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Battlefield 1942: Secret Weapons of WWII Hands-on Preview

We take to the field in the next expansion pack for Battlefield 1942.

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You might not have thought that grinding through the desert in the seat of an outdated battle tank would be all that much fun, but that was probably before last year's team-based first-person shooter Battlefield 1942 came around. The action-packed game let you play as a soldier in one of five different classes and slug it out on wide-open World War II battlefields using conventional weapons and a wide variety of vehicles, including tanks, armored transports, bombers, and even battleships. The original game was followed by an expansion pack, Road to Rome, which added a set of new, more-balanced maps that took place in and around Italy, as well as a variety of new vehicles, many of which required that two players operate them simultaneously. Digital Illusions and EA Games are now returning to the battlefield with Secret Weapons of WWII, a second expansion pack that will include a total of 16 new vehicles, 10 of which were used conventionally and the other six of which were top-secret, experimental weapons that, historically, saw little use in the Great War. However, these new vehicles will change Battlefield 1942's gameplay considerably.

Allied troops make a drop behind enemy lines.
Allied troops make a drop behind enemy lines.

We were graciously afforded the opportunity to try out the expansion's upcoming Hellendorn and Essen maps--the former will be a large, snowy outdoor map; the latter will be a medium-sized map on which the enemy bases will be located on either side of a river. While several of the maps in the Road to Rome expansion pack focused on huge outdoor areas with varying terrain heights, the maps in Secret Weapons will be based on top-secret European weapon factories. And like Road to Rome's maps, the maps in Secret Weapons will attempt to emphasize more-balanced skirmishes over long, pointless expanses of terrain that are no fun to walk across if your teammates have grabbed all the nearest vehicles.

But we were most interested in getting the scoop on the most obvious new addition to Battlefield 1942: the rocket pack--a personal booster rocket that your soldier straps onto his back. Battlefield 1942 has never been a highly realistic game--though it has a good physics and flight model for its various vehicles that's just realistic enough to be believable, the game has always been about fast-paced action, first and foremost. But a rocket pack? We had previously been able to try the item briefly at this year's E3, and it seemed like a very powerful item to have--perhaps a bit too powerful. Fortunately, it's been toned down considerably. The rocket pack is now a soldier "kit" (a pile of weapons and equipment that must be picked up and equipped before you can use it) that spawns in specific locations on certain of the new maps, and it comes saddled with the less-than-impressive MP40 submachine gun.

A lone foot soldier goes toe-to-toe...with an enemy plane.
A lone foot soldier goes toe-to-toe...with an enemy plane.

The rocket pack can't be used to fly for long periods of time; instead, it lets your soldier take huge flying leaps. But pack's fuel is depleted very quickly and replenishes slowly, so you have to make sure not to take leaps that are too huge--otherwise, you'll come crashing down to the ground and take severe falling damage. You can, however, use these huge leaps to hop up to the tops of buildings (that aren't normally accessible) and take potshots at enemy soldiers as they pass by. However, as the production team at EA explained, you'll want to drop that rocket pack the moment you get up there. That's because the rocket pack is powered by highly volatile fuels, so if it takes a hit while it's being worn, it'll burst into flames and take its user right along with it.

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Fortunately, the rocket pack won't be the only new addition that Secret Weapons of WWII will make to the original game. The expansion will also add plenty of new vehicles, and these won't just be for show. For instance, some of Secret Weapons' new vehicles will go a long way toward solving the old problem of covering ground quickly in later stages of a match, where your spawn points are far removed from the current action. In addition to the fast-moving jeep, you'll be able to commandeer an even faster two-passenger motorcycle (complete with a mounted machine gun on the sidecar), though the motorcycle has some pretty slippery handling, and slamming on the brakes while going full throttle can cause it to skid quite a ways. In addition, the expansion will also feature some new experimental aircraft, including the Goblin, a small, lightly armored ship whose only weapons are a pair of mounted machine guns. Though it's not the hardiest plane in the sky, the Goblin has incredible forward speed and can travel long distances quickly, and though it seems a bit difficult to steer when it's going at its top speed, it's still a good dogfighting ship in the hands of a skilled pilot. However, the even-faster experimental one-man Natter rocket plane, which launches from its own runway, isn't intended for maneuverability or lengthy trips--it's intended for a straight shot forward.

The Goblin doesn't just look pretty--it's one of the fastest planes in the sky.
The Goblin doesn't just look pretty--it's one of the fastest planes in the sky.

But Secret Weapons' new vehicles won't just let you travel quickly--some of them, just like the jetpack, may fundamentally change the way the game is played. For instance, the Hellendorn map featured an amphibious armored mobile transport, which can be used to carry a small squad of Allies across a river or down it. More importantly, some of the game's maps, like Essen, will include flying personnel transports, like the American C-47 and the German Horton-HO 229 Flying Wing, which essentially serve as mobile spawn points. As we saw, these slow-moving behemoths, which come lightly armed with door-mounted machine guns, are generally huge sitting ducks unless they're supported by air cover. However, if used by a skilled team that also consists of other fighter pilots that are smart enough to create a good diversion, these flying bases can sneak behind enemy lines, and in some cases, actually land there, like on the roof of one of the weapon factories in the Essen map, providing a base of operations for your buddies to respawn.

If you're a Battlefield 1942 veteran, you'll know by now that plenty of players have become extremely skilled at piloting the game's various planes and that enemy fighter pilots have become dangerous adversaries--a little too dangerous, in the opinions of some players. The development team seemed to take these concerns to heart, since Secret Weapons will have some devastating all-new antiair weapons, such as the Wasserfall missile launcher, which fires a gigantic rocket from out of a small control tower. Once you jump into the door, you'll be able to launch one of these powerful rockets and "steer" it from a first-person view, similar to the way the redeemer weapon works in Unreal Tournament. These missiles fly extremely fast, but they have a limited amount of fuel--once they run out, they'll drop out of the sky, so they can't be used all across the map. That's where Secret Weapons' new mobile turrets come into play; both the Allied and the Axis nations will have access to extremely powerful, mobile antiair artillery that will make short work of most lightly armored planes. We were able to see the German Flakplanzer in action--this powerful tank has a tall, upright turret mounted on top of it with four barrels that deliver a devastating payload of flak with a much higher rate of fire than a standard stationary turret.

This C-47 personnel transport won't look quite as good after it meets this Wasserfall missile.
This C-47 personnel transport won't look quite as good after it meets this Wasserfall missile.

Secret Weapons will even include some pretty impressive new hardware for grunts who prefer ground operations, such as the new "supertanks," including the massive German Sturmtiger, a gigantic and unwieldy tank that's mounted with nothing less than a naval cannon from a battleship and packs a tremendous punch. On foot, you will be able to access a total of seven new weapons, including the German scout's Gewehr 43 semiautomatic sniper rifle (which does not zoom out after firing) and the silenced Sten machine gun, as well as new throwing knives that can kill an enemy soldier in a single hit.

From what we've seen, Battlefield 1942's developers apparently weren't satisfied with tossing a few vehicles and maps into a box and selling it at retail as an expansion pack. Secret Weapons' upcoming additions may seem completely over the top, but whether you love or hate the idea of personal rocket packs and mobile spawn points, it's clear that the expansion's new items and vehicles will definitely add lots of brand-new gameplay and strategies to the original game. Secret Weapons of WWII is scheduled for release later this year.

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