There is a definite love/hate relationship between me and the Battlefield series. When things are going well, it's incredible. When they're not... well let's just say I had some anger issues that have hopefully been worked out in the years since.
But that was with the later releases in the series. I didn't have a gaming PC when Battlefield made its mark in video gaming in 2002, so going back to the roots of a series I have previously thoroughly enjoyed (and equally hated) should be fun.
Battlefield 1942 takes us to the front lines of the Second World War, in theatres across the globe, from the streets of Europe to the skies of the Pacific. From the streets to the skies isn't just a throwaway line, either, as the game will allow you to fight on foot, from the back of a Jeep, inside a tank, or above all of that action, all at the same time, in the same game, with up to 64 people working in teams of 32.
Well, trying to...
Fun Times
A somewhat subdued, tease of an intro video starts Battlefield 1942. The grand scale of war is hinted at, but there's not a whole load of action taking place to entice you before the menu loads. You don't really get a sense of what 1942 is at this point, but you soon will.
The game is primarily a multiplayer affair, but a single-player campaign exists to put you in some bot matches for warmup, effectively, and that's where I started my game. Our first mission is to maintain control of this area, which we'll do by capturing specific points on the map and keeping a presence there to fend off any opposition troops from taking them back.
This is the birth of the series' Conquest mode. The more of the map your side controls, the more resources you'll have to play with, such as vehicle spawns, and the slower the amount of ticket drain your side will get. Tickets are respawns, if you will. The more you die, the more tickets you'll use, but if your ticket pool is reducing while everyone is still alive, it is because you're not controlling enough of the battlefield, and so you'll need to get out there and take over key locations. There's no way of getting new tickets in a game, so push out and dig in.
There are several classes to pick from, each coming with specific weapon load-outs and extra abilities. The Medic can heal people, the Engineer can fix vehicles, and so on. Choosing the right class for the right situation is more important than picking the one you like the most, though many maps will allow each class to at least do something.
Picking the all-round Assault class was probably not the best idea on such an open map, but I didn't know that until I flanked around the edge a little and took an objective from under the enemies' nose.
Facing up against a couple of tanks wasn't ideal, but I wasn't left in a hopeless situation. Tanks can seat two players, though the gunner is going to be poking his head out of the tank to fire his machine gun. Anyone can shoot the gunner, and so anyone can reduce the effectiveness of the tank.
Grenades can help too, though it takes a good few grenades to blow up a tank, so don't rely on them. You actually start with only a handful of ammunition, spread across your primary weapon, a sidearm and some grenades. There are places to resupply if you can find them, but take care about when and where you shoot.
Some locations have vehicle spawn points, and vehicles don't care who drives them. Even if you haven't claimed the position, a free empty vehicle is a free empty vehicle, and on maps as large as those of 1942, a vehicle is mighty handy.
Even if you end up destroying it within seconds. Hey, you deny the enemy the opportunity to use it against you. Smart move.
Speaking of moves, I moved over to the Anti-tank class for obvious reasons, and nothing changed except for my weapons and play style. The controls are what you'd expect, and it is only the differences in the tools you use which change things up. A rocket launcher instead of a rifle requires you to play it a little safer and make every shot count. If you're running around with other teammates, have them get the attention of the tank while you sneak around the back.
Though do be careful of the third person camera available in vehicles. While I found it tricky to aim, I found it easy to run away and reposition, should I find myself in a bad situation. Knowing when to run is just as important as knowing when to fight when you have limited tickets to work with as a team.
Draining the enemies ticket pool by capturing more locations resulted in a major victory. Having not played any Battlefield game in some years, I could see bits and pieces at play here in 1942.
Frustrations
Battlefield does maps of all sizes, but 1942 really cares about the big ones. The sense of scale is ridiculous at times. There could be the most intense firefight of all time happening somewhere, but unless that's where you are, you're going to be stuck somewhere else, probably doing something else.
While that is important - everyone plays their part so that the team comes out on top - it can result in a whole lot of nothing happening. If you've not got a vehicle to cruise around in, then its a whole lot of nothing happening while on foot, slowly running from one objective to the next, perhaps.
I suppose you could argue that it's an accurate depiction of war - sometimes you don't get to do anything - but it's not the best gameplay, so I didn't bother defending the objective and hopped into the first tank I saw. If the fight wasn't coming to me, I was going to go to it.
It wasn't long before I found where all the action was taking place. This was definitely the hotly contested area of the map and would be where I was going to focus my attention to, looking for cheap thrills.
Bullet drop was a concept I wasn't aware of in gaming until I played Battlefield 3, and you can see an insane amount of it when you get yourself into a long-range tank battle. There's less drop if you could somehow throw these shells. You know you've mastered the tank when you know how much drop your rounds have.
Further Fun Times
Taking a break from tanking - I was killed, let's be real - I spawned back at base, rather than out in the field, and there were a lot of planes back at base. Pilotable planes.
My first lesson taught me a lot - they're tricky to fly, but you could, in theory, snatch an objective from the enemy while flying around in a plane. I don't think I'll be trying that, though. There's always something you're good at in Battlefield, and for me, it wasn't flying. But they're equipped with machine guns and bombs, and you can definitely influence things from the ground up while flying around - just don't think you're immune to troops on that ground. Anti-air turrets are scattered around the maps, and they're not the only thing that'll take you out.
My aim was quite far off when it came to shooting planes out of the sky, but such Battlefield moments are possible in this game, as they are all the way through the series. The creativity of players knows no bounds, as explosives were strapped to jeeps and driven into the enemy, and anything was troop transport if you could successfully balance on some part of it, plane wings included.
1942 was a serious-looking game, but with ridiculous sound effects and funny physics, there was humour to be found all over the place. In a contest between a tank and a sandbag, bet on the sandbag...
The iconic Wake Island was my third map, but it did not go to plan. I was diligently defending my side of the island. Nobody came through it. On the other side, though, Japanese forces swamped the bases, resulting in a loss of control over half of the island. A head-on approach was suicide, so, using my smarts, I flanked around the side to try and take back control by myself.
Further Frustrations
And thus began the downward slope of Battlefield 1942 - having to put the team on my back to play the fucking objective. If something isn't working, what do you do? Do you keep trying the same thing over and over until it does, or do you analyse the situation, come up with an alternative solution, and try that instead?
With no squads and a bunch of bots, there was absolutely no teamwork taking place here. For my side to win, I would have to force the issue. Doing so on foot was close, but panicked shots resulted in my death. Attempt number two would be louder...
I hoped that would have gone a little further along the coast. Alas, we lost Wake Island.
I was disappointed because of the loss, sure, but mostly because I hadn't seen what Battlefield 1942 was capable of: 64 players, on foot, in vehicles, amid war. Not a fight in an arena, a war, with objectives and consequences.
Maxing out the bots, I jumped into a new map, this time as part of the Axis side, which has different weapons and vehicles but is mostly the same.
Look at all these red arrows. That's a lot of people. Well, bots. I do hope they can figure out that all of the objectives we need to get are on the other side of the river. We start with more tickets, but the Allies start with easier access to all four objectives. Let the war begin.
So swimming across the river to avoid all the gunfire worked, technically, but didn't exactly pay off. Not only did I fail to get an objective, but the Allies have got all four. They can spawn from any of them, but I get the impression they won't be respawning anytime soon. We've got an uphill battle, so what are my teammates doing?
Absolutely bloody nothing, forcing me to PTFO and try and get something to happen. The tank was empty. All you had to do was drive it over the bridge, shooting the opposition along the way. I practically parked it on the objective, but couldn't take it over. I got out to give myself a better look at the situation, but that may well have resulted in our tank being lost. I hope nobody steals it...
It was stolen, but the ticket drain had done its job by then. We had lost 480 tickets in the time it had taken the Allies to lose 89. That is why playing the fucking objective is so important. That is why teamwork, strategy, alternative approaches and more are needed. Brute force has its place. Dumb luck plays its part. Coming together to play as a team does so much more, and 1942's bots don't seem to be able to do that.
The function keys allow you to shout out important information or ask something of your teammates, but its such a fiddly and time-consuming system to use that I didn't bother. Maybe that was all I needed to turn things around. It'd only take two keypresses to convey what I wanted my team to know, but finding the right two often meant the moment had gone.
I could see what I liked from the Battlefield titles in 1942, but I could also see plenty of what I didn't.
Further Fun Times
But I am a sucker for punishment, so hopped into yet another map, this one much more infantry focused, to try my luck in the other classes. Oh, what fun it was. The scout could snipe practically everyone down the streets, the medic could machine gun from around corners... get in the right position and you're going to run out of ammo, there's just no other outcome. If you're on top, your opponents will have to work to get rid of you.
Final Word
If you're not on top, though, Battlefield 1942 can feel like a struggle, and games shouldn't be a struggle. Competitive games can lead to numerous outcomes, sure, but such one-sided affairs will inevitably lead to extreme reactions. Or at least they will if you take it too seriously.
That was what I was guilty of for Battlefield 3. It was one of my favourite titles. I played hours upon hours of that came. It was the first of its kind of game for me, and I was smart enough to know that while I wasn't going to be the best player in terms of killing the enemy, or skillfully piloting aircraft and helicopters, I was still going to be useful to the team if I just got stuck in with doing the job that was required. Fixing things, resupplying people, shouting out the location of a sniper, a tank, some mines...
Battlefield, including 1942, is a massive toybox for you to play around in. I took Battlefield 3 too seriously, and thoroughly enjoyed the highs and absolutely hated the lows. With the wonky physics and weird quirks of the original title, can I finally come around to liking Battlefield once more?
After playing this, I've realised that I missed playing games as part of a team. I even thought about looking into more modern Battlefield titles for a quick fix, but have currently decided against that. Instead, what I think I need to do is play 1942 with and against people.
That's the next step. That's how Battlefield should be played because that's when everything comes together and shines, or everything falls apart in a fiery mess. Bots aren't creative. Bots can't think outside of the box. Bots don't have Battlefield moments, and no game does Battlefield moments like Battlefield. Funny that.
So my next step is to see if 1942 still does online multiplayer, and the step after that, if it does, is to psyche myself up and jump in, because it is well worth playing, even with the negatives.
FORGET ABOUT THAT
So I updated my installation of Battlefield 1942 and there are online games still taking place to this day. I joined a server on the Midway map. Had to take a boat to the island, but couldn't get out of it before being shot. Parachuted down to the island, ran for cover, shot three bullets and got shot in the back.
"Well, this sucks. Let's try a different map."
Bitdefender didn't like Battlefield trying a different map, and blocked it as a perceived threat to the security of my computer. Good job, Bitdefender. That map would have sucked as well. Probably.
No, it wasn't the maps. I don't know what the map balance is like, to be fair. It is definitely a case of those in the know versus those who don't. I don't know how to play these new maps, I don't know how best to use these character classes, I don't even know how to safely get out of a boat. I'll enjoy 1942 for the ideas it spawned, and maybe play a few more bot matches, but I won't be getting my Battlefield fix from here, thank you very much.
No, your time has gone, and the gaming world has changed. Damn nice to have played you, though. I've never say never again, but don't expect too many more sessions.
Fun Facts
Mod support for the game was so huge that updates to popular mods were as highly anticipated as any official expansions were. Some of the notable mods included retheming the game to be set in the Star Wars universe, or updating the weapon models to set the game in the then-current Iraq War.
Battlefield 1942, developed by Digital Illusions CE, first released in 2002.
Version played: PC, 2002.