Written by Duncan Voice 

(Duncan’s Twitter account)

The disappointment I felt upon release of Battlefield 2042 was of such breathtaking magnitude, I’m quite convinced my yet-to-be conceived child will be born with a pre-determined distrust of AAA publishers. I’m trying to classically condition myself to no longer even think about pre-ordering a game, by swiftly punching myself in the bollocks whenever the thought about stumping up the cash up front creeps in. Cheers EA & DICE, it really hurts.

After Battlefield 1 and Five made a mockery of naming conventions along with taking the fight back to the World Wars, Battlefield fans were desperate for a return to a near-future military setting and the glory days of the superb Battlefield 3 & 4. BFV in particular had a terrible start, introduced characters to flog skins, had a game mode abandoned before settling in to something that’s pretty good.

 

 

Battlefield 2042 promised a return to what makes Battlefield epic. A near future setting! 128 player battles! Tornados! Gadgets! Hazard Zone! Portal! I was sold, and being an idiot dropped 80 British pounds on pre-ordering the Gold edition. I booked a few days off, stocked up on Yorkshire Tea, loaded up the early access before having a good cry and a long think about what I’d done. At least the cups of tea were nice.

The woes of BF2042 have been well documented, but to sum up: Too many players! Tornados are really annoying! Robot dogs keep annihilating me! Hazard Zone is crap! Season One EIGHT months after release! There’s loads more to it, probably none more complained about that the Specialists all but binning off the traditional class system. I’m sure some Twitter comedian made the joke about calling it Betafield, but there was nothing funny about it.

Alas, I plugged away trying to convince myself that like my ageing waistline, it was salvageable. But I gave up. Hazard Zone was abandoned like it’s BFV predecessor Firestorm. Portal mode was barely played so getting games on classic maps like Caspian Border and Noshahr Canals was an exercise in frustration. The huge maps on Conquest felt empty even with 128 players, or just too chaotic in Breakthrough.

 

 

A scant 202 days after launch, Season One released on June 9th with a battle pass featuring the usual trimmings of skins and some weapons alongside one solitary new map, Exposure. Attacking a base built in to the side of a mountain with an attack helicopter, flinging yourself in on a wingsuit or launching yourself down to the base of a mountain whilst dogfights go off around you all bring to mind the much heralded Battlefield Moments. BF veterans might be reminded of Damavand Peak, and it feels like a big first step towards proper Battlefield.

The launch maps are starting to be improved too, although slowly. Kaleidoscope has received a smattering of clutter to make it look less Utopia and more warzone with more improvements promised along the way. Alongside this, the player count has been reduced down to 64 from 128. Gunfights feel manageable, and you have the opportunity to apply strategy rather than just a constant cycle of frustration.

 

 

This reduction in numbers has helped my own enjoyment. Being an Xbox player, I am facing PC players with a mouse and keyboard setup. My FPS powers are waning the older I get, but the smaller player count allows me to adapt my game and take up positions to compete against vastly more skilled players.

The much-maligned specialists that replaced the traditional class system, have been toned down to no longer be caricatures with daft Hollywood one-liners. They’re still there, far too baked in to the game to be considered for removal (and there are skins to be sold) but there seems to be a concerted effort to make the game less about them. No longer will you hear Angel say “don’t be sad, these things just happen sometimes”, and unlockable skins look to make them like generic action soldiers. I personally enjoy what the different class abilities bring to the game, frequently taking advantage of Sundance’s wingsuit or Paik’s wallhack ability but I expect future Battlefield titles will return to the assault, engineer, medic & recon classes from before.

 

 

For a game that managed to turn disappointment in to a fist and wind me with it, I’m having fun with it. Loads of fun. A “what’s the catch”, amount of fun. I was convinced it was to be shut down within the year, now whisper it I can see a decent future with BF2042. When you’re in a proper battle with tanks rolling past, team mates beside you and dogfights going on overheard, there’s nothing like it. There’s a significant way to go before it reaches the heights of Battlefield 4, and it needs a lot more content, but it’s a different game from the miserable husk of a title that launched in November 2021.

 

 

My positivity towards BF2042 is underpinned by some trepidation when it comes to recommending it. If you already own it, give it another install and I think you’ll enjoy it. If you don’t, there’s not enough content to recommend buying it unless it’s on a deep sale. A tenner is a good price, any more than that and I’m not sure. I expect an appearance on Game Pass/ EA Play isn’t far off, especially when Season One ends and player numbers trickle away again. It’s not quite the game I wanted, and I’m likely enjoying it as much as I am trying to wring out 80 quid’s worth of fun from it, but as it stands BF2042 is a solid, fun FPS and is only likely to get better.

 

 

Massive thank you from everyone at CX to Duncan Voice for this interesting look at the current state of Battlefield 2042. If you want to discuss the current sate of battlefield directly with Duncan, you can do so via his twitter account below

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