War made easy

by ERIK LEIJON

There aren’t many online games out there that appeal to the limp-wristed gamer. Ever try going head-to-head against a horde of ravenous Halo 3 experts out for blood and cursing you a blue streak on those godforsaken headsets? Precisely my point: most online-specific titles are so finely tuned to the Counter-Strike-can-headshot-in-their-sleep crowd that shotgun-wielding part-time bloodlusters like myself tend to see the respawn screen more often than actual action.

The online download-only Battlefield 1943 (XBLA, PSN/EA, Dice) is no thinking man’s video game—it’s a simple premise that allows first-time soldiers and battle-tested experts to fire away on a level playing field. Since it’s a downloadable title, the WWII-based first-person shooter only has four maps and three classes of soldiers. It may not seem like a lot, but considering there is no tutorial, storyline or single-player mode to speak of (beyond a must-play airplane flying lesson), Battlefield 1943 is meant to have a short learning curve. Instead of spending hours getting a needless backstory about some stereotypical WWII vet named Sully, every moment of 1943 is spent on the battlefield.

After a few trial-and-error incidents, you’ll quickly learn the differences between the infantryman, rifleman and scout classes, and the game’s simple rock-paper-scissors strategic system. It took me a couple of rounds to figure out a soldier with a rocket launcher could take down my mighty tank, but soon enough, I was dishing out the hurt to unsuspecting rookies.

Battlefield 1943 is a glorious never-ending cycle of killing and plane, jeep and tank destruction. The developers even rewarded online XBox 360 and PlayStation 3 owners for racking up 43 million kills on each console (in five and eight days, respectively) with an additional map. There are plenty of online shooters out there, and most of them have better graphics, more complex gameplay and a greater array of things to do, but Battlefield 1943 is truly the first-person shooter for video game fans who don’t like the genre’s elitism and caps-lock-obsessed fanbase.

If you grew tired of receiving too many headshots in Halo 3, or couldn’t take the yelling in Gears of War, or were the black sheep of your Call of Duty team, Battlefield is a chance to learn the ins and outs of flanking, precision shooting and manic zig-zagging at a more manageable pace.

Early on, I was pulling up the rear in my platoon (you play as either the Americans or Japanese), often going entire games without racking up more than one or two kills. I was hopelessly inept when it came to capturing enemy bases (the game’s only specific mission), and most of my score points came while riding shotgun on a tank while a more talented player drove.

But it wasn’t like other FPS’s where I simply could never compete with the online community’s best: every so often in 1943, in the heat of battle, I would get a chance to whack an opponent in the back, or help out my squad in defending a newly acquired base. The frustration of constantly being killed by better gamers doesn’t exist here, because having the upper hand is mostly a matter of luck: you’ll be gunning down foot soldiers from a fighter jet, or you’ll be a solitary man taking down a tank with a rocket launcher.

Some players will be better than others but it won’t be like playing a bleary-eyed Counter-Strike ace with lightning quick reflexes and a laundry list of skills most mortals could never dream of possessing. In Battlefield 1943, the basics can be learned in an hour, so anyone can get online and help raise that death toll.