“Then make it an ‘in-progress’”, Martin suggested. I had already spent a few weekends with the beta test and just finished three full review evenings. The idea sounded tempting, especially since I was having a hard time with this review. But at the end of the day I had more hours with Battlefield 2042 on the counter than I distilled my reviews of Battlefield 1 or Battlefield V from at the time. I typed it out effortlessly and I still stand behind it 100 percent. So no, not a review in-progress, but a full review. With a score that I’m less sure about next year.
Where is the time when a shooter consisted of a single player and a multiplayer? Doom, it still does, but of course that fits in with the old-school vibe of that game. Battlefield is old, but has absolutely no old-school ambitions…or is…er. Anyway, just like that ‘other shooter’ (rhymes with ‘balls or booty’) you now also get three games for the price of one with Battlefield 2042. There’s All Out War, featuring the classic Conquest (domination) and Breakthrough (attackers conquer defenders). There is Hazard Zone, which loudly claims not to be a battle royale. And there’s Portal, the block box in which everyone can create their own Battlefield experience with building blocks from Battlefield 1942 (so a bit old-school), Battlefield Bad Company 2 and Battlefield 3. So not really 3-in-1, but 1 +1+infinite. And for the sake of completeness: no single player mode.
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Battlefield veterans will probably find those Conquest and Breakthrough modes of the All Out War section the best point of comparison to test the new gameplay and game mechanics. First, on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X and S, there are the huge maps that push the player count to 64vs64. However, that is more impressive on paper than in practice. Unless you’re in something that’s flying — or when you’re standing in a high spot — that size slashes a little less with each hour.
For example, the infantryman or tank gunner on the ground perceives the modern, near-future setting as a much greater difference from previous editions than the doubled player count. Another difference, which I only noticed after a while, is that the smashing of houses and other environmental elements, a real Battelfield thing, seems much less present. Just like those Levelation events or tornadoes. Although I’m totally okay with the fact that they don’t appear in every match.
According to the developer, that larger map would give you more options to find types of gameplay that suit you better. That’s only half true. Because especially in these large maps, a lot of players will look for the proximity of their squad, if only by using them as a spawn beacon. On the other hand, the motivation to go for a real squad experience is slightly less due to the loss of requisition points, which gave you bonuses in previous parts. For lone wolves that is not an issue, but for squad players it is. That is indicative of the entire game. Some criticism will be laughed off by one player, but will be decisive for the opinion of the other. The same goes for the points that I am wildly enthusiastic about.
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That Battlefield 2042 feels very familiar despite all the hype and storms in water glasses was actually to be expected. This game was made for those millions of Battlefield fans who have been clamoring for BF3-bis since BF4. And they get it, sort of. Because now there is no juggling with classes but with ‘roles’ and Specialists: flexible characters with specific gadgets.
I don’t give a shit about that as some early reviewers do, because the impact on the overall Battelfield gameplay is often overstated. I think the system works, even if there will be quite a bit of buffing and graining in the first few months. That’s not a criticism, but standard procedure for a new online shooter. Certainly one with so many interacting parts. For example, Dice has to improve the audio as quickly as possible, with the sound of footsteps at the top of the priority list!
In any case, I’m convinced that in addition to that one unique Specialist skill or gadget, you can choose the rest of your loadout yourself. That attachments can change on-the-fly can be translated to every shooter by default for my part. And while I’ve never had to get used to the gunplay in any of the previous Battlefields, every match leaves me wanting more. Although I do miss the opportunity to lean over or along obstacles. As if they try to absorb the size and sometimes emptiness of the maps with a higher gameplay tempo, and see leaning as slowing down.
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In Hazard Zone, drop your squad of four on smaller versions of the All Out War maps. Your mission: collect as many data disks as possible and then escape again at one of the two evacuation moments. Your only obstacle: enemy AI and half a dozen other player squads. Hazard Zone, as the makers continue to emphasize, is not a battle royale. It does share some traits with the genre, but it plays less like Warzone and more like the underrated Hunt: Showdown or The Division’s Dark Zones.
Each drop is also not really a match but a round of maximum 10 minutes. After that, with the credits you earn, you can buy new gear in Counter-Strike style… or not. Hazard Zone is tough, requires a balanced team composition, clear communication and so it stands or falls with how large the audience is that wants to embrace the mode for a long time. There’s still a lot of tweaking and balancing to do, but I loved it so far. With any luck, they’ll be purging an eSports competition here… or it’ll be one of those ultra-hardcore niche audiences.
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And then there’s Portal, aka the ‘brew your own Battlefield’. For many players, perhaps the best – and therefore perhaps the most dangerous – part of this entire game. Know that you have to factor in a huge built-in hit or miss factor. Players and the developer themselves will create unique Battlefield experiences with Portal anyway. And that goes very deep. mods-deep. Great for those who want to make a kind of ‘greatest hits’ compilation from their favorite parts from the previous games. But in what you see greatest hits, I may see Frankenstein.
For example, we saw the developer create a Free For All game in 3 minutes in which players could only attack each other with rocket launchers, and after each shot they had to jump five times to get a new rocket. It is interesting to see how the rules of the game can be tweaked, absolutely not interesting to play longer than the same 3 minutes. You would think that the makers of Battlefield would come up with something more interesting than a Quake-light experience, the game that the original Battlefield opposed. Another locally made game revolved around protecting VIPs and pitted a Battlefield 3 Spetznaz team against US soldiers from Battlefield 1942. That was more fun, but nobody minded that we were allowed to stop after 20 minutes.
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You can interpret it positively and less positively, but a few of the top moments in my review session came from classics reincarnated via Portal. Like a match of Conquest in BF 1942, Rush on Arica Harbor from Bad Company 2 and Conquest in Caspian Border from BF 3. Passionate nostalgia veterans will no doubt add to this list. On the one hand, I’m waiting with open arms grinning… on the other, I fear Portal could be thinning the Battlefield blood. As if 2042 isn’t strong enough to make it on its own. Although I think the game is perfectly capable of that. It’s just a good Battlefield, which with a bit of luck can grow into one of the better ones.
Battlefield 2042 is out November 19 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X and S, Xbox One, and PC.
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