Hop to it, soldier! This country needs you!
Battlefield 1943 offers the same classic experience of other battlefield games and makes many improvements to the overall structure of the game but the foundation is still the same. This game is stricktly multiplayer and really offers one main game mode called Conquest, and features a side mode called Air Superiority. In Conquest, you either start off on the american or japanese side and begin with class selection. In 1943, there are only three classes which in my opinion, is a overall smart choice. One class is Infantry. This class caries a sub machine gun and a rpg, he also has a wrench for reparing vehicles. Then theres Rifleman and Scout. Riflemen are good for mid ranged targets while scouts are good for long ranged and carry sticky tnt. After playing a bunch of matches you'll most likly stick to one class but will often have to change because of the current situation i.e two enemy tanks in your spawn so you could go infantry or scout. There are also many vechicles in the game such as landboats, fighters, bombers, tanks, and jeeps. Each provided many tatics that are essential to wining the game. In Conquest, both teams have bars at the top of the screen that represnt the amount of lives in the pot. Players can either kill, captures bases or a combination to get rid of the enemies lives. The more bases you have, the more the multiplier is and each kill is more effective to winning. Conquest is great and has been played over and over again in every battlefield game thus far, so it is quite repetitive but its such a great mode, it never fails to please. I would love to have more indepth modes like this but for 15$, im not complaining. Theres is also Air Superiority. Its essently team death match but in world war II aircrafts. I also found that the Japenese Zero has an overall better control over the american plane. But thats just me. There are some problems though. I find that theres a little bullet lag with the guns. When you shoot a guy and he running to cover you can shoot him at the last second and then you'll see him behind cover and you start reloding and then he dies. It's a little wierd but not to much of a problem. Im not going to get into the server issue since that was on launch and im writing this review a week after.
The visuals in Battlefield 1943 are really outstanding for what your paying for. If you played Bad Company, its very fimilar, and thats because it uses the same engine, frostbite. Frostbite provides the players with quite lavesing visuals and destructible enviroments. Thats right, you can blow stuff up. It doesn't work as well as Bad company but its still provieds players with more strategic options when raiding a enemy base. When flying above the ocean you can really appreciate the overall detail to each enviroment. So far there are only three maps and one bonus map. The three maps are located where real-life World War II battles took place. The maps are perfect size and feature lots of cool features. The bonus map is Coral sea, which can only be played in Air Superiority. Its and area in the pasific ocean with lots of mountains to sum it up. To some it could be the best map, or the worst. I found it to be a weaker map but its still fun none the less.
The audio is this game is butter to my ears. Bullets wizing by your head, the crashing thunder of 40 bombs be dropped, and the rusted engine of your hopefully reliable fighter plane. Its just so good! There are times when the audio will cut out but thats a minor glitch and I think it shouldn't be judged appon.
So all-in-all, this a fantastic shooter with high replay abillity. It has the feeling of a console game but the fact that you know your playing this off your HDD is just amazing. There are a few maps at the moment but it will keep you intrest for a long time. Hopefully down the road we see some downloadable content but the 15$ price tag reassures you've got alot for what you've paid for!