Battlefield 1943 is the latest offering in the Battlefield series from creators, DICE. It harks back to the original Battlefield, 1942, with each of its conquest maps coming from this game, albeit having been redesigned. The battle revolves around two teams, America and Japan. The maps in the game are based on real battle locations from WWII
1943 is an online only FPS for the PS3 (Reviewed), and XBOX 360, with a PC version to be released shortly. Like Battlefield: Bad Company, with which it shares DICE's very own Frostbite game engine, 1943 features 24 player battles. The Battlefield staple, Conquest, has three maps; while the all new Air Superiority mode has one map which was unlocked after 43 million kills were reached.
For a PSN/XBLA game, 1943 has pretty impressive visuals, visuals, and retains the majority of the destructibility from Bad Company. Game play has been streamlined with only 3 classes, Infantryman, Rifleman and Scout. The need for a medic or support kit has been removed by the introduction of regenerating health and unlimited ammo (although weapons must still be reloaded after a set amount of bullets are fired).
The reduction to three kits continues a trend in the series, and at first it got me worried. And while it would be nice to be able to unlock more weapons for each kit by ranking up, as in Bad Company, the weapons already in the game feel pretty good to use. My favourite kit is Sniper (Scout), It features a sniper rifle, pistol, explosives, and a knife or katana sword depending on team. The sniper rifle is a joy to use, as it is deadly accurate, and doesn't have any annoying (albeit more realistic) barrel wobble, meaning aiming is a cinch.
Of the three maps in the Conquest mode, Guadalcanal, a large hilly map ideal for sniping is my favourite, as it provides many great vantage points. However, if sniping isn't your thing, then you can also user fighter jets, tanks and jeeps. Although the map is large, it still provides many opportunities for close up combat. Of the other maps, Wake Island is probably the weakest, as its Horse-shoe shape means long travel times in order to cross the island, although there are some boats positioned around the island. Iwo Jima, is similar to Guadalcanal in its game play style, and is a classic 1942 map.
Air Superiority is a great addition to the game. There is only the one map for this mode, and it is huge. And it needs to be, after all 12 vs. 12 air combat would get a bit hectic on a normal map. Although Air Superiority is predominantly about the combat, in the centre of the map there is an area that can be captured, giving its holders 'Air Superiority'. Holding the area causes the other teams ticket's (amount of available re-spawns) to decrease faster.
The graphics and sound are amazing as far as downloadable games go, although the lack of Anti-aliasing is very noticeable, and can hinder long range combat. The sound is really outstanding, especially hearing the air raid siren going off. Normal TV speakers don't do the sound credit. Indeed surround sound is required to bring out its true potential, but it also helps to determine the position of an opponent.
Destruction remains pretty impressive, although after the release of Red Faction: Guerrilla, it does seem pretty amateurish. The entire buildings are now destructible (except for bunkers, scout towers and the base of the building), while other areas of destruction have been improved also. There is no longer the lag in destroying objects online as there was in Bad Company, and it now takes more than a simple swing of the knife to destroy a fence.
Pulling off incredible shots is great fun, and I have to agree with a fellow reviewer (ScoobyDrew) that a replay feature would be just awesome. But again this a downloadable game, and not a full AAA title.
There are a few trophies (or achievements for the 360), which will be achieved in standard play, and don't required going out of your way to get. The Gold Trophy is one of the easiest to achieve in any game, requiring only that the player be on the wining team once for each map. There are also in-game awards, which will be awarded for completing certain tasks, like killing 4 people in a round with the knife. There are 48 of these, some of which are easy to get, while others will take around 100 hours to get (score 10000 overall kills).
The game isn't without issues. On the scoreboard there is a section which displays the players rank, and unfortunately this often shows players as the incorrect rank (There are 50 ranks in the game, which require more and more points per level as the player progresses). The Veteran system, which allows players to show off the fact that they own other titles in the series still doesn't work with 1943, and the online stats (accessible via internet browser, and not in-game) aren't up and running yet. Apart from these things, all other issues are minor and don't really affect the game, although it would be nice of DICE to fix up these issues pretty quickly.
If DICE and EA continue to support this title with map packs and other game play tweaks, as well as perhaps even adding in new weapons and/or vehicles, then it has what it takes to kick off a download only, online only mini-shooter format. Having sold over 600,000 copies in its first week over the 360 and PS3, it is already a popular game.
In summing up, 1943 is Battlefield at its best. Big maps, big game play, and awesome music. The game is not perfect, but it does a good job of promoting the franchise to a wider audience. For those who have played 1942 (and in the case of Wake Island, Battlefield 2, and 2142), playing on these classic maps will bring back fond memories. Great sound, visuals and physics contribute towards making this the best PSN game that I've played to date.
EA: "As we close in on 15 years since the release of Battlefield 1943, and Bad Company™ 1 & 2, we are announcing that their journey is coming to an end."
This reminds me... I have ME on my PS3 hdd. Never really played it, but it was free.
And it still says nothing about being able to downloaded even when it's off the storefront, that's a huge ouchie for some who somehow still have it in their backlog...
Dont make it an issue when it's not. If you haven't played it in 15 years, chances are you'll never play it.
Online game servers shut off eventually all the time. Doesn’t matter if you have the disc or not. Even if you have the disc, it’ll be just paperweight unless the game lets you connect directly to a friend or LAN play.
Read the article bro. They are delisting the games, including mirrors edge which is an offline game. Online servers i can understand, not being able to buy/download the games anymore? Completely separate issue, especially seeing as how some these games had lengthy sp campaigns and not just mp.
Some brilliant minds created servers to keep these old online games alive. A lot of ps2 and ps3 games that had there servers shut down a long time ago have been restored by fans to keep it going. Warhawk, killzone 2, socom 2/ confrontation, resident evil outbreak series, etc.
The disc still exist. I don’t understand the issue. You guys are upset about that “all digital future” yet these games are not “digital only”. Hell digital only is a minority in the gaming world and so far we haven’t moved into it, the only digital only games are games as a service or online only games, which end up failing in the end.
This is no different than a store that stops selling old games, just go and buy a copy somewhere else. So which is it, you hate all digital or you like it? Make up your mind.
Talk about missing the point entirely. I'm not going to sit here and explain it to you, figure it out.
Talk about whining about something and not wanting to explain from an off handed sarcastic original comment.
I got the point just fine. You’re literally complaining about something that has an easy alternative to it.
@ManMarmalade
No I got it, it has to do with the push towards a future of all digital and reprocussions of losing games. Something I already stayed that hasn’t happened nor is it large enough right now to cause any issues as the games that are all digital are online only to begin with or make up the minority of games
So I’ll say it again, the disc still exists for these games that are over a decade old and can still be played easily. You guys are contradicting the whole “we don’t want a digital only future” crying when the dude I originally responded to stated:
“Read the article bro. They are delisting the games, including mirrors edge which is an offline game. Online servers i can understand, not being able to buy/download the games anymore? Completely separate issue, especially seeing as how some these games had lengthy sp campaigns and not just mp.“
So again, which is it? Do you hate all digital or do you want it?
On PC I don't think it's much of a problem but I'm sad to see BF43 being shut down. I haven't played it in a while since it's stuck on PS3, but i preferred it way more over BF3. It was the lack of invisible barriers which made it better for me.
Does anyone play the last BF anymore? I searched crossplay servers and it was 20 people the most on all the servers? Can never find a game
The last BC you mean? I was still able to find 10v10 on ps3 2 years ago on NA servers during the evenings. I have all the free and paid dlc installed, but there want any matches in the Vietnam dlc.
Carlos writes: "In terms of Battlefield, the past 10 years has seen the series go from strength to strength, and whilst there will be many who would argue that the hit and miss adventures of Battlefield: Hardline didn’t quite live up to the excitement that the series is so well known for, each and every entry has at least provided plenty to shout about. Should you look back far enough and manage to take your mind away from Battlefield: Bad Company 2, what you may well remember is a small, online-only multiplayer adventure that lit up the Xbox Live Arcade – Battlefield 1943."
Great little game but yet again, no offline bots so once the servers went, so did all its players. What a waste.
Game developers should - and can - trust the player to consume their entertainment while maintaining perspective.
