My WoW guild mate Viseraeth plays it though, and got Kilo playing it, and I found out it's actually a huge Steampunk Anime style game, with some mechanics that don't exist in a lot of the other Facebook RPGs.
Battle Stations is actually a Flash based game, so it's a lot more graphical than most Facebook RPGs including battle animations! While there is not much you can to to customize your little Captain avatar, your airship is completely customizable, and will change its apppearance every time you add a feature or upgrade ship type.The Battle Stations interface is fairly straightforward, even for being completely graphical. After you press the Start Game button, which loads you into the actual Flash game, you end up on the main game screen. Here you have several visible stats and options, as well as a nifty little animated window showing your ship and it's current setting/conditions.
The Ship window is the most noticeable thing on this page, since it is dead center and completely animated. Next to the Ship window is the image of your Captain avatar, which changes depending upon what class you have selected, and as you level, which class advancements you take. Just above your Captain is a box with some very basic stats - your Captain's name, your Ship's name and the amount of EXP you have toward your next level.
At the top of the main area are listings for your other important stats. The first is your AP or Action Points, which allow you to do everything from fixing your ship to questing to exploring. Next is the area showing how much Gold or in game currency you have available to you, followed by the amounts of materials (Wood, Ore and Plasma Rock) you have. Next is your Ship's hit points, displaying current hit points and overall hit points of your ship. Lastly, there is a listing of your current Level, which of course will change as you get more experience in the game.
Below the Stats bar is your Navigation bar. The Home option will always bring you back to this first page we're looking at, while the rest will take you deeper into the game itself. Once you navigate away from the Home page, the bars will sometimes switch places, and the Navigation bar will be above the Stats bar.
The first option is for Quests. Quests are a good way to start out gaining experience and resources, and often have interesting little facts about the world Battle Stations is set in. There are two different types of Quests - the Story Quest and the Side Quest. Story Quests will largely give you information about the world around you and reward you with experience and money, while Side Quests will get you anything from Wood and Ore to Ship upgrades and parts. Every Quest costs a set amount of AP, and initially you can do a whole lot of Quests before you run out of AP.
One type of Quest is called Exploration. This allows you to basically free roam the skies, sometimes giving you the option to PvP or battle NPC ships, resulting in varying amounts of EXP and resources. A combination of regular Questing and Exploration will help you get started as a new Captain, so don't discount one for the other.
During your Quest or Exploration, you may encounter another Ship. These can be NPC or PvP encounters. When an encounter occurs, a new screen will appear showing both ships zipping through the air and attacking one another. At the bottom of the encounter is a bar that shows the ships progress through the encounter - if either ship reaches the end of this bar, the encounter ends and you either survive and escape or your enemy survives and escapes. You have no direct control over these encounters beyond what you do to upgrade your Ship and it's Equipment, so definitely pay attention to the Hanger information!
The second option is for Ports and Shops. The starter city of Tylerion has three different sub-options, while other cities and areas may have more or less options. Any type of Shipyard will allow you to buy a different ship using Gold and/or Resources, while Armories will allow you to buy gear to outfit your ship with and you may find other types of shops or stops like Taverns, where you can talk to NPCs and buy drinks.
The next option is your Captain option. This is where you will go to spend your Stat Points whenever you level, or to look at the record of various game achievements you have gotten, as well as editing your Captain's biography. Aside from your three primary Stats that you will level up as the game progresses, you can see how many Wins and Losses you've had, how many Battle Stations friends you have, your total Experience to date, your current location and lastly the date you joined the game.
The Hanger option is one of the more complex screens in the Battle Stations game, because it manages several different things involving your Ship. The first two things you can do on this page is Repair your Ship using AP if it has taken damage via Quests or PvP, or you can salvage it for AP if your Ship has been sunk at all. The repairs of course scale based on your ship's damage, but I've yet to have so much damage I didn't have or regenerate the AP to cover them.
The bulk of the Hanger menu covers your Ship and it's Equipement. Your ship can be upgraded two different ways - by improving the general stats of your current ship or buy skipping over to the Shipyard and getting an entirely different class of ship. Both of these options take Gold and Resources, however if you like the layout of your Ship it allows you to just upgrade the Ship itself rather than move on to a completely different style.
Your Ship has several different Equipment options. Each ship does have a maximum weight limit, and a set number of Weapons it can support, so these things will always be changing based on your Ship's type and upgrade level while there are some set slots that will not change quite as often. Aside from Weapons, every Ship has a Sail, an Engine, a Figurehead, a Hull and a Stabilizer. There are also options for a Custom Captain and Custom Ship, however I personally have not unlocked the items for these options.
Upgrading your Ship's Equipment will affect it's statistics in battle in terms of survivability, maneuvering and damage output. A combination of Weapon types can keep you able to damage a ship that has protection against different types, so it may not always be a wise idea to have the biggest, most expensive gunnery in every Weapon slot. Take time with building your Ship, making it stable yet versatile!
The Crew page has a couple of different sub-options. You can go to a page to Invite your friends to the game, and I suggest including a personal message when you do because of how vague of a description the default message gives. You can Recalculate your crew if you've added a friend who hasn't shown up on the list yet, though the game seems pretty good about managing your connections. The Friends option allows you to see the rankings of your friends based on their levels and ships.
The last Crew option is to Manage your Crew. Each ship has a few different positions that you can give to your friends, like First Mate and Quartermaster. Everyone who does not have a specific position will be listed as a Deck Hand, which still help you out as far as numbers and stats go, so don't discount yourself if you find your friends have left you as a Deck Hand.
The Market option lets you do a number of things from transmuting items into other items, to player trades and exchanges. Transmuting is definately a nice option if you're having trouble finding a material via Quests and Exploration as is trading things with other players or buying them from other players.
Once your Captain reaches level 25, you can join a Clan and participate in the Clan Wars feature of Battle Stations. Clan members don't attack you anymore, which cuts out some of your PvP competition, and the benefits that Clans provide will help you progress through the game.
The Help option is rather self explanatory, so I'm going to skip it. =P
The last option is called Ocho, which is a 'currency' that you can buy with real world cash to spend on items in game that are considered premium. You can get fluff items like Ship Skins or spend your Ocho Points to refresh your AP or Resources stocks. While I myself don't use the option, some players do just to get the skins.
So far, I'm really digging Battle Stations, though the AP regen is at a rate that really allows for me to play it for a bit once a day, which is nice most days and aggravating other days!
Design Score: A+.
Game Play Score: A
Graphics Score: A+
Replayability: A-
Bonus: B+, sometimes the game kills the Facebook native navigation options or has minor Flash errors but gets bonus points for bothering with a Flash game at all.
Overall Score: A
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