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Battlefield: 1942
Work In Progress This article is still under construction. It may contain factual errors. See Talk:Battlefield: 1942 for current discussions. Content is subject to change. |
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The first game in the hugely successful Battlefield series, Battlefield: 1942 was released in 2002 for the PC, with two expansion packs (The Road to Rome and Secret Weapons of WWII) following later.
The base game follows the main theaters of World War II, focusing primarily on the Americans, British, and Soviet forces (patches later added a mission for Canada as well) facing off against the Axis powers, Germany and Japan. The first DLC, Road to Rome focuses heavily on the Italian campaign and introduces the forces of the Free French and Fascist Italy. Secret Weapons of World War II was the final expansion, and is a more fictionalized take on the war, with the British and Americans facing off against Nazi Germany, with both sides using increasingly more outlandish weapons. The game and both DLCs, alongside the Battlefield Vietnam: Redux were later made available in a box set, titled Battlefield Anthology.
The following weapons can be seen in Battlefield: 1942 and its two expansions:
Overview
Weapons in Battlefield: 1942 are class-locked and faction-locked. The equipment for a class is known as a kit, and there is no way to change individual weapons in the kit . A kit is dropped upon death, and other players can pick up their kit. There are five classes in total:
- Assault: Uses LMGs and automatic rifles.
- Engineer: Uses battle rifles (mostly bolt-action, some semi automatic rifles).
- Anti-Tank: Uses an anti-tank launcher.
- Medic: Uses submachine guns.
- Scout: Uses sniper rifles (all bolt action, and all come with scopes).
Between the factions, many of the weapons are also statistically identical. Some weapons for some reason feature left-handed bolts.
Handguns
Unlike many modern first person shooters, Battlefield treats handguns as a part of a player's "kit" and therefore switching to another faction's kit (i.e., playing as the Red Army, killing a German sniper, and stealing his rifle) will result in changing handguns. This is, in reality, purely cosmetic, as both sidearms are functionally the same.
Walther P38
The Walther P38 is the standard pistol for all Axis forces, including the German, Italian, and Japanese forces despite Japan never issuing it to their forces. The main sidearms for the Italians and Japanese were the Beretta M1935 and Nambu Type 14 respectively. Nevertheles, the in-game Walther has black grips and a silver finish.
M1911
The M1911 (just referred as "Colt") is the standard sidearm for all Allied forces. Its portrayal is highly inaccurate, shown as a double-action handgun, and firing from an eight round magazine. While this would be possible when reloading with a round in the chamber, the player pulls back the slide whenever a reload is initiated. This is because it is just a reskin of the game's other handgun, inflicting the same damage, having the same capacity and rate of fire, and being just as accurate.
The pistol is the standard handgun of all American military forces, but is also seen in the hands of Commonwealth, Soviet, and Free French soldiers as well. While it's possible in the case of the Canadians and French, the British should be using a Webley revolver or Browning Hi-Power (when playing as the SAS) and the Soviets should be using the Tokarev TT-33. The French could also use the Star Ruby or MAB Model D if they're feeling more patriotic.
Submachine Guns
Submachine guns, rather than being issued to officers or scouts (the former because they don't exist; the later because they use sniper rifles instead) are the mainstay of Battlefield's Medic Class. SMGs have roughly equivalent stopping power (which is realistically depicted as identical to the handguns), so the only real difference between them is their capacity. Some of the expansion maps feature suppressed SMGs, for variety's sake.
Bergmann MP18
The Bergmann MP18 is the standard weapon for the Japanese and Russian Medic classes. Its magazine is the 32-round box type of the later MP28 rather than the original TM 08 drum used during WWI, and like the Sten the player grips the magazine which increases the risk of jamming the weapon. While the MP18 did see some use by both factions (the former in very limited capacity, the latter as a captured weapon), it would make much more sense for them to be using the Type 100 submachine gun and PPSh-41 respectively.
MP40
The MP40 is the standard weapon for the German and Italian Medic classes. While the Italians used MP40s to some extent, their main submachine gun was the Beretta Model 38.
Sten MK.II
The Sten Mk.II Submachine Gun serves as an alternative for the British and as the standard for the Free French Forces Medic class in the expansion pack Battlefield 1942: The Road to Rome. A suppressed version, the Sten Mk.IIS is also available in the expansion pack Battlefield 1942: Secret Weapons of WWII for the SAS Medic class.
M1A1 Thompson
The M1A1 Thompson Submachine Gun is the standard weapon for the American, British, and Canadian Medic classes. While the latter two factions made use of Thompsons during the early part of the war, they later made much more use of the Sten after it was developed although Thompsons would persist in service with both until the end of the war.
Shotguns
Browning Automatic 5
Introduced in the expansion pack Secret Weapons of WWII, the Browning Automatic 5 is issued to the SAS Engineer class and is simply called "shotgun." It is the first shotgun in the series, and is extremely lethal in close quarters. Due to the game not having the ability to keep tracking individual shells (as the only other internally fed weapons are bolt action snipers with stripper clips), the A-5 has an extremely odd reload, wherein the player awkwardly tilts the weapon, apparently inserts a few shells, then pulls the charging lever; ammo is represented in full magazines, as it is for all other guns, and reloading from a non-empty magazine will result in lost shells.
The A5 is the most powerful close quarters weapon in the game, and is surprisingly deadly at range as well, often lethal from the chest up even at medium range.
Rifles
There are several kinds of rifles in Battlefield 1942. Bolt-action rifles are only available to two classes: the Scout (who function as snipers) and the Engineer. The main difference between the two is that Scout rifles are issued a scope and less ammo, while Engineer rifles have more ammo. Some other rifles are exclusive to one or the other. Some factions' Assault classes use automatic rifles instead of light machine guns.
Fallschirmjägergewehr 42
The Fallschirmjägergewehr 42 (using its long form name) serves as an alternative to the STG-44 that is given to the Waffen SS Assault class in the expansion pack Battlefield 1942: Secret Weapons of WWII.
Gewehr 43 w/scope
The Gewehr 43 w/ ZF4 scope is the standard weapon for Waffen SS Sniper class in the expansion pack Battlefield 1942: Secret Weapons of WWII.
Karabiner 98k
The Karabiner 98k is the standard weapon for all Axis Engineers, and the scoped variant is the standard weapon for all Axis Scouts. The Italians and Japanese should instead be using their own rifles, the Carcano and Arisaka respectively.
Lee-Enfield No.4 Mk.I
The Lee-Enfield No.4 MK I is the standard weapon for the US Army, British and Russian Engineer classes. A bayonet version is available in the expansion pack Battlefield 1942: The Road to Rome for the Allied Engineer classes. The US Army should be using the M1 Garand or M1 Carbine and the Russians should be using a Mosin-Nagant carbine.
Lee-Enfield No.4 Mk.I(T)
The Lee Enfield No.4 Mk.I(T) is the standard weapon for all Allied Scouts. This is highly incorrect, as it should only be available to British and Commonwealth soldiers; it also has a capacity of five rounds, half that of the real rifle. The American Scouts should instead be armed with scoped Springfield M1903 rifles and the Russian scouts should be armed with scoped Mosin-Nagant M91/30 rifles.
M1 Garand
The M1 Garand appears as the main battle rifle for the USMC Engineer class, although in real-life they didn't actually receive it until every order for the rifle in the US Army was fulfilled. It would make more sense for them to be using the Springfield M1903 for the time being.
Type 5
The extremely rare Type 5, which never saw service, somehow replaces the equally incorrect Karabiner 98k as the standard weapon for the Japanese Engineer class. While it has the correct 10-round magazine capacity, it also has the very incorrect detachable magazine when it should be non-detachable and loaded with two 5-round Arisaka stripper clips. A more plausible choice for the Japanese engineer would be the Type 44 carbine.
Light Machine Guns
Most "Assault Class" kits feature some form of easily man-portable LMG. Unlike the rifles and handguns, these weapons for the most part of have variable stats, although this mostly just pertains to magazine capacity.
Breda Modello 30
The Breda Modello 30 is the standard weapon for the Italian Assault class in the expansion pack Battlefield 1942: The Road to Rome. It is incorrectly shown with a detachable magazine in lieu of a stripper clip which gave the already troubled weapon even more reliability issues.
Bren Mk.2
The Bren Mk.2 Light Machine Gun is the standard weapon for the SAS Assault class in the expansion pack Battlefield 1942: Secret Weapons of WWII. The Canadians also made use of Brens during the war, but they were slightly different from the British models.
Degtyaryov (DP) 28
The Degtyaryov Light Machine Gun (DP) is the standard weapon for the Russian Assault class.
M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle
The M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle is the standard weapon for American, British, and Free French Assault classes. The Brits should be using the Bren as their main LMG and the French could use the FM 24/29 as they considered it superior to the BAR.
M1941 Johnson Light Machine Gun
The M1941 Johnson Light Machine Gun is the standard weapon for the Canadian Assault class. It erroneously holds 30 rounds when it should hold 20.
Type 99 Light Machine Gun
The Type 99 Light Machine Gun is the main weapon for the Japanese Assault class, replacing the completely out-of-place Sturmgewehr 44. It is essentially a reskin to the Bren, but its fire rate sounds faster (which it actually was in real life), and its 30-round magazine holds only 20 as balance against the BAR.
Launchers
Gewehrgranatengerät
The Gewehrgranatengerät Rifle Grenade Launcher is available for the K98k in the German engineer class with the expansion pack Battlefield 1942: Secret Weapons of WWII.
Panzerschreck
The Panzerschreck is the standard weapon for all Axis Anti-Tank classes. While it's moderately logical for the Germans and Italians to use these weapons in the numbers they do (a better choice would be the Panzerfaust), things take a turn for the surreal when Japanese soldiers wield them during the Battle of Wake Island.
M1 Bazooka
The M1 Bazooka is the standard weapon for all Allied Anti-Tank classes. The bazooka is surprisingly accurate at range and is lethal anywhere, making it an oddly effective sniper rifle.
Explosives
Mk 2 hand grenade
The Mk 2 hand grenade is the standard frag grenade for Allied soldiers.
Model 24 Stielhandgranate
The Model 24 Stielhandgranate is the standard grenade for the Axis.
Tellermine 35 (Stahl)
The Tellermine 35 (Stahl) is available for Allied and Axis engineers.
Mounted Weapons
2cm FlaK 38
The 2cm FlaK 38 is mounted on German bases.
7.5 cm Pak 40
7.5 cm Pak 40 AT guns can be used on the "Monte Cassino" map.
Browning M2
A Browning M2 is the mounted weapon for Allied bases and vehicles, ranging from the normal M4A1 Shermans down hilariously to the motorcycle side car that came with Secret Weapons of WWII.
Bofors 40mm
Several Bofors 40mm Anti-Aircraft Guns are seen on the battlefield.
Degtyaryov DT
Soviet tanks are armed with Degtyaryov DT machine guns.
MG34
The MG34 is mounted on German tanks.
MG42
The MG42 is the Axis's pintle mounted machine gun in the same way the M2 is for the Allies, which does mean both the Germans, Italians and Japanese get these in both stock machine gun mounts as well as adorning the medium tanks of each faction.
Type 97
The Type 97 light machine gun is mounted on Japanese Type 97 Chi-Ha tanks.