For whatever reason, action games based on World War II have become immeasurably popular in the last year. But while Medal of Honor and Return to Castle Wolfenstein are soaking up all the limelight today, closet tacticians know that the World War II setting has been around in PC gaming for decades, largely in the form of more serious war games that simulate land-, sea-, or air-based vehicular combat. So what happens when the accessibility of this new breed of first-person shooters is meshed with gameplay elements from classic flight, tank, and naval simulators? Battlefield 1942 happens. Currently in development at Digital Illusions in Sweden, Battlefield 1942 is an extremely accessible first-person shooter that takes place in all the major theatres of World War II and features 40 different playable wartime vehicles, including the Japanese Zero, the Russian T-34, and everything in between. We recently had the chance to try our hand at the latest build of Battlefield 1942, and despite the fact that the game is still several months away from completion, we walked away impressed with its current state and its potential to be on par with the likes of a Counter-Strike or Wolfenstein.

A scout provides cover fire for an anti-tank soldier.

The game is spread across all four of the major theatres of combat of World War II. Battlefield's 16 levels are split between the eastern front, North Africa, the Pacific, and Europe, each of which consists of four unique maps that are all based on actual battles. One of the levels in the eastern front, for example, is Kursk, home to one of the largest tank battles of the entire war. The North African campaign has locations like El Alamein and Tabrook; Wake Island, Midway, and Guadalcanal are three of the four battlefields you'll find in the Pacific theater; and the European levels include the Battle of the Bulge and Operation Market Garden. Of course, no World War II-themed shooter would be complete without its own Omaha map, right? The Omaha Beach level in Battlefield 1942 is significantly larger than its cousin in Medal of Honor or Beach Invasion in Wolfenstein. It's so big, in fact, that it has three different "tiers" that are almost levels onto themselves: the actual beach area, the machine gun nests and town above the beach, and the big gun emplacements beyond the cliff walls. There is even a pair of tanks loitering around the level that you'll have to contend with.

An engineer makes quick work of a pair of tanks.

Battlefield 1942 is primarily a multiplayer game, and as you'd expect, you'll choose to play as either an Axis or an Allied soldier. Each side has five different classes, or "kits," as they're called in the game. Despite their unique name, these kits--scout, assault, anti-tank, medic, and engineer--basically function like classes that you might be familiar with from other games, except for the fact that they all share the same movement speed. Each of these classes either has a unique ability or carries a unique weapon. The assault class, for example, is unique because he can carry the most grenades. The scout is the only class that carries a sniper rifle and has the ability to call indirect artillery onto any location on the map simply by using his binoculars--essentially, anyone manning an artillery unit will be able to see what the scout sees. The medic, naturally, can heal teammates, while the anti-tank class is the only soldier capable of carrying a rocket launcher. The last class, the engineer, can place land mines under and detpacks onto any vehicle in the game, and he also carries a monkey wrench that can fix any damaged vehicles.

Let's take a look at how these classes function in practice.