Sunday, 2 August 2009

Battlefield 1943 - Review

The Battlefield series of games have been around for years but this downloadable treat is a great example of how a developer can utilise the Playstation Network and X-Box live. The game is incredible value for £10.

It's not as good looking as Cod, using the Battlefield Bad Company engine, but there's a nice solid feel to the graphics. You have three classes to choose from, Infantryman (machine gun), Scout (sniper) or Rifleman (err has a rifle). All three have access to all the available vehicles from tanks to planes. This works so much better here than it does in Cod World at War with a good balance between staying on foot or motoring around the maps.

Each match is basically a game of Domination on one of three Japanese Islands set during World War Two. You either play as an American or Japanese soldier (a max of twelve on each team) and you battle to take control of as many positions as possible to gain access to the resources. It works brilliantly. Most games are relatively close affairs and as a cheap alternative to Cod this is a must have.


Because you are able to switch classes each time you re-spawn there's the opportunity to adapt your style of play on the fly... and you will die a lot. You'll get sniped from miles away, impaled on a bayonet, have a bomb drop on you from above, get run over by a tank, get shot out of the sky, and fall out of the sky forgetting to release the parachute. All enormous fun and it's rare that you feel out thought or out played. There's no camping here either thanks to the almost entirely destructible environments and the fact that everyone appears on your radar.

A first person shooter with a style all of it's own. It's not too hardcore, just great fun. Less serious than Cod easier to pick up and play than Killzone. My one real gripe would be that voice chat seems to work for about one game in ten. Which is a shame. But other than that, I'd definately recommend you buy it.

4/5

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