The Battlefield series has been
popular for a while now, representing one of the most popular online shooter
franchises on PCs and on consoles. Battlefield 1943 represents a first for
DICE’s series, as it is the first title in the franchise to be released on Xbox
LIVE Arcade.
Battlefield 1943 is a strictly
online only approach to the franchise, capitalizing on its biggest strength,
namely putting you in a team of dozens of other players in a struggle for
spawnpoints. Battlefield 1943 is pretty barebones, but should be one that fans
of the series might want to check out.
For those unfamiliar with the
series, Battlefield 1943 takes the series’ staple Conquest mode, which has two
12-person sides fighting over and capturing a handful of spawn points on a large
map, and applies it to Xbox LIVE Arcade. Players keep fighting until one side
has exhausted their reserve soldiers or one side has captured all spawn points of
the map (whichever comes first).
Battlefield 1943 takes place in the
Pacific Theater during World War 2, pitting US Marine forces against the
Imperial Japanese Army. You’ll fight on three classic maps: Wake Island,
Guadalcanal, and Iwo Jima. While these maps are big and pretty solidly done,
there are only three of them to play on. On the plus side, as the game
progresses an additional map, Coral Sea, will be unlocked after the game’s
online community has scored 43 million total kills, which is an airborne-only
map that requires you to use planes in order to capture spawn points and take
down enemies.
The game gives you access to three
different classes: Infantryman, Rifleman, and Scout. Whichever one you choose is
what determines what weapons your character is loaded out with, which can
include submachine guns, sniper rifles, and so on. Additionally, you’ll be able
to utilize several vehicles, including tanks, trucks, jeeps, and planes in order
to best your opponents.
Visually, the game is quite
striking, and easily one of the best looking titles on the XBLA service. The
environments are quite large and sprawling, and boast some nice details. The
character and vehicle models are very nicely done and rival most disc-based
games, and the whole thing moves very smoothly with very little slowdown or lag.
The sound is quite good as well,
with explosions sounding quite well. As with other Battlefield titles, the game
lacks much in the way of music, instead devoting combat time to battlefield
ambience.
Battlefield 1943 is a solid shooter,
featuring the classic gameplay and tight controls that fans of the series have
come to know and love.
