I tried the trial for Battlefield 1943 yesterday when it came out on XBL. I tried the tutorial, and I was impressed. It’s pretty good.
The problem came when I tried to join a game server. None could be found. I managed to join one but lost connection after 5 minutes and couldn’t join another all day. I don’t understand how on launches of fairly major free (albeit, in this case, a free trial) games like 1943 and America’s Army 3 can go so badly. Did they not expect so many people to want to play it? That’s not very ambitious is it.
Once I finally got into a game I had a ton of fun. It takes what was great about 1942 – Islands, Boats, Planes, Guns, Explosions, and so on, and distills it down into a simple, easy to use gameplay. You have unlimited magazines for all your weapons and equipment. There are 3 classes. As a 1942 player, like myself, it’s easy to think “Wow, what did they do?”. The multiple classes of old BF games are gone. Long live the three class system.
The Rifleman is my favourite. Armed with an 8-round semi-auto rifle (The Garand… or it’s Japanese equivalent, the reskinned Garand) the Rifleman is really good against infantry at almost any range. Coupled with the rifle grenades and normal grenades he becomes a great class to use. His bayonet makes a quick mess of anyone up close.
The Soldier is the class to use when dealing with vehicles, either driving them or killing them. The magic Battlefield wrench returns, and the soldier can use it to fix vehicles or as a melee weapon to batter someone to death. He also has a rocket launcher to blow the stuffing out of any tank. or wall. More on that in a bit. He’s also armed with an SMG for those tight moments when you bail out of a tank and are up close with an angry enemy. He’s the best at CQB because of this, but I find the rifleman is better overall.
The Sniper is the specops character. Armed with his bolt action and pistol, he’s a standard sniper, and his bayonet (wielded in the hands) is lethal enough. He also is equipped with explosives – think BF2’s specops C4 – which is effective. I find the class to not be to my liking – the Rifleman is accurate enough as it is.
So, overall, the game is pretty damn fun. The classic BF1942 Pacific maps are there – Wake Island, Guadalcanal, and Iwo Jima, with Coral Sea to be unlocked once 43 Million community kills are made (shouldn’t take too long!). Each map has each side starting on a carrier before making their aerial and sea based assault upon the land and fighting over it, which is a change from the usual attack-defend maps in 1942.
So, all the ingredients are there, and the cake is certainly well cooked. It’s a damn fun game. Frantic, explosive, and fast paced, it keeps you on your toes. The scale feels just right too, with tanks rolling and planes zipping overhead and bombers (the replacement for the Commander Artillery from BF2/2142) exploding everything.
The Frostbite engine is used to full effect. Anyone who’s played Bad Company will know what to expect. A house is no match in Frostbite, as a tank can smash through walls, rockets can blow holes in almost everything, and entire bases can be levelled. It just works. And before I knew it, my 30 minutes of alloted trial time was over.
As it stands, the game should perform as an excellent middle ground between the arcadey, cartoon shenanigans of Battlefield Heroes (3 class system!) and the upcoming Battlefield Bad Company 2 and Battlefield 3.
It’s arcadey, it’s fun, it’s packed with explosions, death, and vehicles. So yeah, check it out. It’s on PS3 as well from today. For 1200MSP on 360 and $15/£9.99 on PS3, it’s certainly a good, fun-filled deal. It should be coming to PC in September time – Frostbite hasn’t been used in a game on PC before, so it should require some optimisation. Maybe the player count will be increased, but as it is 12v12 is crazy enough.