Battlefield 2042 is the latest entry in the long-running Battlefield franchise developed by DICE and published by EA. DICE’s newest game returns to the modern/slightly futuristic era as non-patriated soldiers find themselves involved in a global conflict between the United States and Russia. Battlefield 2042 offers to players 3 distinct modes: All-Out Warfare, Hazard Zone, and Portal. DICE promises to deliver and innovate on the classic Battlefield experience long time fans have missed since Battlefield 4, with modern weapons, modern vehicles such as helicopters and jets, 128 players, and large-scale multiplayer battles with destruction and other “Only in Battlefield” moments. However, after playing all 3 modes extensively, trying out as many vehicles and weapons I could get my hands on, and diving deep into the player created servers in Portal mode, I am confident in saying that this is easily one of the worst Battlefield games I have ever played. You don’t even really need to read the rest of this review if you don’t want to. Don’t buy this game.
The Only Good Thing
I think over the years, Battlefield has tried to set itself apart from its competitors by doing a few things really, really well. Gunplay, a wide sandbox to play with and the audio/visual design are probably my top favorite features of any Battlefield game. DICE managed to only get one of these three things right. The visual spectacle of jets flying through the sky, dogfighting, while infantry battle armored vehicles is still great to see. The game itself looks really nice, from a technical perspective. The weather effects are stunning (when they’re not turning your PC into a fighter jet engine) and the large maps and player counts really make you feel like part of a larger battle (of course, only when you’re not crashing). Unfortunately, a lot of the visual spectacle will have to be lost for most players, given that running Battlefield 2042 on high settings is achievable only by the monster PCs NASA has access to for their space program. Most of the visual glitches from the beta seem to have been fixed, thankfully. It’s definitely a good-looking game, albeit many of the technically impressive aspects like raytracing, will probably be lost on the majority of players.
A Shooter with Bad Shooting
It honestly baffles me. Battlefield V, for all of its flaws, made some great improvements to the gunplay of Battlefield. Removing bloom and implementing a standard recoil pattern meant good players could, with practice, learn to control each individual weapon’s recoil, increasing the skill needed to master a weapon but also taking away from the randomness of the gunfights in previous games like Bad Company 2 or Battlefield 3/4. This seemed like a universally praised, skillful, well-implemented change. So, what does DICE do? Gets rid of it, of course! The random bullet deviation on ALL of the guns is so unbelievably bonkers that my DMR (which should probably be super accurate right?) fires less accurately than beginner difficulty bots. Assault rifles feel like their barrels are bending 90 degrees if you shoot anyone more than 10 meters away, DMRs feel completely useless unless you’re timing your shots as if it’s a bolt-action, and the most used weapon by players at the moment, the PP-29 SMG, is only used because its bloom isn’t as rage-inducingly bad as the rest of the weapons. Why DICE would butcher their gun mechanics like this is beyond me. There is a clip on the Battlefield 2042 subreddit where a player fires his LMG into a giant crowd of bots at a pretty reasonable range. Guess how many kills he gets? 2. The gunplay in Battlefield 2042 is probably the biggest turn off for me right now and makes it so that every time I sit down to play Battlefield, I leave feeling frustrated, guaranteed.
Nostalgia Bait
One of the modes that I was actually pretty excited about playing was the Portal mode. I mean, it sounds pretty awesome right? Maps and weapons from some of Battlefield’s greatest games, BF 1942, Bad Company 2, and Battlefield 3, all smooshed together to allow the community to create whatever kind of experiences they want. Want to fight on Noshahr Canals with weapons from Bad Company? Trying to see whether or not an M1 Garand can out-gun a modern, state of the art rifle from Battlefield 2042? These wacky combinations and more are possible with an extensive server creator. Portal was honestly set up to be the blast from the past, a friendly reminder of the good old days. However, the exploitative XP bot farm servers meant that progression in Portal was capped almost immediately. That means after only a few games, you will not be making any progress with any of the weapons or your level, essentially forcing players into a decision. Keep having fun in Portal and potentially waste a lot of time with little to no reward or back out and play one of the other game modes. The fact that DICE is forcing players to make this decision, that Portal is not something players can just lose themselves into without having that feeling in the back of their mind that they aren’t really getting out of it really deflates a lot of the excitement I had about Portal.
A Poor Imitation
Outside of Portal, the rest of Battlefield 2042 feels like a pale imitation of better games. Hazard Zone is a poor man’s Escape from Tarkov or Hunt: Showdown (despite the fact that both games are less expensive). Hazard Zone is an extraction-style battle royale, where teams compete to collect data drives and then extract, hopefully with their pockets full of drives. I found the game mode to be uninteresting and subpar, giving me flashbacks of Firestorm from Battlefield V, another (what feels like) half-baked attempt to jump onto a trend which at the time, was the standard battle royale. I just don’t know who this game mode is for and I’m disappointed that DICE decided an undercooked attempt at a battle royale was a good idea after how badly Firestorm bombed.
The rest of the game also just feels like DICE desperately trying to stack on trends and features from other, better games onto the Battlefield formula. Customization is, ostensibly, at the forefront, with dozens of attachments and skins to unlock for your weapons. However, with under 2 dozen weapons available for all of the game modes (not counting the exclusive ones in Portal) that have unlocks and progression tied to them, this is simply unacceptable. Battlefield 4 had more weapons than all of Battlefield 2042’s modes combined and every single one of Battlefield 4’s weapons had extensive customization and unlocks attached to them. Animations that made Battlefield V feel fluid and tactical, like crouch sprinting and mantling, are gone, replaced with animations for weapons and movement clearly inspired by the latest Modern Warfare.
The specialists feel like an attempt to replicate Modern Warfare’s operators, combining them with the abilities from Apex Legends or Overwatch. Specialists are not a replacement for classes and will never be. I will admit, wingsuits and riot shields and grapple hooks are cool. But when there’s a tank bearing down on my team and no one has a rocket launcher because we have Sundance and Irish instead of 2 assault players, it doesn’t make for a very good Battlefield experience. The specialists even break the immersion of the game itself. This dark and foreboding future of superpowers fighting over resources and our battles in multiplayer reflecting those conflicts end with Mackay or Angel making some snarky or witty remarks. There’s clearly an identity crisis happening with Battlefield 2042 right now, those who just want to copy and paste other games’ successful features and those who actually want to make a Battlefield game.
I’m Not Mad, Just Disappointed
There are a few good parts of Battlefield 2042. Portal mode is fun, and it could honestly have been its own standalone release, sort of like a Halo: MCC style game, but for Battlefield. The game also looks incredible and the details on the environments, weapons, and vehicles feel so realistic. The in-game hot swap attachment system is awesome and is an amazing addition that I hope returns in future Battlefields.
Given how many good things DICE has removed though, I doubt it will return in future games. Battlefield 2042 is a massive failure and I’m embarrassed to even play it. Glitches, poor hit registration, visual bugs, and more that I didn’t even have time or the space to cover in this review add onto what feels like a lazy, copy and paste, idea stealing, half baked game. Given how integral the specialists are and what a left turn Hazard Mode was, something tells me DICE was trying to make an extraction-style battle royale and were taken by surprise to see its main competition, Call of Duty, with the release of Modern Warfare, start to edge in on Battlefield’s territory. When Battlefield doesn’t feel like the best authentic, large scale, military shooter on the market, that’s troubling. With two strikes in a row now, I question the capacity of DICE to develop great games again. There’s no reason to buy Battlefield 2042 in its current state, given how much choice FPS fans have nowadays. If you want a competently made shooter, go play Halo: Infinite. If you just want a casual game to shoot people in with some big maps to play around in, go redownload Modern Warfare. If you want to play a good Battlefield game, you don’t need Portal. Just go redownload and play your old favorites. I guarantee after this mess of a game, those servers will be filling back up in no time.
For more details on Battlefield 2042 EA Play member benefits, visit: eaplay.com
Related: Battlefield 2042 – Early Access & Rewards for EA Play Pro & EA Play Members
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My name is Matt Tran and I have been playing video games since I could remember holding a controller. I've always been a hardcore gamer growing up, from the hectic MW2 and Halo 3 lobbies, my many journeys through several Halo clans and my current exploits with my Destiny 2 clan. I love shooters and RPGs and overanalyzing every component of every game I've played, from weapon stats to ideal perks. When I have time to play other games, I currently play Genshin Impact and Star Wars Squadrons.
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