Battalion 1944 plays like a shooter born in 2005

VIDEO: A quick introduction to Battalion 1944's old school style and competitive modes.

Battalion 1944 is a throwback FPS, but not to the days of Quake and Doom. It's a shooter built for those nostalgic for the early 2000s and simpler, more straightforward WW2 battles. You won't find Call of Duty's modern killstreaks or progression here, but you will find a strong resemblance to Call of Duty 2's tense search & destroy mode and some very satisfying bolt-action rifles.

Battalion 1944 is still working through some Early Access launch growing pains, but it's already a refreshingly straightforward shooter for 2018. Matches are all about fast kills with familiar weapons. And bunnyhopping. Lots and lots of bunnyhopping.

Above you can learn more about Battalion 1944 in our short commentary video. If you're looking for some raw gameplay, check out the video embedded below, which shows off the Domination and team deathmatch modes from Arcade, and the search & destroy-style Unranked.

Wes has been covering games and hardware for more than 10 years, first at tech sites like The Wirecutter and Tested before joining the PC Gamer team in 2014. Wes plays a little bit of everything, but he'll always jump at the chance to cover emulation and Japanese games.

When he's not obsessively optimizing and re-optimizing a tangle of conveyor belts in Satisfactory (it's really becoming a problem), he's probably playing a 20-year-old Final Fantasy or some opaque ASCII roguelike. With a focus on writing and editing features, he seeks out personal stories and in-depth histories from the corners of PC gaming and its niche communities. 50% pizza by volume (deep dish, to be specific).