Customer Reviews

Battlefield: 1942

5 star:		(179)
4 star:		(39)
3 star:		(22)
2 star:		(19)
1 star:		(33)

 

 

My name is Christian Hunter, and I'm a complete gaming physco. I've played every popular first person shooter since Doom and Rise of the Triad (I spent collectively 2 years of my life playing Quake 2). Yes I'm sick, but you can probably trust my opinion on gaming...This one has been my favorite FPS for the past year.

There are 2 very important reasons you should buy this game:

1. It's an exceptional WWII FPS

Jaw dropping graphics (that don't crush the average players system), the ability to be infantry of various unique types, then jump in any one of numerous vehicles, then jump into any number of different aircraft. Totally flexible, insanely fun, very popular too (good for multiplayer gaming).

2. It's an even better modern-day-warfare FPS!

What you say! Yep, Battlefield 1942 has the most popular "mod" (game modification, meaning the game has been redesigned around a new theme, etc..) of 2003; Desert Combat. Desert Combat uses the same fantastic engine as 1942 but is set in modern time. Helicopter Gunships, SCUD missile launchers, A-10 Tank Killers dropping naughty explosive goodness!!!! Why am I writing this review, I should be playing!

Ok, once you own the game, you can go to www.desertcombat.com to download the free mod for it.

Hope this review was helpful.

Enjoy...!

The place...Europe and the Pacific...the backdrop...the world at war! In Battlefield 1942 the action of the Second World War comes to life. Take command of an infantry soldier and from their, build your own image of war! Jump into the seat of a Sherman, grab a jeep, hop into the cockpit of a Me-109, sail a battleship, or just remain as a soldier on foot wreaking havoc on the enemy! This game lets you do it all, the game play system makes even the most computer inept people masters at the game, no realism to deal with, jump out of your plane and parachute to the ground, commandeer an enemy tank and roll down the road plastering anything you see! Once your number is up...do it again!

After the debacle that was World War Two Online, many of the WW2 gamers fell away from the respected titles that followed, and Battlefield 1942 offers the same that WW2OL offered, but this time it doesn't intend on making the same mistake! There will be no pay-to-play requirement (no need for internet at all with the bot program!) The game gives a reliable system that will allow the player to achieve what they really play these games for in the first place...to have fun!

The game will get people back into World War 2 and will have them begging for more! Though the game is labeled "1942" it takes place at any given time during the war, with technology that would have existed not until 1944, but there is no need to look down on the game for such a small oversight! The battles that you fight in will be ones that any WW2 aficionado will recall with little trouble, Tobruk, Stalingrad, Normandy, Market Garden, Midway, Guam, and fictional Pacific and European battlefields to boot! The game also sports a single player campaign as a sort of introduction to how it works as well as recognizing the fine AI the game employs.

There is no ten minute walks to get in the fight, no time consuming loads after you die, no technical capture points systems, or realistic vehicle specifications. You play the game like any game, point and click, watch and enjoy! With the World War 2 backdrop, this game will reintroduce the word "war" to the gamers vocabulary with whole new meanings...I hope you will enjoy this game as much as I will!

This review is just based upon the demos (single and multiplayer).

Battlefield 1942 offers you the ability to run wild on the battlefield. The multiplayer demo offers a taste of each of the types of combat: Infantry, air, armor, sea. Infantry has several basic classes, and the other three categories offer a variety of vehicles to steal...er...use.

First off: The game looks and runs fantastic. I have a PIII-800 and it runs well. I know people with better machines, and they report it runs fantastic.

The first person shooter aspect runs fine. It isn't groundbreaking when compared to other contemperary FPSs, but it performs well.

The 'flight sim' aspect also runs fine. It seems geared more towards close air support, as high altitude winding air battles ain't happening...but I still feel like I'm 'flying' an aircraft. Strafing and bombing can't be described easily in words...dropping a bomb on an unsuspecting enemy ground troop was a priceless first in my gaming experience :)

The tank/armor/vehicle portion is STRONG. It isn't fancy, but it is fast and furious action, and provided (for me) the most nerve wracking and exciting moments of the game.

The sea aspect of the game scores a little lower than the rest. It just feels a little 'cheesy.' It is hardly a surface warfare game, but then again, it never claimed to be. There is ample opportunity to put sea power to use. The destroyer in the demo MP game made for an excellent bombardment platform. Once you get over the fact that a single man can control a destroyer/carrier, it is rather fun. However, most players tend to ditch the ships for tanks/planes, as they offer more exciting ways to smite your opponents :)

For sheer gameplay, BF1942 scores all 5 stars easily. I have wasted many hours online, every moment of which was exciting and fun. The gameplay is fast, balanced, and easy to jump right into. It also runs great online, and I played in games with a server ping up to about 170, and it was hardly noticable.

My *ONLY* negative comment on the game is the 'realism' claim. In order to make it a fast, furious and easy game to get into, EA had to (understandably) simplify things quite a bit. Clearly, and engineer can't repair a destroyer in 20 seconds (as I was able to do in the Demo). Aircraft in real life can't buzz airfields and pickup teammates on the fly. There are several other examples, none of which take away from the game at all, but are hardly realistic.
The other realism complaint is the weapons and vehicles inventory they are advertising on the webpage. There was a missed opportunity to provide more historically accurate weaponry...specifically, the Russians had plenty of potential weapons that aren't reflected in the game (i.e. the PPsH40, a superb SMG). The final game isn't out yet, so they may very well have added more specific weapons/vehicles (or do a patch later).

Overall, my minor complaints have nothing to do with the actual gameplay. Grab hold and hang on for a gameplaying experience you'll not soon forget!

Battlefield 1942 has seen extroardinary growth in its short time on the PC. Already, it's online numbers have passed up other popular WWII first-person shooters such as Medal of Honor. While it's nowhere close to Half-Life's online population yet, it probably resembles Half-Life's early life more so than other shooters. The game is quickly building a large custom mod community just like Half-Life did and popular themes such as modern desert combat that were never part of the original WWII theme have already built a life of their own. Before you get too excited, there is one important thing to know about this game - it's really only meant for online multiplayer. You can play the game offline by yourself but it's boring with a capital B. And if you truly want to experience the best maps and servers in BF1942, you'll need a high-speed connection such as DSL or cable. If you don't have this connection, don't even bother buying the game because it's not worth it. It doesn't have a typical single player campaign like most shooters, it's basically a platform for large maps and epic WWII shoot 'em outs. Epic as in 64+ player maps, all-out vehicle combat including fighter planes, battleships, submarines, infantry, tanks and jeeps ALL in the SAME battle! The game has never flowed as smooth as other online shooters for me, and I found more lag issues with BF1942 than other recent games, but I hear EA has been busy patching up most of the frequent problems. One unfortunate selling practice with EA though is that they tend to release plenty of expansions for any popular title. Honestly though, I don't know if you really miss that much sticking with the original BF1942. As I stated earlier, there is already a huge custom mod community for this game so even those with only the game itself can experience new maps and game formats. There are already plans for official Vietnam and Star Wars themed games that use the BF1942 engine. This game will be around for a while and if you enjoy the system of play, you'll definitely get your money's worth.

I've owned Battlfield 1942 for over a year now, so I've had a lot of experience with it and can say it truely is a good game. It has it's shortfalls, but usually you won't even notice them compared to this game's strengths. I'll list some of the shortfalls first, just to get them out of the way.

First of all, the original lack of variety in weapons was annoying. Being Japanese with an STG44 was rather unrealistic, especially at Wake Island (since the Japanese invasion of Wake took place roughly 2 years before the STG44 was created.) When I'm Japanese, I want to use Japanese equipment. Same with Russians. Eventually patches brought some variety which helped a lot. Either way, it really has very little impact on the game if any, it's just annoying.

The infantry combat also needs work. It's really awkward, I don't really know how to explain it. The bolt-action rifles are terrible. I was also displeased with the fact that it took them forever to add the M1 Garand, and even after they did only on Pacific maps and it sucks. However it's tolerable.

Connecting to multiplayer games needs work too. Navigating the menu is cumbersome and irritating at times. However once you get into a game you'll soon forget.

The things I like about this game surpass what I don't by far. Just the sheer possibilities of what you can do makes this game so adaptable. The possibility of opening up an attack on an enemy point by bombarding them with artillery and fighter bombers followed by an armored attack supported by infantry is just something you just can't get in most games (even though it never happens because players rarely want to act as a team.) It's fun to deflate the egos of arrogant players in tanks by crashing your jeep into them, killing them and yourself if you fail to bail out. Of course there are players who do the typical multiplayer behavior, like just take off in tanks, apcs or jeeps without offering anyone a ride (even if you ask for them to stop) park vehicles on runways, drive right into their own infantry, killing them without appologizing and those who contribute nothing to their team, just waiting for planes to respawn and kill any of their own teammates who might get the plane before them. Make no mistake, multiplayer games are usually full of immature, arrogant, self absorbed bigots who tell you how to play, yell at you for no reason, whine about any little thing and spew forth homophobic remarks. Even so, Battlefield 1942 is still a fun game even with these annoyances. Very few things are more rewarding than blowing up an enemy tank with your own panzerscreck or bazooka. Spectating skilled pilots can also be a great show.

My conclusion is Battlefield 1942 is an excellent game despite minor issues and the other players. It's very adaptable and is full of options, opportunities and fun. As a gamer I highly recommend it.

My brother and I bought this one day after playing it at a friends house. Let me tell you this, it is well worth your money.

Ok, let's get started!

Pros:

1) Awesome vehicles and weapons
2) Very detailed
3) Great A.I. skills- Easy is easy and hard is hard
4) Awesome choices-(Medic, Engineer, Anti-Tank, Assault, Sniper)
5) Great Music
6) You can play online for free!

Cons:

1) Play is sluggish on old computers
2) Could use a varied assorment of music
3) Map loading time is very slow
4) Needs more maps (Problen solved with "Road to Rome Expansion Pack")

As you can see, there are many pros and cons. But don't let the cons make it seem bad. It is the opposite. In the Battlefield 1942 game, i belive there are 16 maps (could be 12). The "Road to Rome" expansion pack gives you 8 more maps and 2 new armies. (Although I have not bought it yet.)

Overall, don't let all the bad reviews give you second thoughts. This game is well worth your money. I guarentee that. It has been rated #1 in many aspects of the game by a myriad of magazines and gamers like myself.

If you do decide to get this game, you won't regret it.

I purchased the game today. The game play is eerily similar to EA's other WWII shooter, Medal Of Honor: Allied Assault...and that's a good thing.

Installation was a snap - I experienced no problems getting right to the action. Even though I have an older system (PIII 933, 256MB RAM, 32MB GeForce2), the only lag I experienced was the game loading. After that, game play was "now, now, now."

I tried the single player portion of the game to begin with. It plays exactly the same as the multiplayer, which is really what this game's all about. Despite the full release going out only 24 hours ago (as of this writing), GameSpy's full of servers running the game, and at any given time today, there were at least 600 people playing.

If you have a decent machine (at least the recommended specs, and maybe slightly more) and a broadband internet connection, you'll enjoy this game. Don't hesitate - just buy it, and be prepared to stay up late learning how to infiltrate objectives without getting killed.

To start off, I think it's fair to say that I am not in a very good position to review this game because it didn't run well on my computer. However, performance issues still should be noted. I have a Pentium 3 800 Mhz with 256 MB of RAM and a Geforce 3. I guess it's not a gaming rig with a Geforce 4 Ti 4600 with an Athlon 2700+, but it still should be able to run Battlefield 1942 decently at the lowest detail levels. Unfortunately, it doesn't. My computer chugs along at 10-20 fps at the lowest settings. Even the mouse seems laggy in the menu. The 3 minute load time is also really annoying. And no, the 1.2 patch didn't help.

However, ignoring the performance issues, it's still a great game. In the past year, 3 notable World War II games have come out: Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Medal of Honor, and Battlefield 1942. Battlefield 1942 is definitely a step beyond RTCW and MOHAA. IMHO RTCW fell short on the number of multiplayer maps; it always seemed like I was playing the same maps over and over again. In addition, one of the checkpoint maps had phoney machine gun and bomb sounds that came from the same building everytime you passed by it. Yeah, the flamethrower was cool, but that was about it. MOHAA had a wide map selection, but the aging CS model of gameplay put me to sleep. On one map, the Allied forces need to plant a bomb on an Axis flak cannon. Sound familiar? It sounds just like CS. Battlefield 1942 is a radical departure from these two games in that it offers massive multiplayer maps with vehicles. It gives a different feel to the WWII gaming experience in a way I cannot describe. Simply put, it's just better than RTCW and MOHAA. However, I think the fact that there are 35 different vehicles overhypes the game. Yeah, it's nice to have different vehicles. But the 35 include tanks from all 5 sides, planes from all 5 sides, and cars from all 5 sides and everything pretty much has the same properties except that they look different.

Battlefield 1942 is also hyped to be everything Tribes 2 was supposed to be but wasn't. As a big Tribes 2 fan, I find that a bit offensive because Battlefield 1942 comes nowhere close to being what Tribes 2 should've been. Battlefield 1942 is much more slow paced than Tribes 2 and is no match for Tribes 2's heart-pounding action. I'm not saying that Battlefield is not a good game, I'm just saying that Battlefield 1942 has a different flavor. Battlefield 1942 can't be hyped to be everything Tribes 2 was supposed to be just because Tribes 2 crashed all the time and Battlefield 1942 doesn't and because both games have vehicles.

I just wish that I had a better computer to play Battlefield 1942 because it is just a great game. However, I think it's a bit overhyped.

This review is just based upon the demos (single and multiplayer).
Battlefield 1942 offers you the ability to run wild on the battlefield. The multiplayer demo offers a taste of each of the types of combat: Infantry, air, armor, sea. Infantry has several basic classes, and the other three categories offer a variety of vehicles to steal...er...use.

First off: The game looks and runs fantastic. I have a PIII-800 and it runs well. I know people with better machines, and they report it runs fantastic.

The first person shooter aspect runs fine. It isn't groundbreaking when compared to other contemperary FPSs, but it performs well.

The 'flight sim' aspect also runs fine. It seems geared more towards close air support, as high altitude winding air battles ain't happening...but I still feel like I'm 'flying' an aircraft. Strafing and bombing can't be described easily in words...dropping a bomb on an unsuspecting enemy ground troop was a priceless first in my gaming experience :)

The tank/armor/vehicle portion is STRONG. It isn't fancy, but it is fast and furious action, and provided (for me) the most nerve wracking and exciting moments of the game.

The sea aspect of the game scores a little lower than the rest. It just feels a little 'cheesy.' It is hardly a surface warfare game, but then again, it never claimed to be. There is ample opportunity to put sea power to use. The destroyer in the demo MP game made for an excellent bombardment platform. Once you get over the fact that a single man can control a destroyer/carrier, it is rather fun. However, most players tend to ditch the ships for tanks/planes, as they offer more exciting ways to smite your opponents :)

For sheer gameplay, BF1942 scores all 5 stars easily. I have wasted many hours online, every moment of which was exciting and fun. The gameplay is fast, balanced, and easy to jump right into. It also runs great online, and I played in games with a server ping up to about 170, and it was hardly noticable.

My *ONLY* negative comment on the game is the 'realism' claim. In order to make it a fast, furious and easy game to get into, EA had to (understandably) simplify things quite a bit. Clearly, and engineer can't repair a destroyer in 20 seconds (as I was able to do in the Demo). Aircraft in real life can't buzz airfields and pickup teammates on the fly. There are several other examples, none of which take away from the game at all, but are hardly realistic.
The other realism complaint is the weapons and vehicles inventory they are advertising on the webpage. There was a missed opportunity to provide more historically accurate weaponry...specifically, the Russians had plenty of potential weapons that aren't reflected in the game (i.e. the PPsH40, a superb SMG). The final game isn't out yet, so they may very well have added more specific weapons/vehicles (or do a patch later).

Overall, my minor complaints have nothing to do with the actual gameplay. Grab hold and hang on for a gameplaying experience you'll not soon forget!

That word is all I need to describe this game. The sheer beauty and the ability to do WHATEVER you want is incredible. I'll give you a brief sample of what I did in just ONE round.

1) I spawned as an engineer, and immediatley jumped into a Mustang and began to dive bomb the Jap aircraft carrier. Eventually, a Jap fighter got into a dogfight with me. We were flying right at each other and i'm thinking "OMG we're goign to crash!!!" and at the last second we both tilted to the right and flew RIGHT past each other. If you remember the "chicken" scene from Pearl Harbor it was EXACTLY like that. That goes down as the coolest thing I've ever done in a video game, period.

2) A guy in a battleship was doing very well with his point-defenses and kept shooting me down. So when I respawned I hopped in a jeep, drove to a coastal battery, and blew his precious battleship to bits :).

3) On my way back, a few of my men were tied down by a Jap tank, so being an engineer, I snuck up to the tank, placed a landmine, and blew it to hell.

4) I then took a sherman tank, and together with my fellow gunner, we proceeded to wreak havoc on Japanese ground troops, fun fun!

5) Using the Mustang, I flew over the Jap aircraft carrier, jumped out, parachuted on to it, ran up to the control room, and ran the thing aground, making it easy for my teammates to take out Japs respawning.

that's just a BIT of what i did (i don't have enough room for everythign) so do yourself a favor and DL the demo!!! (I think I won't be playing CS for quite a while now!)