I’ve never written a review for a game before, and I don’t expect these reviews to be any good but I hope these will be different in the sense we’ll be able to discuss my opinions. The problem is, I’ll also be explaining certain aspects of the game. Perhaps you’ll even help me see something in a new light! Without further ado, here we go…after the jump.
Battlefield 1943 is the newest addition to the Battlefield-series which started with 1942 on PC. If you’ve played BF before, you’ll remember that the classes and vehicle control was a staple in the series. Since July 9th (8th for the 360 owners), we return once again to the WW2-era vehicles to kill one another, as well as WW2-era weapons, including Garands, katana swords etc.
Another staple of the BF series was the ability to upgrade your soldiers as you ranked up, a feature which is not present in this iteration. You only get 3 classes: Rifleman, which is anti-infantry and has a medium to long range rifle as well as rifle-grenades to kill with, as his name suggests; Infantryman, which is armed with a submachinegun and also focuses on anti-tank/vehicle; and Scout, armed with a sniper rifle, pistol and dynamite. An interesting aspect of BF1943 is that there is supposedly no bullet-drop, only bullet-timing (not to be confused with Max Payne’s bullet-time…), where a certain amount of minute time will pass before your bullet hits where you’re aiming, especially if you are shooting long distance. Like most other games…you’ll have to time your shots well. Instead of fancy upgrades which may cause some game imbalances, fancy stamps and postcards are available when you fulfill specific tasks. Some of these tasks can be over your soldier career (ie. kill 50 enemies as a certain class), whereas some are round specific (ie. capture 4 enemy flags). These will be displayed in your soldier profile online, and serve to increase your e-penis.
On release, BF1943 had 3 maps all focused on the Conquest mode which was integral in BF1942. A 4th map “Coral Sea” was to be unlocked on each console once 43M kills were reached — a new mode called “Air Superiority” would be available from the main menu, pitting you against the enemy in a dogfight-only map. Both consoles have now reached that goal. For those useless players in regular-map games who just wait for the planes to respawn at freighter-base, this mode is excellent for you…except when you get shot down and have to wait for a new plane.
For some reason, DICE/EA released BF1943 with default flight controls OPPOSITE to what we are normally used to (ie. push up to nose down, push down to nose up) by having the plane respond LITERALLY to the direction your right analog stick points (ie. pull up to nose up, down to dive). Thankfully, those who prefer the REAL flight controls can switch this scheme. I’ve grown used to the DICE scheme…so there’s no changing for me now 🙁 Vehicle control is also very simple, with L1/L2 as acceleration/brake and R1/R2 as weapons. There is nothing more fulfilling than commanding a tank on top of Mount Subarachi, denying the enemies advancement.
BF1943 is online-only, and when you join a game you can be placed in a squad. You have two ways to respawn once killed (remember that you don’t respawn in real-life though): flag-based or squad-based. As the name states, in flag-based spawn you will respawn at the flag you specified; this flag must be held by your team, and if there are no flags held by your team you will spawn at your freighter-base. Squad-based spawning will spawn you at the location of your specified squad member, immediately getting you closer with your team.
It is possible to play in a squad with only your friends, as you can start a squad and join the game as one unit (hopefully). To do this, simply go to “Join Game With Friends”, and invite away! Of course, if your friend is already playing and you want to join them, just press the corresponding button to join THEM! Hopefully you’ll be on the same squad, and the game they’re in isn’t full. And hopefully you can connect. Period. However, based on my experience, connection to the EA servers has been pretty solid and I haven’t been dropped from any games. On my connection, there is also minimal lag (people aren’t jittering around), which is phenomenal considering my dad spends his nights streaming all of the Hong Kong internets.
The in-game chat, by default, is all-team. When in a squad, you are STILL in all-team chat. In order to have squad-only chat, the squad leader will need to make your squad private (press Start and go to the applicable menu). From my experience, the in-game chat is broken (yet to be patched?) and will constantly have static. There is one bug present, which I have experienced, which causes your system to freeze when a mic is turned off in-game. There is also no way to mute specific players, which opens up a whole world of hurt when a specific person is constantly transmitting static, playing music, or is some pre-pubescent kid constantly speaking (“Hey guys, can you hear me? Hey guys! Guys!”).
You have the ability to host a private game and play with 15 of your friends. However, you MUST have a full lobby in order to launch the game, which isn’t that great…but I guess this helps prevent imbalanced teams and stat farming. I am uncertain, but I don’t think the game is 100% hosted by a player. In other words, if the host leaves, I believe the game continues on. In fact, there might not be an actual game HOST (ie. using EA servers to host), and the “host” is merely acting as a “room master”.
BF1943 definitely takes some getting used to, in terms of flag location, strategies and player movement, but shouldn’t be too difficult to improve upon if FPSes are your type of game. The connection issues, as well as the in-game chat system, will most likely be patched and fixed in the future. In addition, although DICE and EA haven’t announced DLC for the game, the community is hopeful the current map roster will be increased…especially since BF1943 is coming to the PC in the near future. We all know what that means…custom maps. The gameplay is fast-paced and addictive, as you will usually find yourself trying to improve your skills to help your team conquer the map.
You can get BF1943 through XBLA for 1200 MS Points or the PS Store for $14.99USD. You can also follow my stats/soldier through my BF1943 soldier page! The only problem with the soldier page is that their aren’t that many comprehensive stats (ie. assists, vehicle-specific kills), and the stamps/postcards/trophies appear to not update at the moment. Oh well.