BATTLEFIELD 1943. Harry's first review!

BATTLEFIELD 1943 REVIEW (Xbox 360)

 8/10


 Hi guys, it's Harry here, giving you a review of Battlefield 1943.

Last year, I pre-ordered Battlefield 3. about a week after it arrived, my Xbox broke, and it no longer recognized that there was a disk inside the damn thing. Since I had just bought Xbox Live for a year, I was determined not to waste it, and I went on the Xbox Live Arcade and purchased Battlefield 1943.

     This game only cost 1200 Microsoft points, and was worth every digital penny. It is an online only, class based first person shooter. Set in the Pacific Theater of World War 2, you play as either and American or Japanese soldier in the air, on the ground or at sea on 3 island maps. 2 of these maps are the scenes of famous historical battles, Iwo Jima, complete with Mount Suribachi and Guadalcanal.
The other map is a long time favourite map of the Battlefield series, Wake Island, which has appeared in a plethora of Battlefield games. It is also available on PS3.
     There is only one game type, which is a bit of a shame, but it is still a lot of fun to play. It plays out as a sort of hybrid of standard Team Deathmatch and domination. Each team starts on an aircraft carrier complete with planes, landing craft and AA guns. The two teams then speed across the water, which by the way looks amazing, and land on the vast island maps. Each island has 5 capture points, and it is your job to capture these for your team. When one team has 3 or more of these objectives, the enemy team's team health bar starts dropping. When this bar gets empty, you lose. You can also drop the health bar by killing enemy players. The capture points can also be spawned in on, as can squadmates.
     At the start of each match you chose from one of 3 classes. Infantry, armed with SMGs, rocket launchers, grenades and a spanner, which can be used to fix or sabotage vehicles, or alternatively used as a melee weapon to bludgeon someone to death with. Classy, right? The rifleman is armed with; you guessed it, a rifle, rifle grenades (noob tube), regular grenades, and a bayonet for close encounters.
And finally, scouts, who have snipers, that have effectively limitless range due to th very small bullet drop, satchel charges, a katana and a pistol. Scouts are my personal favourite as they can easily pick off infantry, and if you can sneak up on them, take out enemy armour with a well placed satchel charge. The only difference in classes between the American and Japanese are cosmetic. The guns look different, as do the attire of the soldiers themselves.
     There are also vehicles, like tanks, boats, planes, and even a bombing run at your disposal. There is also a mode call air superiority, which is a huge dogfight in the sky, where everyone gets a fighter. This is fun, but I recommend practicing flying before you attempt this, as the planes are somewhat tricky to fly. 
     I find this game somewhat cartoon-like, because it has a cartoony art style, a vibrant colour pallet and the soldiers will shout things like "Yeah, headshot!" and "Woohoo!" if they get a successful kill. The graphics are good for a downloadable title, and I particularly liked the water effects. Also, all of the buildings are destructible, and even the ground can be deformed to some extent. This really gives a sense of real, large scale war, and also cuts out the number of camping spots.
     Friend: "There is a camper in that building!"
     Me: *pulls out rocket launcher* "Which building?"
     However, this game is not perfect. It takes so long to spawn that I have been killed by someone, respawned at the next base, only to find that my previous killer has run all the way down to my base and shot me in the face before I could even take one step. This frustrated me heavily, but not as much as the controls. These are the worst bit of a game. If I asked you which button should be used to change weapon, most of you would say Y, or triangle on Playstation. Some of you would have said the directional pad. I bet none of you would have answered RB, or R1. Y is used for MELEE! I have no idea why these awful controls where used, but they are a major flaw. That said, you will eventually get used to them, but starting off I had no idea why on earth this terrible control scheme was used.
     Overall, I give this game 8/10. It is a lot of fun, with an interesting game style, large, destructible maps with diverse environments, and at a reasonable price. However, the controls are horrid, there are a few glitches, and it gets stale after a while. If you are looking for a cheap, online shooter, this is a good choice.