EA’s Battlefield: 1942 is one of the greatest games out today. Set in World War II, it allows players to spend hours re-fighting battles from Midway to Kursk.
Its large assortment of classes, planes, tanks, ships and vehicles of all sorts added to it. Admittedly, historical and physical accuracy is often sacrificed for playability or convenience, but Battlefield is a great game.
However, I fashion myself a history buff, especially when it comes to World War II vintage aircraft, but also about the conflict in general. So when a mod-a modification developed by the gaming community, like Counter Strike-promises to improve the historical accuracy of the game, I’ve got to try it out. Enter Forgotten Hope, which promises to do exactly that.
I downloaded the recent incomplete release of the mod, Forgotten Hope 0.5 and patched to the most current patch, the 0.5D patch. As the release number suggests, the mod is roughly half finished. Setup was extraordinarily long, but once the mod was up and running, I was not disappointed.
A quick overview of the Forgotten Hope Web site, www.fhmod.com, reveals that the mod aspires to be everything I could have wished for. Additions to the original Battlefield game include new classes, aircraft, ships and armor. The new classes include a light machine gunner class, which is very powerful but only accurate when prone. Also, a close support class has been added, basically replacing the medic class. Close support is armed with submachine guns including the exemplary Russian PPsH-possibly the best submachine gun of the war.
The new armor is also interesting. Most of the tanks I dealt with were simply modifications of ones already in the game. For instance, the Japanese Chai-Ha tank now has two hull gunners instead of the cupola gunner found it the original.
Also, the tanks are modeled much more closely on their historical counter parts. Don’t expect to survive flank shots from a Tiger in a Sherman. In fact, the more realistic models lead to most vehicles getting destroyed a lot more quickly than in Battlefield. The same applies to infantry. A .30-06 to the chest will kill you. I appreciate the realism, but the shorted lifespan can be really frustrating.
The game tends to address the balance issues created by the more diverse units by playing with the total numbers of tanks or aircraft. This results in battle with much less emphasis on infantry. However, the infantry is still important. In fact, many tanks can now easily be killed with a single bazooka round.
Many improvements have been made to the aircraft. Fighters often carry their historically correct armaments. For instance, the Japanese A6M Type Zero correctly mounts two 7.7mm machine guns and two 20mm cannons.
Also, major aircraft left out of Battlefield have been included. For instance, the Il-2 Sturmovik tank killer, which contributed greatly to Russia’s success over Germany, has been included. Other less-known but important or unique aircraft have been included as well, such as the Bolton-Paul Defiant, a fighter with no forward firing armament, only a four-gun turret in the rear.
While some aspects of the mod can be frustrating-specifically the lower durability of infantry and tanks and the reduced bomb carriage of the aircraft-the increased diversity and accuracy of the new vehicles and weapons is a good thing, even if you’re not picky about history. For instance, the American and British B-25 makes for an awesome, fun-to-fly team weapon. It carries two turrets, 10 bombs and forward firing armament as well. It’s an aircraft I would welcome into the original Battlefield: 1942 and one I thoroughly enjoy in this mod.
Forgotten Hope also includes new maps-three of which really caught my eye.
The Karelia map replays the often-ignored conflict between the Finns and the Russians, which began in the 1940 Winter War. It’s centered around trench warfare and does the subject great justice. Expect offense to be very difficult.
The Crete map recalls the German airborne invasion of Crete. Personally, it’s been on my Battlefield wish list since the game came out.
Sadly, I didn’t have a chance to evaluate it or the Atlantic map, based upon the voyage and sinking of the German battleship Bismark.
Some bugs do exist in the game.
The Midway map repeatedly booted me out of the game. Bot support needs improvement. Battlefield: 1942 bots-computer controlled players-have never been great, but the new mod tends to confuse them even more. For instance, the light machine gun bots have a bad habit of firing while standing, making their weapons ineffective. Given that the mod is still unfinished, these problems can be overlooked for now, but they need to be rectified by the final release.
For an incomplete mod, Forgotten Hope shows great promise. The improved historical accuracy of the mod is greatly satisfying, as is the greatly increased diversity of the vehicles. A variant on the mod where the Battlefield rules apply (more durable units, more bombs per airplane) would be welcome, but its not necessary. I’m looking forward to the complete, bug-free mod.