A Decent Download-Only Title That You'll Grow To Love Or Hate

Swedish developer DICE is best known for their popular multiplayer franchise, Battlefield. The series started out on the PC in everybody's favorite war, World War II, and continued to evolve over the years. It steadily grew to become one of the most popular franchises out there and eventually made it's way to other consoles with the release of Battlefield: Bad Company. This title brought the Frostbite engine into play, allowing players to demolish buildings and other structures as well as trees. Battlefield 1943 is, in essence, a continuation of everything in Bad Company that went right. Players coming off of that title to this one will find the transition to be a smooth and familiar one. However, those coming off of the PC games will find Battlefield 1943 to be a somewhat clunky experience.
 

Because 1943 is a download-only game, some will consider it to be a bit small. There are only four maps (all but one have been taken from previous games) and there are only three classes to choose from. Despite these shortcomings, 1943 is a fun game to play. The game uses the popular Conquest mode in which both teams traverse the map capturing flags and draining the other teams "tickets' (otherwise known as reinforcements). There are a number of different tools at your disposel, and you can attack your opponents in a number of different ways. Even though there are only three playable classes, most of the classes from previous games have been blended into them. The Rifleman uses a semi-automatic rifle and can shoot rifle grenades. The Infantry class uses submachine guns and has a rocket launcher for taking out vehicles and, ironically, a wrench for repairing them. Finally, the Scout is the sniper. He uses a sniper rifle, has a sword or a knife for melee, and can throw explosives along the road for blowing up vehicles.
 

You also have a number of vehicles to use, all which seem to handle much better than those in Bad Company. You can choose to ride in a jeep and quickly drive across the map (although jeeps are, for some reason, unable to drive up hills). You can hop in a nearby tank and bring death to the other team. Alternatively, you can also get in a plane and rain down devestation from the sky. The planes take some time to get used to, but after a while they are a blast to pilot. You use the machine guns to engage in dogfights with other players, and you can drop bombs on the ground. (These are, unfortunately, nearly useless because of their lack of splash damage). All of this occurs while other players attempt to capture flags and snipers pick off targets from distant hilltops. The battles you'll find yourself in can get particularly intense. You'll often see multiple players taking shots at each other while explosions rip up the environment around you. The feeling of desperation is always there. You'll get anxious when a sniper begins taking pot shots around you, and you'll curse under your breath as an enemy tank comes rolling up the hill. Firefights get extremely exciting when all three vehicles (exluding the boats) come into play. You could find yourself hiding behind the carcass of a recently destroyed tank as an enemy jeep rockets by and the flaming fuselage of a plane slams into the ground. The game also uses regenerating health and every player has unlimited ammo. The latter of which might turn off some, but you'll usually die before you get a chance to use more than 3 magazines. Each map also has a special bunker that you can enter. When you do, you become invincible while you control a squadron of bombers. As they fly towards the island, you can turn them until you are over your target, at which point you can drop a large payload of bombs. The air raids are so effective that players will almost always camp at the bunker to use it whenever it becomes available.
 

Visually, Battlefield 1943 is nearly identical to Bad Company. The environments look nice and detailed (although the water looks like plastic) and vehicles and weapons are impressive. Sadly, the character models are terrible. All of the soldiers on the batlefield have scrunched up faces and generally look goofy. Thanks to the excellent Frostbite engine, the bases on a map can be reduced to nothing but smoke and flames in a matter of minutes. Buildings can be completely destroyed in 1943, and it's always a heartbreaking moment when you arrive at a base that was once yours only to find it up in flames and everybody dead.
 
However, Battlefield 1943 is full of bugs. On the 360 version (not sure if this is true for the others) you'll often find large black and gray lines shooting across the maps. Sometimes it gets so bad that it obscures your vision. Audio bugs are present as well. Planes will randomly stop making noise all together, and the turrets on vehicles sometimes go silent. Connection issues continue to plague some players, although it isn't as bad as it was the first week the game was released. Despites these issues, Battlefield 1943 is a decent shooter that plays off of the pros of the previous game.