Focusing on the Italian and Sicilian campaigns of WWII, players can choose to fight on six new maps including Operation Husky (Sicily) and the battles for Anzio and Monte Cassino. Each map contains highly detailed environments featuring elements such as Italian houses, Mediterranean trees and the Monte Cassino Monastery.

Controllable vehicles are the heart of the original Battlefield 1942 experience and The Road to Rome delivers by offering eight new vehicles, including the German BF-110 and British Mosquito twin-engine fighter-bombers, in addition to the more than 30 vehicles in the original title. There are also new Italian, British and German vehicles and anti-tank guns.

Staying true to the Battlefield 1942 massive multiplayer legacy, The Road to Rome supports up to 64 players on select maps. In order to achieve victory in this multiplayer game, teamwork and cooperation are requirements. This allows players to fully experience WWII combat. Playing as one of several infantry classes, gamers can control of many new weapons including an Italian assault rifle, a British submachine gun and bayoneted rifles. Players can also command numerous land vehicles, ships and aircraft such as a "tankbusting" German tank, the Sturmgeschutz and a new US medium light armor tank the M3 Grant.

The game uses the proprietary Refractor 2 engine, a robust 3D rendering engine to fully flesh out the action. Though multiplayer experience is the focus of The Road to Rome, there is a single player action mode that features advanced artificial intelligence with no scripting, offering players a completely different experience every time they play.