Back in the days before PSN and Xbox Live I spent most of my time either playing Counter-Strike or having  LAN parties with my friends, and at these parties one of the games that got the most play-time was Battlefield 1942. I remember that game being the epic of all epics – it created the vibe of a full-fledged war: battleships, tanks, airbuses, and fighter jets. *While war rages on the ground beneath fighter jets can engage in intense dog fights in the skies above. Battlefield 1942 was one of the games that really defined what the first person shooter genre was all about. When I heard that DICE we recreating this classic for PSN I became ecstatic. My only concern was whether they could bring this game to consoles without butchering the fundamentals that made Battlefield 1942 so great.

Battlefield 1943 is strictly an online game. There is no campaign or story mode but that is quite understandable since I believe most of us already know what the game is about – World War II. You have the option of either hosting your own or joining another game. There are three classic maps to choose from but only one game play mode – capture the flag. The maps are big enough and can easily  and comfortably accommodate up to 24 players at the same time.

Though this may not seem like a lot of content once you´ve actually started playing you will not care since the maps that are available are enough to suffice until,  globally (and I´m talking across platform), 43, 000, 000 kills have been counted – DICE will then unlock the Coral Sea map which will be a part of World Wide Community Challenge. That´s a heck of a lot of kills – so, what are you waiting for? Start fragging!

When it comes to entering the battlefield you will have three classes to choose from: rifleman, infantry, or scout. To make things more interesting, like the original, players can occupy vehicles such us fighter jets, jeeps, and tanks. The fighter jets feel kind of sluggish and slow but that could just be because I am used to playing modern flight simulators – if you take into consideration that these planes were built prior to World War II then it can be forgiven. Jeeps on the other-hand are a lot of fun to drive – it seems as someone at DICE is a drift racing fan – you can now go sideways around corners.

The control scheme to a game can definitely make or break it – fortunately for Battlefield 1943 the controls are definitely one of it,s pros. If you are familiar with Battlefield: Bad Company then you will be familiar with the controls. The first person shooter mechanics feel smooth and are precise – you will have no problem keeping your target in your cross-hair. Aiming is definitely a lot easier in this game than it was in Bad Company.

Battlefield 1943 has a lot going for it. So far it looks to be a promising game though, and it is a well known fact, no game is perfect. After spending a couple of hours battling it out on the field you will probably start to notice that something isn´t right – it´s the balance between the classes. The sniper rifles do the same amount of damage no matter how close you are to your target and it is normally takes two good shots to kill someone – one shot sniper kills are rare. The rifle also suffers here – you may need to unload several bullets into your foes chest before he drops dead. The safest class, and the only one that seems to be balanced right, is infantry. If DICE spent a little time in patching up these imbalances the gameplay would improve significantly.

I wasn’t expecting much in terms of graphics from a 500MB PSN/XBL game but what I got certainly surprised me. Battlefield 1943 sports high res textures, solid frame rate, decent draw distance, and a beautiful color scheme that sort of reminded me of Far Cry. It would be safe to say that Battlefield 1943 is one of the better looking network games to come out in recent history.

Playing Battlefield 1943 certainly reminded me of the good old days. DICE did an impressive job with bringing this one to consoles. Though there are a few vehicles and maps missing, Battlefield 1943 is still a great game that does live up to the reputation of the original. Besides, who knows what kind of great DLC they may introduce in the future. You are bound to spend hours and hours on end playing this game. There are only a handful of trophies/achievements which are easily unlocked but that is fine because the real achievements are in-game ones, like ranking or gaining perk badges. So, if you are a fan of first person shooters, or online games in general, definitely pick this game up – it is well worth it.

Score: 80