Battlefield 1943 - My Review

I love the game. Server problems aside, this game is going to keep me very entertained. I've been checking their forums and they claim to have doubled the server count the past two days and are still adding more, which is making getting into a game easier, but as of last night, it was still hard to get in with a squad.

The achievements are fairly easy, as I have all but one of the achievements already. They do have special stamps that pop up, similar to the patches and wildcards in Bad Company, so earning those will take some time and keep it fresh for me. It's kind of a bad thing with achievments, I'm more likely to play a game if there's a goal to work toward, and when I've got all the achements/unlocks, I really lose interest. Back to the game. It's a real value at 1200 MS points and looks and plays like a retail game.

Quite simply, this game is Bad Company in a WWII setting. There are some improvements over Bad Company, such as controls, matchmaking, and balancing of classes/vehicles. My clan, the Fossils, have pretty much been playing this game nonstop since it released on Wednesday. The game does use the destructibility from Bad Company, meaning you can knock over trees, fences, and walls of buildings. You also are able to drive different vehicles, such as jeeps, tanks, landing boats, and even planes! The planes in particular, are a blast.

I really like dogfights and crashed a half dozen times trying to land on the aircraft carrier and stalling out from trying to turn too sharply. A hint for flying planes: tap the throttle(LT). Basically, anytime you do a maneuver, you want to give it power, but laying off the throttle allows for tighter turns and rolls at the risk of stalling. The trick is to balance between no throttle and enough power to complete the maneuver.

Tanks and jeeps are fun and take a little bit of skill to do well in. The jeeps are super-fast and can run down enemies, which is a very satisfying kill. However, it is very easy to lose control and make it look like a bad crash from Burnout. Tanks are smaller than those found in Bad Company and can even be driven inside of buildings, which is a very sound strategy when trying to avoid rocket/bazooka attacks. They also have a chain gun and a gunner position for a second player to join in on. The boats are just landing boats, though they do have a machine gun if you need to take down another boat or a plane in a pinch.

There are three kits: Rifleman, Infantry, and Sniper. There is no medic in this game, as you auto-heal if you aren't hit by anything for a 20 seconds or so. I'm finding the Infantryman is the most well-balanced, coming with a submachine gun, grenades, a bazooka, and repair wrench. The Rifleman seems to be very popular, as the M1 rifle is pretty powerful and accurate at a distance. While the Infantry kit is good at close range, the Rifleman is equally effective at a distance and close up. They come with the rifle, grenades, grenade launcher, and a bayonet. I heard some complaints from clanmembers over the sniper, but personally found the sniper is not so bad, aside from the lack of grenades. They can drop multiple explosive charges, which makes ambushing a very effective strategy. I was headshotting before long, and that is a 1-shot kill, but if you miss, you better follow up quick before they heal up. The snipers also get swords for close combat, with the japanese soldier wielding a katana. Their complete loadout is a bolt action sniper rifle, demolitions charge, pistol, and sword.

The biggest thing that I was excited over was the ability to do private matches. Unfortunately, due to the server issues, we have yet to be able to start a game this way. You do have to start with at least 16 players, so there won't be any 2-man matches going on like this. If you don't have 16 players available, there's also an option to start with a 4-man squad. You can also change the squad in-game if you join solo and have a friend join in later.

All in all, very pleased with the improvements over Bad Company. Still want to see the private matches come through, but I understand the server issues, and it would appear that will be resolved soon. The good thing about the exceptional demand for this game is that we should have plenty of 2old2play people willing to play and we're more likely to see new map packs with all the people playing and shelling out $$ for it.

Final grade: A

Edit:  Forgot to mention, there is a 2old2play FOF gamertag for this game.  Send friend request to BF1943 2Old2Pla.