Ever since the release of the demo, Battlefield 1942 has been a game that I was really looking forward to. You had to be impressed by the amount of vehicles that you could drive and the nice size of the levels along with manning various offensive weapons. It really did do a great job simulating a war. Now that the final version is out, I have to say that it does some things great while it falls well short on other aspects.

Battlefield 1942 offers sixteen maps in four theaters of war. You can do battle in North Africa, South Asia Pacific, Western Europe, and Eastern Europe. Offering both single player and multiplayer aspects, Battlefield 1942 gives you two different map objectives and three different multiplayer modes. Most of the map objectives have you taking over control points. Once taken, you can spawn there after dying. Control points can be taken back and it’s this back and forth action that leads to some very intense battles. But controlling specific areas shouldn’t be the only objective in this game. A wider variety of goals are what Battlefield 1942 needs especially with the environment that the game takes place in.

At the start of each map you choose a class to play until you die. You get to choose from a medic, engineer, scout, assault, and anti-tank soldier. Each class is armed with a different weapon along with having different skills. Medics can heal, engineers can repair various objects, anti-tank carry rocket launchers to take out those heavy vehicles, assault are you basic grunts, and the scouts can snipe and do reconnaissance work. Once you perish, you can change class and spawn points for your next life. A spawn time counter gives you the indication of when you can pop into the game again.

Not only are there different classes but also there are different nations you can represent. Depending on the map you can choose from five armies: American, German, British, Russian and the Japanese. Each nation also has some specific vehicles that are unique to them. Battlefield 1942 features a plethora of vehicles to control. Besides tanks and jeeps you can take control of planes, boats, aircraft carriers, and even submarines. Each country’s vehicles have a distinct look so you can tell what kind of vehicle is being driven. They also have different characteristics as some tanks have more armor then others while some handle differently. Most vehicles allow you to carry a few extra soldiers with you to help you out. For example, a partner can man one of the tanks machine guns while you control the tank’s main gun while driving. For those big maps, you can haul a group of troops in a truck to the engagement site instead of hiking it on foot. Besides being able to drive the aircraft carrier, your allies can hop into various heavy guns on the ship itself to launch shells at the enemy. Some, of course, are launching points for airplanes. The ability to maneuver the ship around is just one of the many examples of how Battlefield 1942 tries to give you with as much to do as possible.
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