Battlefield 1942

Meta-ratings
Metacritic	89%

Battlefield 1942

Battlefield 1942 logo

Studio

DICE Sweden

Publisher

Electronic Arts

Erstveröffent-
lichung

Windows September 10, 2002 September 20, 2002 macOS June 28, 2004

Subject

Second World War

Game mode

Single player , multiplayer (Internet & LAN )

control

Mouse , keyboard , joystick (optional, better control in vehicles)

system advantages
preconditions

Windows 98/2000 / ME / XP / Vista / 7/8, Mac OS X 10.2.8
CPU : 500 MHz
RAM : 128 MB RAM
Graphics card : 32 MB RAM
Hard disk : 1.2 GB available space

medium

2 CDs

language

German

Current version

1.61b

Battlefield 1942 , shortly BF1942 or BF42, is a computer game by Digital Illusions CE ( DICE ) and is part of the ego or tactical shooter genre of. It is the first installment in the Battlefield series and takes place during the Second World War .

Game description

Battlefield 1942 is mainly a multiplayer game and is therefore mainly played on the Internet or local network . In one game round, two teams compete against each other and can fight for points in one of the four game modes Conquest , Capture-the-Flag , Deathmatch or Team Deathmatch. Battlefield 1942 also contains a single player mode , the maps of which are equipped with AI opponents can also be played with several human players at the same time, which is a popular variant for smaller LAN parties .

In the game, each participant takes on the role of a soldier on the German, Russian, American, Canadian, Japanese or British side. He fought in major battles and operations of World War II, with the maps based on the original locations. However, no claim to historical correctness is made. Up to 64 (with a modified server up to 128) participants in two teams can compete against each other on the sometimes quite large maps.

The player can choose between different types of characters, such as medic , scout / sniper , pioneer , ordinary infantryman or bazooka . These classes differ in terms of the weapons and equipment available. Depending on the scenario, all characters can also use an extensive fleet of vehicles (various tanks , aircraft , off-road vehicles , motorcycles , landing craft , amphibious vehicles , submarines , destroyers and even battleships and aircraft carriers , which should be operated simultaneously with several players for effective use) . The game primarily uses the historically used weapons. When add-on Secret Weapons of WWII also did not got to the widespread use are prototypes like a rocket pack, the waterfall rocket or a rocket plane type Bachem Ba 349 added.

Reception and game history classification

In spite of the game graphics that were no longer outstanding at the time, Battlefield 1942 was very well received by computer game magazines. Metacritic and GameRankings each determined 89% for the game (based on 44 and 27 individual ratings , respectively), while GameStar gave it the grade "very good" with 88%. While the single player mode was rated only average, the multiplayer mode with the number of up to 64 (later 128) players simultaneously acting on the same map, which was achieved for the first time in a shooter, earned a lot of praise. Due to the ease of use and the possibility of being able to survive in the multiplayer game with very different playing styles, the game was very popular in the Internet community and for a long time became one of the most played online shooters. Most recently, Battlefield 1942 was named one of the most trend-setting and still very popular games of the genre in 2012 in the Hall of Fame category of the game magazine GameStar because of its balanced mix of game elements and the very good game balance.

One of the strongest game communities to date , which produced numerous mods and additional cards, also contributed to the long-term success . Among other things, many small cards were developed that made the game attractive even for small and very small LAN parties . Since the game has few hardware requirements and can run on all common versions of the Windows , Mac OS and Linux operating systems without any problems, it is often played on spontaneous LAN sessions, some of which are equipped with weak laptops or netbooks .

To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Battlefield series, Battlefield 1942 could be obtained free of charge from Electronic Arts ' online platform Origin from November 5, 2012 until the online service GameSpy was discontinued on June 30, 2014 . Limitations to the original purchase version were that support for mods is not guaranteed and no technical support was offered. The interaction of players with the purchase version and the Origin version is only possible on specially modified servers. Nevertheless, this measure once again led to an enormous increase in the number of players on the online servers. Due to the discontinuation of GameSpy, the official master server of Battlefield 1942 was also shut down. Since then, online games have only been possible peer-to-peer , via servers maintained by the community or multiplayer software such as QTracker or 'Gameranger'.

Battlefield 1942 made it possible for the first time to re-enact very large battles (such as El Alamein) with a large number of human players and a wide variety of war equipment in a shooter. Many of the ideas and mechanisms introduced in the game, such as: B. the Conquest mode , were later taken up by the competing game series Call of Duty and Medal of Honor as well as many other first-person shooters and partially developed. The game tactics that resulted from the now unmanageable number of teams operating at the same time (today often called squads in player jargon ) have had a decisive influence on the design of future games.

Official cards

The following maps are included in Battlefield 1942 . Some of the maps were subsequently made available through patches.

Add-ons

The Road to Rome and Secret Weapons of WWII (World War 2) are expansions for the base game. These offer the player new maps and weapons, but were not very well received by the gaming community, as most mods have a much larger scope and are also free.

The Road to Rome logo

The add-on The Road to Rome , released on February 4, 2003, takes the player to six well-known battlefields through Italy . In addition to the already known armies (D, J, GB, USA, USSR) there are two more: France on the side of the Allies and Italy as an axis power, which gives the game more depth and variety. New weapons and vehicles are also added, such as B. Assault guns , fighter-bombers ( Bf 110 , Mosquito ) and anti-tank guns .

The scenario begins with the landing in Sicily and goes to the Goth line:

The Secret Weapons of WWII logo

The add-on Secret Weapons of WWII , released on September 5, 2003, gives the game a sci-fi character by integrating high-tech weapons into the game, some of which were actually built, some of which were never ready for use, and some just represent engineering dreams.

Rocket backpack (fictional)
Jet planes (in use; models in the game but only prototypes)
Waterfall anti-aircraft missile (under development)
Air-to-air missiles (in development)
Experimental tanks like the T28 / T95 Super Heavy Tank

In addition, there are actually deployed amphibious vehicles ( floating car , LVT ), which enable appropriate tactics. The maps for this are mainly located in and around Central Europe , with the exception of the attack on Agheila map, which was added with patch 1.6 :

Battlefield 1942 World War II Anthology

At the beginning of September 2004 Electronic Arts published a summary of the previously published Battlefield 1942 titles ( Battlefield 1942 and the add-ons The Road to Rome and Secret Weapons of WWII ) including all patches (at this time it was version 1.6) with the name Battlefield 1942 World War II Anthology .

Mods

A number of modifications add all kinds of scenarios to Battlefield 1942. From the Middle Ages to pirates in the Caribbean, the First and Second World Wars, as well as the Vietnam and Iraq wars, the spectrum extends to the science fiction world of Star Wars. Out of a total of well over a hundred announced mods, only fewer than forty came beyond the planning phase. There were really extensive publications of just under thirty modifications. Below is an alphabetical list with descriptions of the most popular, extensive, and most played mods.

Battlefield 1918

Latest version (May 19, 2011): 3.1

Battlefield 1918 , BF1918 for short , opens up a topic that has been neglected by game developers and gamers, the First World War . Around 100 true-to-original vehicles, weapons, aircraft and uniforms from this period transport the player to over 70 battlefields from the First World War. The aim is to achieve an optimal mix of fun and historical realism. The German Empire, France, Great Britain, Austria-Hungary, the USA, Russia, Italy, Belgium, Canada, Senegal, the Ottoman Empire and the ANZAC are currently integrated as playable nations . BF1918 has a multiplayer and a single player mode, the latter includes an extensive single player campaign.

Battlegroup42

Latest version (January 27, 2012): 1.8

Battlegroup42 , BG42 for short , is one of the oldest modifications for Battlefield 1942 and one of the last major mods that are still actively being developed.

Battlegroup42 retains the scenario of Battlefield 1942 , but the game base has been expanded enormously. In addition to the almost complete redesign of the existing content (graphics and sound), countless ships, vehicles and aircraft as well as stationary and handguns were created from scratch. Furthermore, new nations such as B. Australia, the Netherlands, Hungary and Vichy-France are integrated into the game with their own weapons and vehicle fleet, player models and authentic voice output. There are also a number of new statics and well over 100 new maps, most of them with AI support for single players.

Battlegroup42's AI surpasses the level of intelligence of the original version. In contrast to Forgotten Hope, Battlegroup42 doesn't change much of the basic game mechanics, so the mod plays as fast as the main game. However, Battlegroup42 pays a lot of attention to historical correctness, i. This means that on each card the player can only use the material (vehicles, handguns, etc.) that was actually available at the time.

Desert Combat

Latest version (February 7, 2004): 0.7

Desert Combat , DC for short , is a mod for Battlefield 1942 developed by Trauma Studios (bought by Digital Illusions CE in September 2004, but closed in June 2005) . This time America is the only one fighting Iraq. The gameplay is the same, except that the game is now set during the Second Gulf War . Weapons, aircraft and vehicles thus correspond to today's technologies. This mod is similar to the successor Battlefield 2 .

It is also possible to play with modern war equipment on the old scenes of the Second World War. The mod offers both a single and a multiplayer mode. Desert Combat won the Modification of the Year award in 2004.

Eve of Destruction

Latest version (September 1, 2012): 2.51

Eve of Destruction - The Indochina Vietnam Conflict , EoD for short , is a modification whose battles take place on the former battlefields of Laos , Cambodia and Vietnam , which were formerly colonized as French Indochina .

Own weapons, vehicles, maps and concepts have been used since the Battlefield 1942 variant. You can fight either on the side of the ARVN / US Army or the NVA / Vietcong in different jungle maps.

Forgotten Hope

Latest version (October 28, 2005): 0.7

Forgotten Hope , or FH for short , plays like the main game in World War II, but is much more realistic.

To achieve this, z. B. the damage model of the vehicles completely revised, so it is no longer possible for a T-34 to penetrate the front armor of a Tiger , the projectiles simply ricochet off. But even as an infantryman, the mod plays differently, the crosshairs are very imprecise when running and generally hectic movements, which is why you always have to stand still for a short time for targeted shooting. Just a few hits are enough to virtually kill the player, so you have to be a lot more careful than in the main game.

In terms of content, the mod offers over 250 vehicles, around 50 new maps and an all-round improved soundscape. Forgotten Hope is the most popular mod for Battlefield 1942 after Desert Combat . Development of this mod ended in 2005, as the team has since focused on Forgotten Hope 2 for Battlefield 2.

Forgotten Hope Secret Weapon (FHSW)

Latest version (September 19, 2014): 0.55

Forgotten Hope Secret Weapon , or FHSW for short , is a mod that requires the installation of Forgotten Hope and is based at least partially on the official add-on Secret Weapons of WWII . In the beginning it was only the aim to integrate rarely or never built vehicles into the game, but in the meantime many series-produced tanks and aircraft have also been included. Together with the transferred content from Forgotten Hope, the mod includes over 660 vehicles and around 130 maps.

Some noteworthy features of the mod are sophisticated lighting effects, a fully functional altimeter for aircraft, choice of ammunition for almost all guns, guns that can be detached and reconnected and, as a new nation, Hungary.

FHSW is a pure multiplayer mod from version 0.4.

Galactic Conquest

Latest version (May 25, 2005): 5.3

In Galactic Conquest , GC for short , the player fights in the Star Wars universe. The weapons and vehicles of the original game have been replaced by objects known from the corresponding films and games, as well as new vehicles. The maps either represent the planets known from the films or are fictional space maps.

Interstate '82

Latest version (August 5, 2004): 1.81

Interstate '82 , or IS82 for short , is a remake of the classic video game of the same name by Activision (see also Interstate '76 ). The mod essentially contains two types of maps:

Deathmatch cards, here the two parties fight against each other with machine guns, mortars and rocket-equipped sports cars in classic battlefield style. The landscape is mostly presented as a small town scenario.
Deathrace cards, here both parties try to be the first (or at all) to get to the destination of a crazy and very long race track that contains everything with loops, jumps and banked turns, but not: crash barriers.

Silent Heroes

Latest version (December 16, 2008): 1.2

Silent Heroes , SH for short , is set in 2008 and is about a war between Sweden and Norway. The weapons and vehicles have been brought up to date and the graphics are also better than in Battlefield 1942 .

Other mods

In addition to the above, there are more than twenty other more or less successful mods - for example Experience WW2, Finnwars, Norwegian Resistance, Western War, Battlefield 1861, Conflict in Somalia , to name just a few. For these mods there are usually only a few servers left on which they can be played.

While almost all mods change little in the Battlefield gameplay because of the limited engine, Mod Empires is an exception; this brings elements of development strategy into play.