Battlemouth

Today we were graced with the presence of Battlefield 1943 on the XBLA, for about 15 dollars you can fight the fight against the scum that is the Imperial army or the loathsome Marines. Now some might be wondering, does the game actually feel at all similar to its predecessor, which is 1942? Well that’s where I come in, I’ve put in many hours into 1942 back in the day. And I must say… 1943 does a heck of a job for those who are itching for that battlefield multiplayer feel.

When you start the game you are immersed in what would be 1943, right from the get go the theme that originated from Battlefield 1942 blasts at you from your speakers. Now you could go to the options and start up a tutorial, which seems to basically tell you the general basics of the game, But.. like most games, the only way to actually get a feel for the game is to actually play the game. So quick starting a match would be your best bet. Choosing a soldier kit is easy and the descriptions sum them up fairly well. Do you like to shoot things from a far away safe distance? Choose the scout kit! How about some medium range grunt work? Choose the rifleman kit! How about those fellas that like to get right in on the action? Choose the infantry kit! Now each kit also comes with some form of explosives that are fairly efficient in taking out armored vehicles. Scouts get explosive packs that will destroy most armor with one blow. Rifleman get grenade launchers that pack a nice punch, but don’t do as much damage as other classes and their explosives. Infantry get bazookas that can destroy armor with one well placed shot! Like most of you know, Battlefield is all about capturing and defending flags, each team starts off on their own Carrier vessel, which holds 2 airplanes and many boats so you can rush on shore to capture some flags. The game plays fairly well, especially considering how I had my admonishes about the game. Now lets just summarize some of the things I noticed in my playthroughs both positive and negative.

Some of the positive aspects of the game that I thought were just swell are as follows! I noticed that when you are driving around in the jeep, while playing as the marines you can hear the 1943 theme playing on the radio, which I thought was pretty amusing. While playing as the Imperial army some other form of music plays while you are driving around smashing people to bits. The ambiance of the game makes your adrenaline rush, with your troops yelling all the time, Air raid sirens going off whenever there are planes nearby, the distant gunfire, and the news radio at the end of every match is a great addition to everything that’s going on. Tanks are great fun to drive, especially since they require little training. The shells do little damage to infantry, but your machine gun mows them down fairly quickly. One thing that I liked about the tanks is that they are far from godlike. One smart infantry can easily take down a tank if the timing is right. While generally I don’t care to blow apart the buildings, it is quite fun to destroy them when your enemy is bunched inside. They don’t get destroyed too easily I noticed, which is a good thing.. although sometimes (especially with explosive barrels nearby) large chunks can be blown out of walls.. which I thought was quite strange when my explosion that I caused was actually quite small. When buildings get exceptionally destroyed, they tend to catch on fire which actually is a great effect and looks very well rendered on the 360. All the vehicles in the game handle quite well, with the exception of airplanes, not that they aren’t spot on.. they just take some training to get used to. Bombing runs that you can call in are a blast to do, basically you enter a building and you call in 3 bombers, which you control (mainly slight turning so you can aim where you want to bomb) and bomb the heck out of an area. Its nice that you can call in bombers, and its also nice that they don’t break the game.. they aren’t TOO destructive, but in the right hands they could be. The biggest positive that this game could have is that the infinite ammo and auto healing doesn’t break the game, which I was afraid it was going to do. Although you get infinite ammo, your explosives will take 5 to 10 seconds to reload. The only time it becomes annoying is when a squad is massively grenading an area, which generally doesn’t happen too often. Overall the graphics are spot on, the only thing I noticed that was bad was minimal texture popping, mainly with airplane debris. Another thing that is a nice touch to the game is that there is a ranking system involved in the game.. even though it doesn’t necessarily add anything to the gameplay (no unlocks) it is quite nice to see you ranking up after you killed a few people.

Well, its time to get down to the nitty-gritty as some might say. Here is some things about the game that irked me, not enough to actually put down the game… but enough for me to be complaining about them on this here review. Although the game feels and plays well.. the controls can take a little time to get used to. I couldn’t count how many times I (and others) would melee or throw grenades instead of switching weapons. Speaking of grenades, your character seems to throw them like they would a pebble, they fly straight ahead, which is a good thing… until you notice that you threw the grenade right over the enemies head. If only there was a way that you could judge the distance better. The only thing that I found was disjointed in the game was the melee combat. There is no indication that you actually stabbed the person in front of you, other than the person just falling to the ground, which is strange because it could have been by anything other than you. If you end up driving a jeep anywhere in the game, especially in the more hilly levels.. you might notice that the jeep just stops while driving up a hill, which i found quite annoying. Especially when you are driving on a road that is going uphill, hopefully this is something they look into because 2 of the 3 levels in the game are quite hilly indeed. The only other thing that I was irked about is that the achievement list is lackluster at most. I was hoping to have a few harder achievements but anyone who plays the game for more than a few days will easily be able to snag every point the game has to offer.

So there you have it folks, my review for the ages! It was horrible.. wasn’t it?
Overall I say the game has way more positives than negatives, and hopefully EA will release a few patches to the game to fix a few things that feel a bit off. I would highly recommend this game to anyone who loved Battlefield 1942, hell anyone that enjoys playing FPS’s should at the very least give the game a try. At 15 dollars the game is a steal, for what is basically a full version multiplayer game, even if it only has 3 maps (with 1 more on the way) they are maps that you will not get sick of playing very easily.