If there’s ever been a time that a developer needed to revisit World War II, then the time would be now for Electronic Arts and Digital Illusions. Battlefield: Bad Company turned out to be a decent title and Mirror’s Edge, for what it was, had interesting gameplay concepts. With Battlefield 1943, Digital Illusions doesn’t intend on reinventing the wheel; rather they have attempted to go back to their roots and showcase how entertaining the series can be when it’s simplified. Simplifying the Battlefield series is, by no means, a knock on the game. This Xbox Live Arcade release serves up three maps (with a fourth DLC map reportedly to be unlocked at a later stage) and three soldier classes to use. The three maps are based in the Pacific Theater of Operations for WWII including: Iwo Jima, Wake Island and Guadalcanal.
Scout, Rifleman, and Infantry turned out to be the three soldier classes available to players to select and they all were pretty balanced. It is suggested players attempt to melee kill an opponent as you’ll receive a quick achievement and the pleasure of an easy one hit kill. Plus, using a sword or a wrench to quickly dispose of your enemy should be enticing enough. On top of those two simple pillars of the gameplay, Battlefield 1943 also features the Conquest game mode. Even with one game mode, the gameplay is tremendously fun and has thrilling vehicles to use to traverse the large environments. From boats to planes, all the traditional WWII vehicles are here to take advantage of during the massive online battles.
Though, it must be said, the controls for the planes are much more difficult to learn for newcomers to the series – you might just end up nose-diving into the sea your first time off the ground. Allowing up to 24 players into a map, the fragging is intense and exciting when you enter into a full server. The maps are large in scale; so entering into a server with a higher player count is ideal since attempting to capture the five bases around the map is time consuming with only a handful of players duking it out. With secondary weapons provided for each soldier class – such as a missile launcher for Infantry – not every firefight turns out to be the same. Using the Frostbite engine, the game benefits with the environmental destruction that is permitted.
When I was bored guarding a base, I took to destroying the surrounding buildings with my rockets and throwing grenades at trees to pass the time until the enemies showed up at my front door. If you’ve never played Battlefield: Bad Company, and are prone to camping inside a building to guard a flag, you are in for a world of surprise when a tank enters your vicinity since Battlefield 1943 helps reinforce the idea of “there’s no place to hide.” Proving to be a worthy online game, the matches are, for the most part, lag free and enjoyable. There hasn’t been a tremendous amount of strategy or tactics spoken over the headsets with my teammates or squads, but if you have a group of buddies playing, this shouldn’t necessarily be a problem.
With an online ranking system, which was similarly found in Bad Company, players will level up and have stats to show for their high level of play. Experiencing the dead end summer months of gaming, Battlefield 1943 is a surefire hit that is deserving of its $15 price tag. Players who lean towards multiplayer shooter affairs will rejoice as they now have their next title to hold them over until the holiday season. There’s no higher recommendation currently – especially for the price point – than Battlefield 1943. Let’s cross our fingers that EA and Digital Illusions are already hard at work with new maps, vehicles and classes for downloadable content. We can’t tell you a reason not to pick up Battlefield 1943 via the Xbox LIVE Marketplace for the ultra-low value of 1200 Microsoft Points; it’s available now.
