A Brilliant Update to a Classic
When details of Battlefield 1943 first surfaced, many longtime fans were concerned that it would be a watered-down, consolized shadow of BF1942. Luckily, those worries were for naught. BF1943 isn’t just a great for an XBLA game, it offers dramatic improvements over its predecessor and shouldn’t be missed by anyone who loves Battlefield.
For me, Battlefield 1942 was always about creating epic battles straight out of a Hollywood WWII movie. It accomplished that goal with aplomb, but it was often weighed down by its own grand ambitions. Its giant maps filled with submarines, mobile artillery, drivable battleships, tanks, fighter planes, bombers, and more gave the game an epic scale, but could be frustrating when you were repeatedly killed by random bombs and snipers or had to run around for 10 minutes trying to find an enemy.
BF1943 streamlines its gargantuan predecessor to create a more focused, evenly-paced experience without sacrificing the epic feel of the battles. Instead of a smorgasbord of vehicle types, there are now only tanks, fighter planes, jeeps, and landing craft. There are fixed machinegun turrets and anti-air guns. This puts the focus squarely on vehicles that were most useful and effective in the previous game.
Classes have been reduced from 5 to 3. There’s an anti-infantry class with a semi-automatic rifle, grenade launcher, and hand grenades. There’s an anti-tank class with a submachine gun, bazooka, hand grenades, and a wrench for repairing vehicles. Finally, there’s a sniper class with a scoped rifle, pistol, and TNT charges. All seem balanced with their own strengths and weaknesses, and all are capable in a fight.
Health and ammo have been streamlined to keep you in the action more. Health now regenerates when out of battle in the modern style, rather than only refilling when using a med pack. Ammo is also unlimited, but this is balanced by recharge times. The anti-tank class, for example, only has two grenades at a time. After he throws them, he must wait ~30 seconds for another two. This system prevents explosive spam while still preventing you from ever having to make a long trek back to base to refill on ammo.
The game features only four maps from the Pacific Theatre, but these are some of the more popular maps from 1942. The maps are Wake Island, Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal, and . DICE did a good job of picking maps that are suited to the new 24-player maximum.
More important than the fat trimmed by 1943 is the new meat it adds. The most immediately noticeable is the graphics. BF1943 looks beautiful, with great water, explosions, fire, and foliage. This last bit is more than just eye candy. The expanded tree and plant cover makes infantry much more able to cross open ground without being sniped or strafed. This fixes one of the more frustrating issues with BF1942.
Additionally, there is the new destructible terrain. Bridges can be blown out, buildings are reducible to a pile of rubble, and trees and plants can be cut apart by gunfire. Once again, this is more than just eye candy. Destroying cover in a base becomes an important tactic during an assault.
Finally, there are a few gameplay additions. The game now features squad support, and players within a squad can spawn on top of any other member instead of spawning at a base. This helps to keep players clumped together and makes the battles more intense.
Also, each map now features a bunker from which a team can call an “air raid” every so often. This allows the calling player to control a squadron of slow-moving bombers. They can drop a single volley of bombs per run, and those bombs carpet an expansive area and reduce anything they hit to flaming wreckage. The other team can use its fighter planes and anti-air guns to shoot down the bombers before they make it to their target.
All in all, BF1943 is unquestionably worth its $15 price tag, and should be enjoyed by anyone with a fondness for the old version. Moreover, some who were driven away by 1942’s complexity and uneven pacing may find that BF1943 is more appealing.
