Strategic Mind: The Pacific

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2.9/5

( 4 Reviews )

2.9

4 Reviews

English & 7 more

Posted on: January 23, 2020

Spellcast

Verified owner

Games: 695 Reviews: 8

Mediocre at best.

I want to like this game... I really do. I just can't. The mechanics are poorly implemented, It feels like they were trying for a rock paper scissors mechanic to encourage combined arms, but it just doesn't work very well. The spotting mechanics are terrible, and the scenario's I played are just... badly designed. The AI feels like it is cheating 3/4 of the time, moving units in a way that puts them exactly where they need to be. ALL of that could be dealt with by just learning the odd way the game wants you to play, EXCEPT, that the Interface is absolutely horrible. You can't zoom out far enough to get a good strategic picture of what you want to do, the night and weather effects make figuring out your strategy even harder so i just turned the weather graphics off, and selecting units with the terrible isometric camera angles it gives you is rediculous at times. (try selecting a sub, that is under a destroyer, that is under a bomber in the hex...) Then there is the annoying action camera, that zooms in on a unit when it is ambushed or caught off gaurd by AA (which happens constantly due to the above mentioned spotting mechanics). There is a setting to turn it off, at least that is what i assume the setting is for, but disabling it doesn't change the damn camera zooms. The final nail in the coffin for me is the absolutely atrocious cut scenes... the voicing is bad, the animations blocky and stiff, and the "plot" of them is... laughable at best. Added to which, there are some serious historical inaccuracies in what they portray, which is... painful... in a game about WWII. This one will be getting uninstalled and I am going to try to forget about it. I absolutely cannot reccomend this game, which is sad, because the core concept of having a group of units you level up as the backbone of your forces in various missions has been done really well in the past by other games, and can be really fun.... just not in this game.

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Posted on: January 24, 2024

Unfallen_Satan

Verified owner

Games: 604 Reviews: 78

A wonderfully quirky WW2 TBS game

Within 5 minutes of starting the Japanese campaign, I saw one of the most cringy cutscenes I have seen in a game. One thing struck me though. Who is Kawai Chiyoko? It turns out she was a favored geisha consort of the great admiral. One YouTube video even claims he sometimes kept her with him onboard the Nagato. Whether that part was true or not, Yamamoto-san's fondness for the geisha was well known except, it seemed, to me. One thing Strategic Mind does better than any other WW2 games I have played is these bits of personal insights revealed in its ridiculous cutscenes. Not so ridiculous after I have played several missions. It's strange. After a while, I cannot imagine Yamamoto appearing any other way in a video game, especially the way he speaks in this slow, sometimes clunkily deliberate way. I feel the same about the other characters, even Hideki Tojo, who gave a surprisingly rousing speech in the opening minutes of the game on why Japan must fight the United States. The actual gameplay revolves around a very nice balance between strategy and management. Each scenario I played presented some thoughtful choices. How much should I support the friendly AI army's push on New Guinea? How should I confront the American task forces at Midway that outnumbered me 2-to-1 in capital ships and destroyers and even outnumbered me in aircrafts? To help you, you can teach your units a new skill at every level up, give them all kinds of equipment, and have several very strong leaders you can assign to units. SM: P wears its Pacific General inspiration on its sleeve, and it does the classic proud. I recommend Night Phoenix's playthrough if you want to see the game in action. The game has its problems. Supply, which is so important to you, is a non-factor for the AI. It can be hard to select stacked units. Tip: select their health bar. I couldn't see all the planes on an airfield. No crashes or bugs though. I'd like to be friends with other fans of this game.

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Posted on: August 28, 2024

etkirsch

Verified owner

Games: 74 Reviews: 5

Nice gfx, but overall a mess

First the good -- the gfx are pretty well done. And there are some nice design touches (e.g., separate system for the ships). Now the bad, and there is a lot of it. First, the scale of the game is way off. For the Coral Sea scenario, each hex is about 35 miles across and only one ship can occupy a hex. So the game quickly turns into a jumbled mess of ships and airplanes all bumping into each other. The result basically looks like a 6 YO's bathtub when they bring all their toy boats into the tub to play. Nothing at all like Pacific naval combat. Second, the AI is weak. Basically, it just throws everything at you en masse without any regard to tactics. Third, scenario design is horrible. Let's take the Midway scenario. On turn 2, the Japanese transports show up at Midway (well ahead of the supporting fleet!). So you move your capital ships into range of the transports and blow them apart. Not very realistic, but kind of fun. But even though you've crushed the invading force, the scenario requires you to sink the four Japanese carriers which are still 50 hexes to the west. So now you've got to move your fleet to the west to attack the Kido Butai even though you've already crushed the invading fleet. Simultaneously, the Japanese main battle fleet arrives at Midway (way ahead of the carriers) and is shelling Midway for reasons unknown. Lacking any air cover, the battle fleet should be sitting ducks, right? Nope, issue number four -- and it's a biggie -- is that airstrikes are woefully ineffective. You tend to lose planes faster than you damage the ships you're attacking. So you're left to take on the Jap carriers with submarines and whatever surface firepower you can muster. Your air power is basically useless. What you end up with is two fleets mindlessly bashing the heck out of each other any way they can and whichever fleet has a few remaining ships or planes after 15 turns wins. Just totally unlike Pacific naval combat. Avoid!

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