Battlefield 1942

Platform: PC
Developer: Digital Illusions
Release: 2002

As this video demonstrates, it takes vehicles and infantry working together to succeed in Battlefield 1942

We're sure at least a few of you out there are surprised to see a game this recent appear in this TenSpot feature. After all, doesn't this World War II shooter from Digital Illusions CE owe a whole lot to other games, like Starsiege: Tribes, the team-based shooter from late, great developer Dynamix? Sure it does--even Digital Illusions has admitted this. And while Tribes featured a then-innovative emphasis on team play, unusual physics, and drivable vehicles, Battlefield 1942 brought everything together into a single game that had, and still has, plenty to offer, yet was, and still is, playable by anybody. Two years after the game's release, it's still going strong, thanks to its solid gameplay and community support.

Death from above took on a whole new meaning in Battlefield 1942.

Battlefield 1942 let you play as either an Axis or Allied soldier in WWII, equipped with weaponry modeled after the war's conventional armaments. It also had authentic WWII vehicles, including tanks, artillery, battleships, destroyers, and fighter planes. At a glance, it almost seemed like an inscrutable, hardcore military simulation for experts only, but it struck a careful balance between realism and fast-paced action that was punctuated by great-looking graphics and terrific variety. Sure, anyone could hop into a fighter plane, take off, and try to go on a bombing run, but only truly skilled pilots could make it past the gauntlet of enemy fighters and flak cannons on the ground.

Then again, even if you weren't an ace pilot, you could simply parachute out near a watchtower, climb the tower to pick off incoming enemy soldiers from a distance with a sniper rifle, then hop down into a tank and clean house. Battlefield 1942 offered incredible variety within the space of a single game, yet it also offered enough depth to challenge players to increase their skills on foot and in vehicles. Even though the game offered standard deathmatch and team deathmatch modes, its conquest mode (for which DICE drew inspiration from other team-based games before it) has easily become the most popular one available for it and has since been mimicked by more recent shooters.

The best games of Battlefield 1942 are played by skilled teams working as well-oiled machines, where scouts spot for air strikes while assault troops make frontal attacks with support from antitank and medic units. At its very best, Battlefield 1942 is a surprisingly challenging game that requires not only good aim and quick reflexes, but also good team skills and a good grasp of the team strategies required to capture and hold control points. At the same time, the best games of Battlefield 1942 also involve coordinated assaults from vehicle pilots skilled enough to make surgical air strikes and coordinated ground assaults against enemy control points. In fact, the game's continued popularity online can be attributed, in part, to its depth, variety, and accessibility.

Thanks to its excellent core gameplay and postlaunch support, Battlefield 1942 is cleared for takeoff as one of our top 10.

Of course, its popularity is also due to continued support after release, both from publisher EA and developer DICE, as well as from the fan community. EA and DICE have continually released new additions and maps for the game and have supplemented the game with new expansion packs, which, while not especially heavy on new map content, have added more-balanced vehicles and huge new areas with varied terrain. And yet, there are plenty of people who aren't playing the expansion packs, since they're too busy playing fan-created modifications like Desert Combat, a modern-day "total conversion" modification that takes place in the Gulf War. As a stand-alone game, Battlefield 1942 was an excellent game made better by retail expansion packs--and as a modifiable game supported by its loyal community, it's definitely one of our top 10 first-person shooters.