Battlefield 1943

Since its inception in 2002, the Battlefield series has undergone a number of fairly dramatic evolutions. It has made wide jumps from historical to futuristic settings, while adding a heavy emphasis on storytelling to a franchise that once boasted AI-controlled bots as its sole single-player offering. The next entry in the series is Battlefield 1943, a game that will circle back to those early roots as you return to World War II in a fight between US Marines and Imperial Japanese. The action is classic Battlefield through and through, but a number of departures from previous games make for a fresh take on that familiar formula. With the game's release right around the corner, we played several online matches on all the maps to see everything there was left to see in this upcoming first-person shooter.



Guadalcanal feels like the most expansive of the traditional maps.


Battlefield 1943 feels like a hybrid of the original Battlefield 1942 and the series' most recent entry, Bad Company. The retro feeling comes from the setting and overall style of gameplay: you go at it by land, air, and sea with WWII-era weapons and vehicles on a number of famous islands from that war's Pacific theater. However, 1943 will first be released on consoles in the form of a $15 downloadable title available on both Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Network. With that console focus, it shares an important trait with Bad Company, the first game in the series developed exclusively for consoles. But they also share the Frostbite game engine, so all the destruction (collapsing buildings, trees, and so on) that Bad Company was known for will also be present in 1943.

1943's $15 price tag will get you a pretty robust overall package, with matches that offer support for up to 24 players. The game comes with four island-themed maps--three that offer the traditional Conquest gameplay mode and one that does something altogether different. The three standard maps are Wake Island, Iwo Jima, and Guadalcanal. Wake Island is the most straightforward of the bunch, with relatively flat terrain and short distances between each of the five flags that teams fight over. On the other side of the spectrum is Guadalcanal, which feels much more expansive. The main island in Guadalcanal is filled with winding roads, steep hills, and some dense wilderness areas, making it a very sniper-friendly map that requires careful movement and a heavy dependence on vehicles.

The fourth map is something of an added treat that a lone DICE developer managed to create on his own time. The team liked it so much that they wound up keeping it in the game as an unlockable bonus. It's called Coral Sea and it's strictly for dogfighting in airplanes. There are enough fighter planes for all 24 players--as opposed to the small handful on the standard maps--and the challenge is to chase other players in the sky and shoot them down with your machine guns. It's a huge map with a bunch of exotic islands that offer the opportunity to fly through rock rings like a stunt pilot (and it definitely makes you scratch your head that DICE managed to make such a nice-looking game that only clocks in at a 560-meg download). Coral Sea will be locked until the total number of kills on either platform reaches 43 million, at which point the map becomes unlocked for everyone to play.

You are given a choice of three classes, each with its own primary, alternate, and melee weapons. There's the rifleman, who comes equipped with a rifle, a grenade launcher attachment, and a bayonet; the infantry soldier, who has a submachine gun, a bazooka, and a wrench; and the scout, who uses a sniper rifle, a pistol, and a sword. The latter class also forgoes grenades in favor of remote charges, which come in handy against tanks or as makeshift roadside bombs on the enemy's favorite jeep routes.



Yep, you can go after enemies with a sword.


The maps are expansive, but you generally won't be wandering around looking for stuff to do because there's always a turret gun, vehicle, or sniper hideout nearby. Options for violent mayhem include .50-cal machine guns, antiaircraft guns, air-raid stations that let you call in and control an airstrike, and just hitching a ride on a jeep and getting on the turret. The only time we did much wandering was when we played as a sniper and went exploring the thick foliage in search of the best hiding spot.

We had a great time with Battlefield 1943. The overall package seems like a rock-solid value at $15. The game should be released very shortly, though no official date has been given by EA. Similarly up in the air is the PC version, which is slated to arrive in September but has yet to be given a price. Stay tuned for more on that front.

Okay, so it's a FPS but for $15, I'm interested.

Yeah, I finally saw the review of this game too in my magazine. they gave it a 7.5 out 10 which isn't bad. The only knocks they gave it are the limited maps (which is not a knock on the game design, but more of a desire for more) and if there is no one in the room you are playing in then you might not see someone for awhile. Which if the game sells well will not be a problem.

Looks pretty cool. I have played a few of the previous battlefield games and they are good fun.

The fact that it shares a game engine with Battlefield Bad Company should be a good thing. I played the Bad Company demo and it was good.

I played that demo too. It was pretty good. I think I may pick this one up. Nice relaxing pick up and play.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking.

I bought it! Purchased and downloaded the game last night. I did it after a good session of SOCOM and figured that since it was a pretty small download (560 MB or so) that I would set it up and DL the game while I was getting ready for bed. I should have known better. After it was downloaded I figured I'd check it out just to see what it was like. I ended up playing it for about an hour...standing up. I originally was just going to give it a little test run and I ended up standing up the whole hour I played.

In my short time, here's my observation:

The DL didn't take long. The game installed and I fired it up. After a few loading screens you're taken to the main menu. There are about 5 or 6 options on the main screen. The top two are "Quick Match" and an option to play with friends. The others I didn't even notice as I just wanted to jump in game and see what the game was like. I did however choose the play with friends option just to see what that consisted of because any game that is online should have an option to make sure you can play with your buddies. Some don't, like Gran Turismo 5 Prologue (ruined the game for me...I don't even know where mine is). This game, however, has that option. It takes you to a screen where you can send invites through the PSN to your friends to come play with you. The classic party system. That's fine. I'm not looking to get into clan wars on this game.

I went back to the main menu and chose the "Quick Match" option. Let's get into a game! The game loaded the game quickly, very quickly, in fact. I was told what island I was playing on (I don't remember which one) during loading and suddenly the screen comes up and I'm standing on the deck of an aircraft carrier with an island off in the distance. I look to my left and notice two airplanes moving off the deck and getting airborne. The pilots are players. I look ahead and there is a landing craft hanging from the side of the carrier. I see a guy in the driver's seat and I start to make my way to the boat when it falls away. Crap! I turn around and there is another empty boat on the other side, so I walk (I haven't figured out how to run at this point) across the deck and jump into the boat. I find myself looking down the barrel of some mounted machine gun. That's not how you drive the boat, but I gotta fire it. So I take some shots at the island and I'm thinking, "Cool" when a Japanese Zero comes flying across my screen. A target! So I fire at him and I THINK I hit him a couple times because he banks hard right and gets the heck away from me. Now I'm thinking, "Oh, hell yes." And then my boat drops into the water...I've got a driver! So now we're crusing towards land and I'm still on the gun firing at guys running across the island. Yes, I've got a smile on my face. We run the craft up on to the beach and we both pile out and go inland. That's about as much as I remember. After that it's a blur of learning territory, controls, loadouts, and landmarks.

During the course of my hour I play as all three loadouts. There are snipers, which are obviously your long range guys. There are rifleman which are guys with one shot, semi-auto rifles and there are infantry which basically have SMG's. All have their own place and I found ways to be successful with all of them. In the end I don't know if I like the Rifleman loadout or the Infantry loadout best, but both have their advantages.

There are vehicles in the game but they don't get used TOO often. There are tanks, jeeps and planes. I tried all three. The jeep is just a bomb around type vehicle to get you from one place to another quickly. The tanks are cool because, unlike SOCOM 2, you can drive your tank AND fire it's main weapon at the same time. I actually got into a tank battle with a guy and he blew a bridge out from under my tank, got me stuck in the ravine underneath the damn bridge and then blew me up. I got some shots on him, but didn't win the battle. Tanks also drive over just about EVERYTHING, including trees. You can actually drive through small buildings with them. Very cool. I drove one of the jeeps and it was fun because you can absolutely haul ass with them. To the point where I actually crashed one. It was actually fun and I was laughing. Then I saw a plane...it's go time!

Planes get their own section because I'm totally impressed with how they're implemented into the game. What I expected was something pretty easy. Jump into the plane, start it up and fly that nimble little WWII era aircraft and kill some dudes! Not so. Jump in the plane, look out from the cockpit view (nice!) and watch the propeller start turning. Down the runway I go. Up into the air and SHIT, I'm going down when I think I should be going up! Crap, the controls are backwards. I was thinking we would be actually flying like a plane yoke where when you pull back the nose rotates up and when you push up the nose rotates down. Not in this game...well, to start. You have to set that in your options. So, the first time I flew the damn thing straight into the ground. DAMMIT! So I run back to the hangar and there is another plane sitting there. Wait, the Japs took over the airfield. Now there is a Zero in the hangar! And I can still fly it!!! Wheeee!!! So I jump in and take off again. Okay, now I got this. L1 for GO! Man I'm flying fast. Okay, there are some dudes below me. Lay down strafing fire! YEAH!!! And...I exploded. Oh, you mean that radio tower I just flew into could actually take down a plane?!?!?! I suck. I'm sure the guys on the ground were laughing at me on that one. Okay, time to run back to the hangar again. We got the airfield back! So I jump into another plane. I fly into the air and I'm turning to strafe some guys and what's that?! I'm hit! There's a plane on me! Turn, turn, turn, TURN, TUUUUUURRRRRNNNN!!!!! He shoots me down. How the hell did he turn harder than I did? Gotta figure this out. Another plane! I take off again and realize that while L1 is throttle up, L2 is throttle back! Yes, now I can turn! So I take off and see an enemy plane dead ahead. I get on his six, throttle back and start laying into the guy. What the heck?! I'm falling! Not enough throttle!!! L1, L1, L1!!!! Too late. I stalled the plane and crashed. Enough with these damn planes!!! I'll figure it out later. The coolest thing about the planes is that there are only about 4 flying around at any time during a game. There is an airfield where one continually respawns as another dies, so you can sit and wait for a plane or you can stumble across one if you're fighting for the airfield. Very cool.

Other than that, the game was fun. It's you regular FPS stuff. Same views, same shooting, all respawn. The maps are cool and very destructible. The gameplay is basically a huge control points game where whatever team has the most points the other team's counter starts counting down. Once one team runs out of time on their counter, the game is over. It's all open mic, but in the hour I played I didn't hear a guy say a word. I heard a guy playing, but he never talked.

I liked the game and look forward to playing again. For $15, I definitely think it's worth checking out!

I got it too. Bill and I played a little last night. I was pretty exhausted (not much sleep with a new baby wanting to eat every couple hours through the night). It is definately a fun game to pick up and play.
You can start a game with your friends, and be in a squad together. Then when you die, you go do a "squad spawn." This spawns you right behind your teammate, wherever they are. This is good and bad. It is good because you can constantly play with your friends. It is bad because sometimes you spawn into a bad situation!
It is definately fun though. If we get some more to pick the game up, it would be really fun to get a full squad running together. There isn't much teamwork, as you would expect, so 4 guys assaulting one position would probably smoke people.