Battlefield 1943 – hands-on

Megapublisher Electronic Arts held its GDC 2009 event last week filled with plenty of Battlefield goodness. With two Battlefield titles coming up, not only were we given a first look at their new sequelBattlefield: Bad Company 2, we were also given a little hands-on demo of developer DICE’s upcoming title Battlefield 1943, a strictly multiplayer downloadable FPS based on World War II.

We got a chance to play a never-before-seen map based on the island Iwo Jima, featuring various cliffs and shorelines on this small-scale terrain. While jeeps and tanks scatter the island, the surrounding body of water bares a massive naval ship equipped with boats and missile-dropping airplanes.

The game starts you off with the choice to pick one out of three classes: Rifleman for long-range shots, Infantry for close combat, and Scout for sniping and planting land mines. We found that the sniper rifle covers a really long range – we were able to nail an enemy at the completely opposite end of the map. The environment is also almost absolutely destructible. We witnessed trees, vehicles, and other barriers crumble at the explosions of grenades and bombs. You can even run your jeep through sandbags!

Battlefield 1943 runs on the Frostbite engine, which was also used in DICE’s original Battlefield: Bad Company game. The controls are smooth and nearly identical to Bad Company, and while the graphics aren’t, they’re definitely pretty good for a downloadable game.

With plenty of weapons and vehicles to choose from and destructible surroundings, this multiplayer shooter offers a different game each time. One minute you could be ducking for cover behind a wall, and the next minute that wall may be completely obliterated by the turrets of an airplane. Get ready to download Battlefield 1943 this summer on Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and PC.

Mar 31, 2009