' Battlefield 1942' is a 3D World War II first-person shooter (FPS) computer game developed by Swedish company Digital Illusions CE and published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows (2002) and Apple Macintosh (2004). The game can be played in singleplayer mode against computer game bots or in multiplayer mode against players on the Internet or in a Local Area Network. It is also a popular platform for mod developers, with a large number of released modifications that alter the gameplay and theme.
In-game, players assume the role of one of five classes of infantry: Scout, Assault, Anti-Tank, Medic, and Engineer. Players also have the ability to fly various World War II fighter aircraft and bombers, navigate capital ships, submarines and aircraft carriers, man coastal artillery defenses, drive tanks, APCs and jeeps, and take control of anti-aircraft guns and mounted machine guns.
Each battle takes place on one of several maps located in a variety of places and famous battlefields in all of the major theaters of World War II: the Pacific, European, North African, Eastern , and Italian Fronts. Combat is always fought between the Axis Powers and the Allies. The location determines which nation-specific armies are used (for example, on the Wake Island map, it is Japan versus the United States, while on the Battle of Britain map, it is Germany versus the United Kingdom). The maps in Battlefield 1942 are based on real battles and are somewhat realistically portrayed.
Gameplay
The gameplay of Battlefield 1942 generally has a more cooperative focus than previous games of this nature, as it is not only important to kill the opposition but to also hold certain "control points" around the map. Capturing control points allow the team to reinforce themselves by enabling players and vehicles to spawn in the certain area. Consequently, capturing and controlling control points also would reduce enemy reinforcements. Despite these setbacks, Battlefield 1942 was one of the first mainstream games to represent a dramatic shift in FPS game play mentality not only favoring individualism, but simultaneously encouraging teamwork and coordination.
The default game play mode, Conquest, centers on the capture and control of control points; once a team captures a control point, its members can respawn from it. When a team loses control of all their control points, they cannot respawn. And if no one is alive, the team with no "spawn" points loses.
Games are composed of rounds. A team wins the round when the other team runs out of tickets. A team loses tickets when its members are killed, but also when the other team holds a majority of the capture points on a map. Therefore, sometimes the winning team must hunt down straggling or hiding enemy forces at the end of a round.
Spawn tickets also play a vital role in the success of both teams. Every time a player on a team dies and respawns, his team loses one ticket. Every team starts each round with between 150 and 300 tickets, depending on the team's role (e.g., defense). Teams also gradually lose tickets depending on how many spawn points they control. As a general rule, the fewer spawn points controlled by a team, the more tickets they lose. For a team of 32 on a 64 player map, with 150 tickets, this means a little less than 5 re spawns or deaths on average for every player if they hold their starting spawn points.
Roles
The player can choose to play as either the Allied powers or the Axis powers. The Allies consists of the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, Canada, and the Free French Forces, while the Axis consists of Germany, Japan, and Italy. Regardless of which nation is chosen by the player, there are five different roles of infantry that the player can assume the role of: Scout, Assault, Medic, Anti-tank, and Engineer.
Each role has its own strength and weakness. For example, the scout role has long-range surveillance, high stopping power and the ability to provide spotting for artillery shelling against an enemy position (unlike other games with a similar feature, other player characters must also supply the artillery fire); however, the sniper rifle is not efficient in close-quarter combat and players frequently treat this role as just a plain sniper role by not providing spotting for artillery. Assault is the standard role, and provides both aggressive firepower and some ability to combat vehicles or aircraft. The Anti-tank role specializes against vehicles and tanks, but is almost useless against enemy infantry. The Medic role has the ability to heal (himself and other players), but his sub-machine gun has less stopping power than an assault rifle (though it is typically more accurate, and thus commonly used). The Engineer has the ability to repair damaged vehicles and stationary weapons, and they also have the ability to deploy explosives, which are moderately effective against both enemy infantry and vehicles, and land mines, which completely destroy enemy vehicles. Its bolt-action rifle is a balance between the slow firing sniper rifle and the submachine gun.
Censorship
Due to the restriction on use of the swastika in Germany, a patch was released that replaced the WWII era Reichskriegsflagge with the Imperial and 1933-35 flag instead.
Development
Battlefield 1942 was built on the formula of the less successful Codename Eagle computer game, set in an alternate history World War I. It featured single and multiplayer modes. The earlier Refractor 1 engine had more arcade-style physics and a less realistic focus than its successor, Refractor 2, which was used in BF1942 .
A Macintosh-compatible version of BF1942 was also made and released by Aspyr Media in mid-2004.
An Xbox version of the game was also announced in early 2001 but was canceled almost two years later so Electronic Arts could more closely work on an expansion pack for the PC.
Critical reception
On the review aggregator Game Rankings, the game has an average score of 89% based on 46 reviews. On Metacritic, the game has an average score of 89 out of 100, based on 27 reviews.
Scott Osborne of GameSpot gave the game a rating of 8.8 out of 10, calling it a "comic book version of WWII."
Steve Butts of IGN gave the game a rating of 9.3 out of 10, praising the multiplayer, but saying "the single player game leaves much to be desired."
Expansion packs
The creators of Battlefield 1942 have released expansion packs entitled Battlefield 1942: The Road To Rome (which adds the Italian Front) and Battlefield 1942: Secret Weapons Of WWII . Both add various new gameplay modes and design concepts.
The Road To Rome
The Road To Rome features a focus on the Italian battles and allows players to play as the Free French forces or as the Italian Army.
Secret Weapons of WWII
Secret Weapons Of WWII focuses on prototype, experimental, and rarely used weapons and vehicles (Such as jet packs), as well as weapons not featured in the previous games. It adds downloadable patches, fixes bugs in the game, and it adds some extra content (such as the aforementioned Battle of Britain map).
Sequel
On 8 July 2009, Battlefield 1943 was released for the Xbox 360 via Xbox LIVE Arcade, and the Playstation 3 version was released via the Playstation Network two days after on 10 July.
Collections
Battlefield 1942 Deluxe Edition includes original game and Battlefield 1942: The Road To Rome . Battlefield 1942: World War II Anthology added Battlefield 1942: Secret Weapons of WWII expansion pack. Battlefield 1942: The Complete Collection added Battlefield Vietnam and Battlefield Vietnam WWII Mod.
Milestones
- July 19, 2002 - Battlefield 1942 single-player demo released (Tobruk map)
- August 16, 2002 - Battlefield 1942 multiplayer demo released (Wake Island map)
- September 10, 2002 - Battlefield 1942 released
- 2003 - 6th annual Interactive Achievement Awards, BF1942 receives awards for:
- February 2, 2003 - Road to Rome released
- August 8, 2003 - Battlefield 1942 Secret Weapons demo released (Hellendorn map)
- September 4, 2003 - Secret Weapons released
- October 10, 2003 - 2 million copies sold
- March 15, 2004 - 3 million copies sold, BF1942's sequel, Battlefield Vietnam released
- June 28, 2004 - Aspyr begins shipping the Macintosh Version of Battlefield 1942
See also
- List of Battlefield 1942 mods
References
- ^ "Battlefield 1942 System Requirements". About.com . http://compactiongames.about.com/cs/worldwariigames/p/bf1942_sysreq.htm . Retrieved 2008-11-27 . ...
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