The original Battlefield 1942 was great, if you like that sort of thing. A cliched quote, granted, but it's true. It gave players a FPS interface, dropped them into large-scale, multiplayer WWII battles, and gave them command over all known authentic vehicles and weapons. It looked great, felt solid and featured some fantastic enemy AI. Which is all great, again, if you like that sort of thing. It's only problem was that, once you'd experienced the full joys of LAN based multiplayer bat ... more >>

The original Battlefield 1942 was great, if you like that sort of thing. A cliched quote, granted, but it's true. It gave players a FPS interface, dropped them into large-scale, multiplayer WWII battles, and gave them command over all known authentic vehicles and weapons. It looked great, felt solid and featured some fantastic enemy AI. Which is all great, again, if you like that sort of thing. It's only problem was that, once you'd experienced the full joys of LAN based multiplayer battles, the single-player experience lost its appeal. And not everyone likes that sort of thing.

Not wanting to change anything, the expansion pack Road to Rome doesn't. Developer Digital Illusions have again concentrated all their efforts on bringing us a fantastic multiplayer romp, giving players more of what they're used to, such as more maps, weapons, vehicles, and fighting forces. And rightly so.

The Road to Rome focuses exclusively on the largely under-publicised Italian and Sicilian campaigns of World War II. Players can choose to fight on six new maps including Operation Husky (Sicily) and the battles for Anzio and Monte Cassino. Each map comes with highly detailed environments such as Italian houses, Mediterranean trees and even the Monte Cassino Monestary.

As with the original game, controllable vehicles are at the heart of the Road to Rome experience. Eight new vehicles feature, in addition to the 30+ from the original title, including the German BF-110 and British Mosquito twin-engine fighter-bombers. Also appearing for the first time is an Italian torpedo boat, as well as British and German tanks and anti-tank guns.

Again it's the massive multiplayer aspect that makes the game and again up to 64 players can take part in the huge battles. So owners of broadband and/or gamers with access to a LAN are strongly advised to play this game. If you've never experienced the joys of trying to shoot your mate with a bazooka from over a mile away as he weaves about in a jeep, then that's something you definitely need to try. Whether you like that sort of thing or not.
<< less