Format: Playstation 3 (PSN), Xbox 360 (XBLA)
Riding in the machine gunner’s seat of a Japanese tank, my driver spots a U.S. tank and fires at it. The Marine driver fires back and severely damages our tank. Another shot will destroy us and the Airfield will fall into U.S. control. I hop out of the gunner’s seat and ready my bazooka. As the U.S. tank destroys our tank, I fire a rocket to blow the Marine to kingdom come. I hope my driver jumped out or else we just lost another ticket. Welcome to Battlefield 1943.
After spending 41 minutes with the 30 trial for PS3 version of Battlefield 1943, I am going to say this is a must buy. The gameplay has been streamlined, but D.I.C.E. did not dumb it down. The game offers 3 classes, each with 2 unique weapons. The Rifleman has a rifle and rifle grenades, Infantry has a sub-machine gun and a bazooka and the Scout has a sniper rifle and a pistol. The Rifleman and Infantry also have grenade while the Scout has explosives with a detonator. If you get close enough to see the color of your opponent’s eyes, Rifleman and Scouts can stab with a bayonet and Infantry can clobber foes with a wrench. Infantry can also repair vehicles with his wrench.
I played four matches on Iwo Jima. The games were fast and fluid. Each team has to capture five flags on the map while eliminating the enemy team. Captured flags gives your team an additional place to spawn and more vehicles to drive. The map has jeeps, tanks, airplanes and boats that you can take from the aircraft carrier to the island. Anti-aircraft guns are dotted across the map. And the airfield has a station where a player can call in bombers to devastate the landscape.
Speaking of devastation, everything besides the ground and steel is destructible. Fences, trees and buildings explode, break and fall beautifully. Sand bags send plumes of dust into the air with a well placed grenade. The only odd addition to the game is exploding barrels…until you use them to flush out infantry hunkering down in a building.
D.I.C.E. has done a great job with reinventing a classic. Battlefield 1943 will become my new playground.
er910 see's robots. Reloading rocket launcher.