Battlefield 1942 Q&A

Electronic Arts recently held a press event at its offices in Redwood City, Calif. It showcased its entire lineup of upcoming games for 2001 and early 2002 at the event...that's no less than 30 games for platforms that included the PC, the Xbox, the PlayStation 2, and the GameCube. The most surprising among all those games was arguably Digital Illusion's Battlefield 1942, a first-person shooter set during World War II that, until now, has taken a backseat to some of Electronic Arts' higher profile games. The game is being developed by the same team that worked on Codename Eagle, which was also set during the war. And unlike similarly themed shooters like Medal of Honor: Allied Assault and Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Battlefield 1942 is a decidedly lighthearted game that focuses on simply being fun rather than being realistic or historically accurate. It also has a robust multiplayer component, which, judging from our short demonstration, looked quite addictive. To learn more about the game, we sat down with its producer, Lars Gustavsson from Digital Illusions.

Battlefield 1942 will feature a host of World War II-based weapons and vehicles.

GameSpot: How long has this game been in development? Did you start work immediately after Codename Eagle?

Lars Gustavsson: The thoughts of creating the ultimate multiplayer gaming experience have been with us for a long time, even before we made Codename Eagle. After completing the Codename Eagle project, we felt that, however good Codename Eagle was, it still wasn't the ultimate experience. Therefore, while the rest of Refraction put the last touches on Codename Eagle, our designers sat down to sketch the outlines of a new game. Shortly thereafter, the rest of the team joined in and the creation of the Refractor 2 engine and Battlefield 1942 had begun. This was around Christmas 1999. Now Refraction is merged with DICE and the team is working hard to finish the game.

GS: At a recent press event, Electronics Arts was showing off Battlefield 1942's multiplayer component. Is there a single-player element to the game? How is it structured?

LG: There sure is a single-player element in the game, and it is not only there to prepare you for your multiplayer sessions, but also to give you an exciting experience even if you don't have an Internet connection.

There will be four different campaigns, which take you to North Africa, the Pacific, Western Europe, and Eastern Europe. Each of these will let you take part of some of the most famous battles during the whole war as a member of either the Axis or Allied forces. There will be more than a dozen missions for both sides. Each mission will contain one or more tasks for you to complete. Unlike many games, where your choice of actions is very limited, Battlefield gives you a goal to accomplish but doesn't tell you how to do it. Can you take the risk to close up on the village through the minefield, or would you rather try to call in the artillery and then grab a Sherman tank to go head-to-head with the well-dug-in Tiger tank?