Battlefield 1942 (PC)
By Susie Vee

Just when you thought it was safe to come out of the foxhole, here’s one more slice of World War II goodness. We know that we’re not the main audience for war games, at least until they make a WAC simulator, but if you’re willing to give it a go, you’ll find BF1942 to be one of the most rewarding gaming experiences of the year.

Somewhere between massively multiplayer games and 8-person death matches, there has always been room for large-scale casual gaming. What BF1942 offers is a collection of large combat theaters, where up to 64 players can log on at once to fight the good fight.

The game has an excellent balance between reality and arcade aspects. One or two shots can kill you, many of the weapons and locations are very realistic and run-and-gun shooting is not nearly as effective as careful tactics and teamwork.

One the arcade side, there are a variety of vehicles that you can hop into and out of, including tanks, jeeps and planes. You can even parachute out of a plane and land in a tank! Not that we’ve ever been able to successfully do that, of course. Add aircraft carriers and gunships to the mix and you’ve got an insane amount of variety for a game like this.

Even better, the maps are absolutely huge, sometimes covering several square miles. They include historically accurate battlefields in Eastern Europe, Western Europe, North Africa and the Pacific. We were especially fond of the house-to-house fighting on the Berlin and Stalingrad levels.

There’s a single-player component as well, but it’s basically the same as the online version, just with bots – and not nearly as fun.

Most online games average around 32 players, more can lead to connection problems. You can issue and respond to basic commands (“Enemy armor spotted!” “Requesting re-enforcement!”), and if you’re lucky, you’ll end up on a server where people act rationally and use good tactics. If not, you’re toast.

Battlefield 1942 balances out the thorny re-spawning issue by giving each team a limited number of “tickets,” or lives. If you buy the farm, you cost the team a ticket. You can also lose tickets, or cause the other team to lose them, by fulfilling game objectives such as capturing strategic points.

Even though it sounds complicated, the game is easy to pick up. But like the old tag line for Othello, it may be a case of, “A minute to learn, a lifetime to master.” We’ve been playing for weeks, and while we’re pretty good at sniping and driving tanks, we haven’t even scratched the surface of flying planes and piloting boats.

If you’re looking for a mostly-multiplayer game that’s smarter and more deliberate than Unreal Tournament 2003, and you don’t mind the boys-only WWII vibe, than definitely enlist in the BF1942 army.

SCORE: 9.0