Review: Battlefield 1943

 

The sequel to highly praised and award winning Battlefield 1942 is here, in downloadable form. DICE and EA have released Battlefield 1943, for a mere 15$. Its usually believed that you get what you pay for, but is this the case with the newest installment to the Battlefield franchise?

Battlefield 1943, obviously taking place a year after the original, brings you to the pacific front. It’s the Americans against the Japanese in a 12 on 12 battle, using anything and everything to win. Be that planes, tanks, jeeps, boats, and more. There are three classes: Infantry, Riflemen, and Scout. Infantry use a machine gun for basic combat and a Bazooka for attacking vehicles. For Riflemen, its a rifle and grenades that launch out of the rifle. Scouts have a sniper, and remote detonated bombs. Although the size of the battles are scaled back from 1942, they’re just as frantic and fun. The original battlefield formula is still here mostly, and it works great. If you’re new to it, well, you’ve got a little learning to do; especially if you’re looking to fly planes. With matches lasting around 20 minutes a pop, its easy to lose yourself in it for hours on end.

Graphically, Battlefield 1943 impresses on all ends. Given that its a downloadable title, this looks better than a lot of retail games. Everything looks relatively smooth and runs great. It runs on a refined version of the “Frostbite” engine, also used on Battlefield: Bad Company. What this means other than the game looking great, is that some of the environment is destructible. Parts of buildings can be blown wide open, trees can be knocked down, and more. As cool as it is, some stuff isn’t destructible. A tree could be knocked down, but the one next to it might not be able to. Why this is, I don’t know. While I’m completely blowing this out of proportion, it might as well have been said. Gunshots, plane motors, explosions….a Battlefield title would be incomplete without them. They’re all here, and they sound excellent. Loud and realistic, it only adds to the experience. Some of the yells let out by dying soldiers are obscenely loud, and are sort of funny.

Gameplay is what made the original battlefield so revolutionary. The battles were always a blast, and that still holds true here. Although as mentioned before the number of players is scaled back, matches can still be very intense. Its very similar to domination from Call Of Duty 4. There are 5 capture points on each map, and each team battles to get control of as many as possible. It’s very fun, but its a shame there aren’t more game modes. It controls like every first person shooter, and vehicles all control easily….except for the planes. Planes are something of wonder if you get good at it. It’s going to take a good while to master it, but you’ll command the game once you’ve got it.

Everything about Battlefield 1943 works well together, making it more than recommendable. For $15, not downloading this would be a sin. I wouldn’t really call this a true sequel to Battlefield 1942, as its not even close to living up to the standards and impact of the original. Still, I can recommend this to anyone, and we’ll see you on the battlefield (see what I did there?).

8.7/10

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