Battlefield 1943 Xbox Live Arcade Review

Battlefield 1943 is the downloadable arcade version of Battlefield 1942. Battlefield is legendary for the PC games such as Battlefield 1942, Battlefield 2, and most recently Battlefield Bad Company which found its way onto consoles as well. Battlefield 1943 is available on both the Xbox Live via Xbox Live marketplace and on the Playstation 3 via the Playstation Network. A PC version is suppose to be released sometime this fall. I've logged several hours on Battlefield 1943 on the Xbox 360 and here is my review of this game. Be sure to check out my Battlefield 1943 sniping guide.

You have a lot of freedom in Battlefield 1943 on the battlefield as you can choose from multiple vehicles to get around in and an open map. There are no boundaries on the map except for when you try going too far away from land. You have the option of choosing from boats, jeeps or tanks, or even airplanes. The planes are hard to control at first but once you master flying, they are very effective. There are only three classes to choose from which include a rifleman, which arms you with a rifle, rifle grenades and a bayonette. There's the engineer which has a machine gun, bazooka, grenades and you can repair any vehicle. And last there's the sniper, which you get a sniper rifle, pistol, and remote charges. There are only three maps to Battlefield 1943 plus one map that is strictly for dog fighting which is really fun.

Battlefield 1943 isn't like games like Call of Duty 4 where realism is everything. You won't be dropping guys in one to two hits unless you get a headshot. You have unlimited ammo in Battlefield 1943 and they boost your health a little bit to compensate. Sometimes bombs from airplanes and tank shells don't do the justice they should but the majority of the time it's pretty accurate. Sniping takes some practice and patience and after a while, it's actually pretty simple. You can even snipe people on the aircraft carriers when they spawn, but you won't be rewarded any points or kills for it. Look for my guide to effective sniping in Battlefield 1943.

Graphically Battlefield 1943 looks great. Visuals are real nice for an arcade download and the audio is just as nice. The water, land, trees, buildings, vehicles all have excellent detail and you will want an HDTV to appreciate it. The environments are destructible, meaning you can completely destroy houses, trees, bridges and more. There are glitches from time to time which can hinder the experience. Sometimes airplanes can randomly go in another direction like you were hit by something even if you saw nothing. A lot of times you will crash for this. Occasionally you won't get any sound with machine guns on vehicles or the AA guns. Sometimes debris will just be randomly stuck in the air. These are minor inconveniences which I think can be fixed by patching the game. The servers are also down from time to time which is annoying, more like at least two days a week for a period of time.

Overall, Battlefield 1943 is a great purchase if you enjoy the Battlefield games or like online shooters. You can have up to 24 players (12 vs. 12) in online matches. There's a tutorial so you can hone your skills as well before you dive in. One tip I will give, is take advantage of the air raid. Every map has one usually by the airfield and you can take out a lot of guys with it and really help your team. You guide three bombers (all at once) to a point on the map and drop your payload on unsuspecting enemies. You cannot die while in the air raid but your planes can be shot down.

Battlefield 1943 is available on the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live marketplace for 1200 Microsoft points, Playstation 3 via Playstation Network for $14.99 and coming soon to PC.