Delayed Reaction: Battlefield 1943
War…war is hell. I’m dropped onto the middle of an aircraft carrier just off of the shore. My objective is simple: capture a collection of enemy fortifications littered across a swath of land I’ve never seen before. My team scrambles across the deck of the carrier hoping to secure one a flight to the mainland. Arriving a few moments too late, I’m granted the ‘pleasure’ of watching both planes take off without me. My teammates fire off a few unfriendly shots at the planes before resigning themselves to the life rafts. I watch in horror as several boats take off with only one or two people in them. I scoff at the lack of teamwork as I jump into the last remaining life raft and head to shore. Before I know it, most of my team is spread out all over the map. Half of us are dead. The rest are lost and totally unsure of which camp to attack first. This is when it dawns on me: “Yup, it’s a ‘Battlefield’ game.”
While these issues are more a symptom of a lousy team than a lousy game, it’s hard not to feel like video game history is repeating itself. You see I’ve played a lot of 1942 in my time, enough to know a Battlefield game when I see one. But 1943 is a paradox. It’s a game not unlike it’s predecessor. It has similar maps, consolidated units, and a precise objective. It has been rebuilt from the ground up to feed a very different clientele from DICE’s PC patrons. And despite the ‘new’ game delivering some of the same gripes as the ‘old’ (as well as ones unique to 1943) it also does an admirable job of being as fun, and as addictive, as its predecessor. In fact, the game has gotten even faster than I remember.
Everything below you is the target
Savvy gamers will notice some changes right off the bat: fewer classes that fill dual roles, three classic maps that have been reduced in size to remove moments of isolated play, and fewer vehicles that re-spawn quicker to facilitate easier travel around the map. While the changes seem like the pitfalls of a reduced price tag, ($15 dollars on both PS3 and 360) DICE’s goal with this remake is abundantly clear: keep it fast, keep it frenetic, and keep it moving. Rounds rarely go beyond fifteen to twenty minutes, which ultimately seems like just the right length of time. Smaller maps result in battles occurring more frequently, removing the frustration of spawning into a completely empty section of the terrain. And fewer vehicle types that spawn more frequently means it’s a little easier to get from one side of the map to the other, for those few times you do spawn in alone and away from the firing line.
However, the streamlining is not all air strikes and rocket launchers (sorry…I couldn’t help myself). First off, the reduction in maps results in an increase of replay fatigue. The more times a map came up, the less inclined I was to play it (even on my first play-through). My frustration (and fatigue) multiplied each time the game insisted on loading the same map over and over and over again. After several sessions, it became really difficult to convince myself that I had not exploited and explored every nook and cranny this “new” game had to offer. Even additions like the air strike, auto-replenishing health and ammo, and destructible environments (lifted from BF: Bad Company) didn’t relieve this feeling. And for my money, the dog-fighting only “Air Superiority” map did little to abate my waning attention span.
Get your hands dirty, soldier!
Then there are the technical issues. Although I was fortunate enough to have missed the post-launch connection woes, 1943 has becomes a laggy, buggy mess. On more than one occasion I found myself tracking an enemy down the barrel of my gun only to have every shot I launched his way miss by a mile. Additionally, clipping issues and screen tearing occurs in the most unusual of places. For example, one moment I’m standing on an aircraft carrier looking up at the sky. The next, there is a gigantic brown texture parading through my screen, completely replacing the environment that previously inhabited the space. Call it what you will, I’ll call it lousy QA.
In the long run, Battlefield 1943 is successful at recreating the fun of 1942 in a very taught and competent package. Hiccups aside, it takes the awesome components of the PC games and replicates them for a whole new audience on a brand new platform. For the price, you can’t do much better. On the other hand, it’d be nice to know that more stuff is on the horizon for this game. 1943 could certainly benefit from a few more maps, classes, weapons, and vehicles. And for a game that’s this fun, not to mention inexpensive, loading it up with a nice chunk of DLC could extend 1943’s playability indefinitely. Either way, it’s certainly worth experiencing.
You’d be surprised how little power QA actually has over the final product. All QA can do is point and hope the issues get fixed.