"Why so many reviewers gave this none-other-than excellent game a 2 or 3 confounds me.This game is undoubtedly one the best FPS that has ever been made"

Battlefield 1942 was one of my 'forgotten' games for quite some time. After I bought it from my local electronics store, it was collecting dust for months as I always made myself press the Wraith (Starcraft) icon every time I decided to play. But, as always, old discs need to be cleaned- shelves need to be washed, and old games need to be tested again.

So I put the disc into my CD rewritable and hesitated if I should play Starcraft again or some other game that might waste my time to learn.

My mouse was already on that all-too-familiar Wraith icon when I made a sudden move to click the Battlefield 1942 icon instead. Perhaps after the superb World War II game Return to Castle Wolfenstein had given me a certain affinity to WW (World War) games.

THen I sat and played for the rest of the day. Battlefield 1942 is essentially a First Person Shooter, but you get to command so many vehicles and real WW2 planes that it is undoubtedly one of the most varied games in Gaming history. I will discuss a few aspects in the Gameplay section.

Gameplay: 8/10
This game is certainly meant for multi-player. The single player exists but is not exactly the strongest part of the game. The Artificial Intelligence was pretty poorly done- before you finish single player, you will get very annoyed. In single player, you basically attack bots while controlling an array of vehicles and planes.
The number of vehicles and other real World War II planes are impressive. In single player, you start out with the Allied Campaign, and the missions themselves were well done. Like I mentioned before, only the AI made the single player unplayable.

But the gameplay's strength lies mainly on the multi-player. In most games, you are part of a team and you are allowed to choose a certain job. If your team is cooperative, it will then proceed to expertly and strategically capture ''points'' on the map, with all the players cooperating. After you capture all the points, you win. There are many jobs you can choose- including the heavy machine gunner and medic- each of the jobs have their own challenges. The maps were very varied and each team must use the terrain to their advantage. Simply, the amount of strategy you must utilize is very high.

I can't describe the entire gameplay in this short review, but the number of things you can do is astounding. The number of vehicles and planes you can command is also impressive.

Graphics:9/10
The graphics were very well done, that is, if you have a top-of-the-line computer. The design and clarity of the planes and guns is truly amazing. I can only say that this game satisfies all that I had in mind. The faces are totally crisp and the terrain is very, very real. You can even notice the smallest details, such as the people blinking.

Sound:9/10
The sound is also terribly good. The voice acting, in general, was the best part of the sounds. You can easily distinguish the accents that many of the soldiers have. If they are German or Russian, or British- the voice acting was perfect. Sound effects were slightly less awe-inspiring. The sounds of the guns are weak and sometimes unrealistic. Other sound effects and music was all good.

Tilt:8/10
This game really is worth playing. I liked it, and i relish every aspect of it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/16/03, Updated 07/16/03