Developer: DICE
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Release Date: 19th November 2021
Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
It’s been just over a month since Battlefield 2042 launched across PC and consoles. Instead of reviewing the game at launch, we decided to wait to cover some of the post-launch updates – and see whether the messy launch is on course to, well, be less messy. The good news is that things are looking up. The bad news? It’s still very much work-in-progress.
The campaign of 2042
Oh, that’s right, there isn’t one. For the very first time in franchise history, Battlefield has launched without a single-player campaign. As someone who always enjoyed playing through the stories, I was quite bummed when this was first announced. This entry is purely a multiplayer affair, so let’s look at what Battlefield 2042 does have.
All out warfare
The main course of any new Battlefield entry was always the multiplayer suite. 2042 offers a bunch of ways to play, though most of the options come via Portal. More on that in a moment. The main, official gameplay categories are All-Out Warfare and Hazard Zone, and All-Out Warfare comes in two variants; Conquest and Breakthrough.
Conquest has long been the primary way most players enjoy the franchise. The mode is all about territory control in large scale battles, this time featuring up to 128 players (64 on last-gen), a first for the franchise. The maps are massive and if you find yourself on foot, expect a lot of running, frequently ending in your swift demise if you encounter a vehicle on your way. With the sheer size of the maps as well as quite a few objectives to battle over, there’s a lot of room for learning the ropes without fights becoming one-sided quite as quickly.
Breakthrough is all about pushing the frontline of the war. With one team attacking and the other defending, the attackers need to attack and claim certain points on the map to push the defenders back – and if they make it all the way across the map, the attackers win. It’s a bit easier to encounter one-sided battles in this mode, but the benefit is that all the action is on fewer, very specific objectives, which gets you into the action a lot quicker.
Hazard zone
The other new mode, then, is Hazard Zone. This mode tasks you with finding, securing and extracting Data Drives. If you’ve ever journeyed to the Dark Zone in The Division, you’ll know what to expect. Hazard Zone is all about working closely with your team to stealthily get to and escape with your objectives, but – and here’s the tricky part – every other squad is after the same thing. This means that you have to be ready for anything at any given moment, which can be quite exciting. Revives are also limited, so if you’re not careful, you’ll leave empty-handed.
Hazard Mode offers a different experience with only 32 total players (24 on last-gen), and is complete with a totally different progression system, too. The better you do, the more Hazard Zone-specific currency you unlock, which can be spent on upgrades specifically for this mode. While unique upgrades make you more invested in the mode, it is unfortunate that it doesn’t then contribute to your overall Battlefield 2042 rank, like everything else. It’s still a fun alternative, however.
The new maps
A huge part of any online shooter is the quality of new maps – and I think 2042 more than delivers on this front. Featuring seven new maps, there’s ample room for death and destruction across them all. They’re quite varied, too, with Kaleidoscope’s warfare taking place both on the ground, in the sky and even on top of skyscrapers, and Breakaway taking place in snowy mountains complete with frozen seas and an oil platform by the shore.
The new maps are used across all game modes, whether you play 64 or 128 players, and parts of them are utilised for Hazard Zone’s 32 players, too. It’s good, then, that the maps are quite distinct and dare I say memorable – at least for the most part. They’re a little bit too big though, for my liking, as each match starts with what feels like five minutes of running, unless you manage to secure a vehicle. And strangely, when a match begins, you can’t spawn into someone else’s vehicle – you’re forced to spawn on foot, unless you claim one for yourself.
One of the key things you may have seen in marketing materials are the tornados that wreak havoc across some of the maps. I’ve never quite been in a scenario where I was swept up, and have never seen any vehicles being lifted up either, but while the marketing was probably a bit over the top for effect, it’s still pretty cool to see a towering tornado head straight for you.
A Portal… to everything*
Perhaps the most exciting new addition to Battlefield 2042 is Portal, which opens a, well, portal to previous games in the franchise in a sandbox Battlefield experience. 2042 launched with access to maps, modes, weapons, gadgets, vehicles and soldier classes from Battlefield 1942, Battlefield Bad Company 2, and my personal favourite, Battlefield 3.
With Portal, you can make your own game modes, or play those created by others. Want a knives-only mode on 1942 maps? Want a mode that is vehicles-only? Maybe you want to pick 20 decked-out soldiers from Battlefield 3 against 100 old-timers from 1942? You can do whatever you want, really.
Portal is one of the key ways that DICE and EA have been and will continue to support Battlefield 2042 long term. With new modes and content being featured over time, it’s on the community to create the future of 2042, letting the top creations rise to the top. We’ve got the tools to create the battlefield of our dreams – and it’s probably the closest we’ll get to actual remasters of the previous Battlefield titles. That being said, please make a Battlefield 3 remaster, EA. I will beg if I have to…
* Not actually everything (yet)
(Not so) smooth operator
In my opinion, one of the absolute core parts of Battlefield was always the playable classes, which have been completely removed in 2042. Gone are Assault, Support, Recon, and Engineer, who have all been replaced with a number of unique Operators. Perhaps the idea was that each Operator would have more personality, which may fill in some of the gaps left by a missing campaign, but really, it just feels like one of the worst things to copy from other popular shooters.
The classes of old allowed you to really build a team that complemented each other. Someone was dedicated to being the medic, keeping everyone alive, with someone else being responsible for keeping everyone else fully stocked with ammo. While you can still assign yourself these roles with the Operators, the fact that anyone can now equip additional ammo, health and, well, everything else, just makes each soldier less important – and teamwork is often out the window as a result.
Each Operator does have their own unique abilities, like being able to revive faster, being able to grapple up buildings, or having an awesome automated turret to put down, but this has simply resulted in a few Operators becoming the meta, and everyone else… Well, nobody cares about the others. At least you can still relive the glory days of the OG classes if you jump into the older games via Portal.
The long tail of 2042
Alright, so we’ve covered the very basics of Battlefield 2042. What we haven’t talked about yet, however, is everything it’s missing. We’ve already talked about the lack of a campaign, which was a bit of a bummer, but a ton of other features are also currently missing. Something as basic as a scoreboard during a match, for instance, is entirely gone. There’s also no server browser unless you jump into Portal, where you can freely browse all the custom creations. You also can’t even create your own squads during a match, as the game will simply put you into a random one. The list goes on, but these are some of the most notable ones to me.
So, with so much stuff missing, the post-launch support for 2042 becomes key. Will they add everything over time? Who knows. So far, however, we’ve gotten a small indication of post-launch support as they have already listened to feedback and started addressing some of the concerns. A bunch of Quality of Life updates have been added since launch, like being able to see where the closest medic is when you are downed. They’ve also done bigger things, like adding 64-player variants of All-Out Warfare on the newest hardware, though for some reason that still doesn’t allow for cross-play with the 64-player locked last-gen machines. Oh and the 64-player modes are time-limited, so may or may not be removed in the future.
Like I mentioned previously, we should expect a lot of the post-launch support to come via Portal. It’s safe to assume that additional games will be added to the mode, and that we’ll keep getting fun, themed and seasonal content, like the Attack of the Elves mode that’s currently featured. This has a small group of elves with very sharp candy canes try to kill regular soldiers, before turning them into elves too. If the elves manage to turn everyone, they win. Matches are good fun and at 5 minutes or less, allow for very quick play sessions. We’ll see if we get modes like this frequently enough to actually mean much long term, however.
So is Battlefield 2042 any good?
Yes and no. 2042 has a long list of problems, many of which will inevitably rub a lot of franchise fans the wrong way. In many ways it feels like 2042 has taken a lot of the worst things from some of its competitors, and has tried to give them the Battlefield treatment – with very mixed results. Combined with missing features and still quite a few bugs, this is still very much work-in-progress.
At the same time, I’ve had (and continue to have) an absolute blast with the game. Whether playing the new modes or enjoying a bit of nostalgia in Portal, there’s a lot of fun to be had here. Just don’t expect it to be the Battlefield you may be used to, and don’t expect it to be perfect (yet) – or potentially ever. Since EA has announced several new Battlefield projects in the pipeline, the biggest question right now is whether they will support 2042 long enough to make it something special. Time will tell.
Verdict
Battlefield 2042 is a mixed bag. While there’s a ton of fun to be had, there’s no denying that it isn’t the Battlefield experience we’ve all come to know and love. At least Portal content offers a look back at the glory days…
-K.A. Pedersen