BattleField 1942 (PC) Classic Review

Games such as Call of Duty or Halo, owe their existence to BattleField 1942 for the most part. Perhaps it's just the online gaming aspects, but the fact of the matter is that when it comes to FPS online gaming, nothing could compare to BattleField 1942 at the time. The special thing about BattleField 1942 is the multiplayer feature; let's take a moment to talk about that.

Game Play

Imagine a game where you could play as a country involved in World War 2, but get to pick which class of soldier and any vehicle. Further more, imagine a game where you could play with up to 64 players, or a team of 32 players each. With BattleField 1942, a player could do any of those things while roaming around on massive maps.

All of the vehicles in this game are authentic to those used in World War 2. Bombers, tanks, jeeps, aircraft carriers, fighter planes, APC's, and even AA guns are all useable in the game. All three of the BattleField 1942 expansions add more weapons and vehicles for players to use, and even more maps. BattleField 1942 encouraged team game play, although that wasn't always how the game was played.

Among the five different classes, each has they're unique set of weapons. Players have to think carefully about strategies when they choose a class, for example a Scout or Medic would have little chance of destroying a tank and an Anti-Tank class could easily. Teams communicated by button commands that called out a wide variety of commands, however players later adapted Team Speak as the voice communication program of choice.

There are five different game play modes to BattleField 1942, Capture The Flag, Objective, Team Death Match, Co-Op, and Conquest. Each mode has it's own rules and ways to win, but the most interesting is probably Conquest, seeing as it was a concept created for this game. Think of it has a King Of The Hill type of game where you have to hold a base as long as possible, draining the enemy's reinforcements.

Sadly, the major downside of BattleField 1942 is the Single Player mode, which is horrible because of the AI characters of the game. Computer controlled characters in Single Player practically let you kill them. Of course they fire at you, but occasionally they will group up and lay on the ground allowing you to run them over or kill all of them with a grenade.

Thankfully the Multi-Player aspects of BattleField 1942 make up for that, and make almost any modern day first person shooter look like child's play. The sheer scale of the chaotic battles of this game makes it well worth the creation of many spin-offs, sequels, and so on.

Controls & Sound

Interestingly enough, the controls of BattleFIeld 1942 are also amazing. Keyboard buttons are easy shortcuts to different actions of the game, for example pressing the P button releases a player's parachute while falling through the sky. Even the sound effects of BattleField 1942 are great, you can actually tell the differences between gunfire far away, and when it's close, or even the difference between guns.

Conclusion

Overall, BattleField 1942 is an amazing game, which focuses on Multi-Player aspects to wow gamers. Both of its expansions are amazing and can be bought together for $9.99, which is simply amazing, especially considering that BattleField Vietnam is included. Click Here if you're interested in purchasing that from Amazon.com.

Final Score

5/5 - Perfect - (5 Being Perfect, 1 Being Horrible.)