real time battles but the game feels detached in an arcade fashion. You have to click on your ships and then right click on the enemy stack much as you would do in Age of Empires when they appear.

One draw of Pacific gaming is an attachment to your named ships, althoguh they are there it seems a bit abstracted. Your stack of ships are in formations. You have to drill down about five levels to see that you actually have carriers in your stack. Even with carriers a strike force is actually called a Battleship expeditionary force (battleships have a higher heiracrchy). Launching carrier strikes seems a bit of a stretch. You right click on the stack and choose air strikes and at times your planes's formations will launch. You then repeat the Age of empires formula of right click the enemies, etc.

After action reports are difficult to read as the losses are in a xx/xx/xx format and are displayed differently for attacker and defender. Sunk ships are the second set of hashes for one side, then when you are on the other end it becomes the first set of hashes.

Positively you can hand over the logistics to the pc and automate this. It will move troops, resources and supplies around but not very effectively. I moved planes manually from the West Coast to the island bases only to have the pc move them from the island bases to stack on the US west coast again.

I think for myself a turn-based game with set static rules such as ZOC's, and easy to recoginze groupings of ships would be more my speed. For those grognards hoping that this real-time game would be a nice quick Pacific war simulation it might pass but will still leaves a bit of frustrating wanting.

Three stars only because it ran rock solid, is a novel idea and they are supporting the nich genre that is hard to find.

This is a game I would love to love, however it's just not possible.
The good points: It is incredibly accurate historically and unit-wise. It's also incredibly diverse in allowing you unlimited control of the entire strategic theatre of the Pacific in WWII.
However, the game has some serious technical issues which make it completely unplayable. The most frustrating is that the longer I play the slower and slower the game runs. In the beginning of a campaign, around 1939, it runs crisply and smoothly, but with every unit you create and every convoy or fleet that moves across the map it slows to a crawl and becomes choppy and absolutly impossible to negotiate. Even the mouse doesn't move smoothly, jumping from place to place on the screen.
Secondly, the crashes to desktop are almost constant. Switching from tactical mode back to strategic, you are almost guarenteed to crash every time, regardless of how the battle transpires or if you've saved and try to reload. As great as this game has the potential to be, it's just not playable witout some major fixes. Stay away until then.

In a word....crap. I have the first and it was crappy, but this one leaves the original in its tracks in terms of bugs and pure frustration. Take my word for it, dont even try it.

This game has a wonderful concept, and starts off well enough but playing the strategic part of the game soon becomes an exercise in futility. It simply crawls to nearly a complete halt. My computer is not an ultimate over-clocked $3000 gaming machine, but it is a new 2-processor 1.9ghz with 4gb of RAM, and nothing else was running. I set the configuration to performance, downgraded all the visual settings, turned off automatic building, upgrading, etc. but still it ticked off time at nearly one-to-one with real life. This is with the timeplay set to maximum speed. The mouse won't even move unless you hit Pause.

Don't buy this game unless you have a Cray supercomputer.

This is the best game in the world. The only problem is there several annoying glitches/errors/bugs that need to bee resolved first