Battlefield 1942: Road to Rome

The look towards the top of Monte Cassino is terrifying when facing a German elite force

I take a deep breath and duck behind the little wall of stones again that covers me from the machine gun fire from the German machinegun nest nearby. On the other side of the wall a daunting hill – actually a small mountain - awaits me and me comrades. The Germans occupy Monte Cassino – and we need to pass countless machine gun nests and antitank cannons not to speak of the immensely powerful German tank hunter StuG III’s before we have taken this vital step to free Italy from German occupation. Will we make it? It’s up to me… and you.

Battlefield 1942: Road to Rome is the title of the first official expansion for last year’s best 3D multiplayer shooter. The expansion adds six new maps as well as new weapons and vehicles.

It's tank-hunting season

The German StuG III tank hunter really makes the life as an Allied tank commander tough.

The game uses the Allied campaign in Italy during World War II as background and recreates famous battles like Anzio and Monte Cassino. The game adds two new armed forces – the Italian Army and the Free French. Along with these armies you get new weapons like the Sten machinegun and new and exciting vehicles like the British Mosquito, the Italian M11-39 Carro Armato tank and the German’s exceptional tank hunter – the StuG III. That’s a turret less tank that can destroy nearly all vehicles with its powerful 75 mm canon in a matter of seconds.

However, while these vehicles alter the gameplay and bring new freshness, DICE and EA have carefully tried to avoid any balance issues. After many hours of play I feel assured that they have succeeded. Neither the Allied nor the Axis have automatically gained the upper hand, and no über-vehicles have emerged.

An uphill struggle

The new weapons and vehicles are a superb addition - like this Mosquito. I'm glad I'm not that soldier facing this classic Allied plane

The new scenarios are all very well designed and range from small frantic maps to large-scale battles. While all maps are just as good as the original game’s, there’s no doubt in my mind that the Monte Cassino map is one of the top-3 official maps. The Allied have to advance uphill, while the Germans man countless machinegun nests and antitank cannons. Without a coordinated effort made by tanks, mobile artillery and infantry the allied can’t hope to reach the top. I played this map over and over again and the gameplay really showed the impact of the new antitank cannons and vehicles.

And while six new maps are not a lot, they will without doubt satisfy BF1942 gamers and guarantee many hours of renewed interest in the game.

No major technical changes

The graphic still delivers great effects and sometimes bizare moments like this one

If you have already installed the 1.3 patch, you won’t experience any technical changes. However, if you haven’t played BF1942 since the first versions, you will notice a less resource-hungry game, stable servers and much faster load times. The games’ graphic engine hasn’t been improved and frankly didn’t need that - apart from the new Mediterranean setting including Italian architecture. With a patch 1.31 just around the corner BF1942 is a really well-polished game on the technical side after the first bug-plagued versions.

Attack boys! We still have lots of battles to win

Road to Rome doesn’t change one thing, though. Single-player is still nothing more than a little gimmick. BF1942 was and still is a pure multiplayer game. While the bots can be used as training and for exploring the expansion’s features, they do not offer you decent competitions. But that doesn’t really matter, and few 3D shooters will offer you a multiplayer experience that lasts longer than BF1942 and Road to Rome.

Road to Rome is like installing a new turbo in your good old Porsche – it makes the experience even sweeter. My only complaint is that some companies might have chosen to release an expansion like this as a free download. However, if you like the original, you won’t regret spending money to get this expansion.