Battlefield 1943 Review

Written by: Darren Cartledge Posted: 21st July 2009

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Time to hit the Battlefield.

Battlefield 1943 Details:

	First Person Shooter
	PlayStation 3/Xbox 360
	DICE
	EA Games

16+

Out Now

2-24

The Battlefield games have provided us gamers with some great multiplayer shooters over the years and with the digital release of Battlefield 1943, that trend looks set to continue.

Battlefield 1943 focuses the action on Pacific theatre with the US Marines taking on the Imperial Japanese Navy on several war-torn South Pacific Islands. The game is slightly limited in scope when compared to other Battlefield games, there are only three maps and three classes to play as. But despite this the game provides no less of an action packed playing experience.

Each team of up to twelve players competes to take control of a number of key locations on the game map. These obviously serve as spawning points and also give your team access to various vehicles, such as tanks, jeeps and planes. Having such equipment at your disposal obviously provides lots of variety but capturing the control points also serves another purpose. At the start of each match each team has a set number of reinforcement tickets, indicated by a bar at the top of the screen. Each time a member of your team is killed and respawn this value decreases until they have none left, to add a twist to the game, the more control points your team holds the faster the enemies reinforcement tickets decrease. So holding the most control points becomes ever more important. What this serves to the gameplay in Battlefield 1943 is to make intense battles in set areas around the game map. This may not sound good but when you consider that control points are all in fairly close proximity to each other which means you’re never far from the action.

Playing the game is highly addictive and I often found myself entering just one more match. The games action is very intense, fast paced and very chaotic. Controls both on foot and in vehicles are well thought out and feel natural whilst the various character classes are all fairly well balanced. The chaotic feeling of the game is further enhanced by the fact the game is powered by the Frostbyte engine used in Battlefield Bad Company, which of course means that buildings are fully destructible leaving very few safe places to hide in Battlefield 1943.

The games maps are pretty varied, despite the limited number on offer in the game. These include Guadalcanal - a hilly island with many spots ideal for snipers, Iwo Jima an island with a mountain at one end overlooking the rest of the island allowing you to rip infantry down with machine gun fire and finally Wake Island. A horse shoe shaped island that’s ideal for vehicle based combat.

However, despite providing probably the best online shooter experiences I’ve played recently Battlefield 1943 isn’t perfect. As soon as you respawn you are fair game, whilst this isn’t a major problem it can be frustrating to spawn and then instantly be killed before you’ve even had chance to move. It also encourages undesirable players to spawn camp, spoiling the fun for others.

Away from the game mode Battlefield 1943 also features an air combat mode named Air Superiority. This mode again pits two teams against each other, however this time in aerial combat. This game mode takes place on a new map named Coral Sea and as you would expect offers a fairly different playing experience to that of the games main mode, as players take part in dogfights. These battles don’t tend to be as intense however they do require at lot of skill and are a nice addition to the game.

Production values are solid throughout Battlefield 1943 despite the game only costing £9.99 or 1200 MS points, and this is reflected in the games visuals. Character models and animation are of the highest standard whilst vehicles and environments are all nicely detailed. The game however excels in the graphics department with the explosion effects which really help create the feeling of being in a real battlefield. However, the games biggest immersion factor comes from its audio. The games ambient sounds are fantastic, whilst weapons fire and the shouts and screams of the various characters are also brilliant. Sound effects used for aeroplanes could have been taken straight out of a WWII movie. The games soundtrack is as you would expect very dramatic sounding and fits in perfectly.

Battlefield 1943 may not be the most extensive multiplayer shooter available but none the less at its price it reflects tremendous value as it provides one of the best multiplayer experiences around, without doubt a must play title for any shooter fan.