Battlefield 1943 has finally overcome most of its earlier issues and has proved worth the wait.
This is FPS presented in its purest form. Very simple to pick up even for someone like myself whose experience in this genre is limited to weekly games of Left 4 Dead, some Counter Strike “Back in the Day” and the testing of Battlefield 1942: Road to Rome back in my EA days. Within a few rounds I was holding my own near the top of the leader boards and I’m even managing to get a few kills in before my kamikaze runs to the flag inevitably fail.
The reason this is such a fun title comes down to the simplicity. There are only three maps to choose from (excluding the Air Superiority map – more on which later) and each one uses the capture the flag mechanic. With three character classes available as either the Marine Corps or Japanese Imperial Army it is possible to change your tactics at each respawn. The Rifleman is good for mid range combat and melee, Infantry works best at close range and against tanks and the Scout is the resident sniper. I found it best to switch between all three, depending on how the round was going – favouring the Rifleman for attacking and the Scout for defence. The weapons in the game have unlimited ammunition so the player can concentrate on their next move without scrabbling around for bullets, although it is possible to expand your range of weaponry by picking up items dropped by fallen enemies to change your class.
There are several vehicles in the game, most of which will allow multiple players to travel – our favourite tactic was to have one person driving a jeep while the others caused chaos and destruction with mounted weaponry or by throwing grenades from the passenger seat. In fact our Doom Buggy runs were not only hilarious but also effective. There are also tanks, boats and planes. For some reason I’ve read in several places that vehicles can’t reverse – this is wrong. Vehicles can reverse just fine by pressing the Left Bumper. I would recommend playing the tutorial to anyone who needs a hand getting to grips with the controls.
After the player base reached the 43 million kill mark – they were rewarded with the Coral Sea map, an Air Superiority map featuring only airborne combat. Due to my inability to control planes I had to give this mode a miss.
At only 1200 MS Points and a download of under 600MB, Battlefield 1943 is a fantastic online multiplayer experience. It is graphically impressive for an Arcade game although it occasionally suffers from graphical glitches. The controls and game modes make it very accessible but I imagine that the limited number of maps available may put off some of the more hardcore players.