The sky lights up as you sit on the battlefield, surrounded by your comrades in arms. Some of them you may have met before, some may be strangers. The time has come to once again retaliate against your foes, striking against them to win the day. Is this a real war? No. But this certainly is a real Battlefield. And now, a New Dawn is breaking. Time to get to work.
In less dramatic words, Battlefield 2042 is celebrating 18 months since its launch. This year and a half has been filled with updates bringing new content, characters, and challenges to the battleground. After so long, you may think this war has run its course, but the team at EA is ready to bring in a new day of combat. And this time, if you want to survive, you’ll need to work as a unit.
The new season has a focus on teamwork and squad management, and nothing shows this better than the aptly named Squad Management system. This familiar menu system will allow you to more easily prepare your squads and deploy into battle together, as well as pass along orders, authority, and advice. You can quickly set up a squad during a match, as well as joining into a squad mid-battle to turn the tide. As someone who has struggled with matchmaking and team-wrangling in plenty of FPS games, this is a breath of fresh air. However, with the new firepower coming your way in-game, if I did it might just be my last.
Let’s not keep you waiting any longer, let’s talk weapons. The true bread and butter of any soldier on the titular Battlefield, this season’s guns and equipment have a focus on teamwork and adding in new tools to get out of difficult situations. For an example of what that means, look no further than the XCE BAR, a high-power sniper rifle with a plethora of attachments to keep it reliable at multiple ranges. But it’s not always about the guns, sometimes you need something else to send the message. When you want to deliver that message to a group of enemies, look no further than the Spring Grenade, which is ready to parkour its way into some par-gore. Feel free to cringe, it’ll still blow you up. Having trouble with tanks or other vehicles? Why not throw an anti-tank grenade to blow up their Achilles wheel? (Note that the grenade explodes in contact with any vehicle, not just a tank, and any part of a vehicle, not just its wheels) Of course, sometimes you just wish that grenade you just threw could have gone a little bit farther or have been a little bit faster, which is where its kids, the Mini Grenades, have you covered. Don’t worry, these little explosive friends aren’t here for a little league game, they’re ready to blow up and act like they don’t know nobody, which might be possible considering they’ve traded their firepower for their other traits.
Some of you might be enjoying the new gear but missing your old favorites from previous games. Well, worry not, as the team has been hard at work reimagining your old friends into their best selves for this new age. Looks like lead is back on the menu, so why not serve it up with some returning classic weapons? Returning from Battlefield 4, the GEW-46 is a tried and true burst fire assault rifle ready to slice and dice with high stability. Give a warm welcome back to the BFP.50, a pistol with a mean kick, and a meaner sound. Just the ring of its muzzle is enough to strike fear into your enemies. Let’s not forget the others joining the shootout, like the M16A3, the ACW-R, the A91, the M416, the MTAR 21, the AEK-971… if you’ve never used these weapons before, this may sound like an overload of numbers, but all you need to know is that those numbers are back and they’re ready to put holes in fools. Just like wine, it seems like these just get better with age. But sometimes these old dogs need to learn new tricks, which is why the team has been working on a massive rework of the Vault Weapon system: with a variety of rebalances and the new ability to both apply attachments and skins to win both the literal war and the fashion war. Finally, both you and your weapons can dress to impress!
I’m sure that level of weaponry might leave you stunned, or perhaps excited. However, there’s no time to be shell shocked while you’re reclaiming… well, Reclaimed, the newest map coming your way. Three decades ago, this map was the center of a global conflict, and the region was completely destroyed. Now, in 2047, it’s time to do it again, but this time with a little bit more style. Reclaimed is a sprawling battleground set in the Czech Republic, where both enemies and allies are dashing in from the wilderness to take its 6 key zones. If you’ve played the game before, or if you’ve read my previous season overview, you know what that means. That’s right, baby, its Flag time! Flag A1 is set in the crash zone of a derailed train, with plenty of open spaces for you to cut down your adversaries or roll through them with your vehicles, as well as a few hiding places to stow away for your chance to launch a surprise attack. Flag B1 is known as the Landing Zone, and its tight-knit circular layout will cause many a close-range firefight. While you might be in the wrong game for tree-cutting, sometimes giving the terrain the Minecraft treatment will open up a new line of sight for you to use… or for your enemies to turn right back around on you. Choose carefully, as we don’t have the time to wait for a new tree to grow!
Flag C1 is an abandoned turbine facility with many close quarters for combat, open hallways for midrange battles, and an open building plan to let in natural light, air, and bullets. Flag C2 is a Military Warehouse with incredibly tight spaces and indestructible blockage to hide behind for either an ambush or for cover. They enjoy long walks in the snow, as well as keeping out larger vehicles with its high shelves and concrete pillars, and they’ll be yours to woo with just a little bit of casual bloodshed. If you push forwards enough, or if you have to fall back far enough, you’ll wind up in Flag D1, The Bunker. This military space carved out of the mountain is the perfect place for close-range chaos, and there’s plenty of room for you to wreak havoc. However, in between all the violence, feel free to enjoy what the team calls the “prettiest part of the map.” Just don’t get lost in the scenery and wind up being blown into pieces of it. Last but certainly not least is Flag E1, a massive set of Fuel Silos with plenty of open range for intense firefights. Here, tanks will easily run amok and take out anybody with less armor than them. And this open road of the map takes us full circle, both figuratively as the second area of the map with a focus on vehicle combat and literally. Don’t get sick doing donuts around its four towers, otherwise you might end up either spewing up chunks or getting blown into them.
While Reclaimed is a massive map, it’s not the only one they’ve had cooking at the studio. Over the course of the past seasons, they’ve been continually working to rework their maps and address concerns and criticism to make the game the best it can be. And this season, they’re ready to reveal the final reworked map: Hourglass 2.0. The map’s size has been reduced to keep the gameplay more focused and less sporadic, and more cover has been added along the main routes to give you more places for cover-to-cover combat. These seasons have changed the map, and the remnants of previous battles have started to accrue around the map for you to reuse as brand-new battlegrounds. Military presence in the city has increased, giving you more places to fight and new cover to duck behind. Downtown has been caught up in the battle, and its fires can be seen from all over the map. The main road is now covered in military installations and cover for you to use as you struggle to claim the map. Fortunately, the Downtown saw fit to install its own brand new cover. Safety first! The Bridge and some of the Arches have collapsed, leaving craters, debris, and a sprawling underground for you to battle through. The Underpass has been torn up by the combat and is now weathered down and full of destroyed vehicles. You may not be able to drive them, but you might still be able to use them as cover. Most importantly, the Village has now been fully fortified into a true base of operations, befitting of its new spawn point for Breakthrough missions. All of that sounds intense, which is why it might be nice to take a moment to breathe in the comfortable-looking new underground area underneath the Arches. But don’t take too long: the pristine floors are nothing more than the calm before the storm.
Of course, no season of a game is complete without a Battle Pass full of loot to collect or purchase. This season’s pass is split between two groups, both of which are ready to split your opponents as well. Don’t worry, you can have your cake and eat it too, as the whole pass is balanced between professional chic and primal intimidation. The team believes that these are some of the best they’ve ever brought to the entire franchise, and I personally have to agree after seeing the range of styles available. The pass will have a free tier and a premium tier which requires purchase, but both can be unlocked simultaneously if you want to see if it’ll be worth your money. Year One pass holders also will have something nice waiting for them, as they’ll be getting a free Epic skin and an XP booster during the first two weeks of the new season. As always, I want to encourage players to play and purchase responsibly. I know the allure and the ease of purchasing the battle pass in its entirety, but be certain that you are making a responsible choice if you choose to do so.
Once again, with all of these changes, the question becomes what comes next for the game and for the team. While they don’t want to fully spoil the mid-season event, they DID tease that it will let players experience the Season’s signature “Combined Arms.” Whatever could that mean? Well, we’ll just have to wait and find out. They also announced that they’ll be working to update the loadouts for vehicles to expand and enhance their roles and abilities, as well as introducing new weapon stations to combat these empowered vehicles. Get ready, as you’ll be keeping them in check with thermal tech and heavy anti-air stations to keep the battle even. Bug fixes, optimizations, quality of life improvements, and new experiences for The Portal are also on the way, so be prepared for the game to get even better seemingly overnight.
Before you go off and get ready for this next season, I want to just remind you that this is all early access footage, and that the final result may vary from what is described here. With that in mind, get ready for your next battle. Deployment may come sooner than you think.
Season 5: New Dawn becomes available for play on June 7th. You can find out more about Season 5: New Dawn HERE
For more information, visit the Battlefield 2042 website or follow the game on YouTube, Twitter or Instagram.
Related: Reviews by Aaron Grossmann
Gaming is a passion that I, like many other people, hold near and dear to my heart. As an aspiring Game Writer and general Storyteller, I enjoy looking into the vast worlds and deep stories of every game I can. Then again, sometimes bad guys just need a good pummeling, and I am more than happy to provide!
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