Battlefield 2042 Review – Game Informer

Battlefield was the first and most loud multiplayer experience available in any game. It’s the video game equivalent of Texas, and its bombast cannot be overstated. Battlefield 2042 gives you many options to engage in simulations of near-future warfare. You can choose to battle via air or land, so you will experience the dizzying effects of on-screen explosions and intense firefights. Battlefield 2042 has a lot of bugs, which can make it a difficult online game.

Battlefield 2042, if nothing else is familiar. It continues the series’ trend in delivering multiplayer maps with the largest player count possible and a range of reliable character archetypes that have become standard in first-person shooters. The newest addition to Battlefield’s long-standing formula is a weather system that lets you ride lethal tornados alongside the vehicles and debris they pick up on their route across the map. While these are an interesting addition to Battlefield’s already intense combat, they add panic and a certain level of tension. However their inclusion seems insignificant in the overall scheme. The 128-player matches and large maps guarantee dramatic moments, but there’s a thin line separating spectacle and chaos, and 2042 often devolves into the latter.

There’s never been a Battlefield game released without Conquest, the signature mode which tasks two opposing teams to capture and defend objective zones across the map. Each team has its own reinforcements, which slowly drain depending on how many sector they control. The popular format is alive and well in 2042, but unfortunately, it’s my least favorite way to play. Battlefield will host the tournament for the first-time. There are too manyEach match had at least one player. Without the presence of Commanders to take charge of assaults, Conquest feels disorganized and incoherent at times since there’s no good way for all 64 players on each team to communicate and focus their attacks. Respawns often place you in the middle a contested zone only for an enemy to kill you from afar.

The moment-to-moment gameplay is great, even if it is sometimes difficult to see the bigger picture. Gunplay is solid even though hits don’t always seem to register when they should, and the wide array of vehicles are equally entertaining to pilot when running on foot becomes tiresome. The lack of naval warfare was disappointing, especially considering the importance of the series.

Breakthrough is the second mode in the game’s multiplayer suite, and it provides more focused engagements by separating maps into multiple segments, each containing two Control Points. The attacking team can capture all the zones’ objectives and force the defense team to withdraw to the next one. Breakthrough can still be successfulIt is the most cost-effective way to participate in traditional Battlefield experiences, despite having an overly large player base.

Hazard Zone is a new multiplayer mode that was introduced in 2042. It pits four teams against each other and asks them to retrieve data from satellite crash sites spread across the map. Opposing AI forces guard each location and attack your team upon sight. HaUnless your team has a Redeploy-Uplink, zard zone does not allow respawning. You can win these matches by extracting in the highly-contested Helicarrier. It only visits the map two times throughout the game. If you miss the flight or die before making it onboard, it’s game over, and you lose the credits you spent in the pre-match munitions shop. However, if you successfully extract, you’re rewarded with Dark Market Credits, a meta currency that persists between games, which you can spend to purchase better gear before your next match. Hazard Zone is strategic and tense, with white-knuckle fights at each end. It’s my favourite way to play Battlefield 2042.

Another new addition to the series is Battlefield Portal, a community-driven platform that players can use to make custom games or play others’ weird creations. For example, there’s a free-for-all rockets-only mode in which the only way to reload your launcher is to jump five times. Although it’s quite funny to watch rockets fly over the screen, Portal is not for everyone.

Portal can be used to make innovative spins on Battlefield. The Battlefield Builder is simple to use and accessible. via a web browser. Portal makes it easy to change the game mode and map rotation. It also allows you program advanced rulesets using visual scripting with the Logic Editor. However, these are more complicated for novices. As a fan of past creative suites like Halo Forge and Fortnite Creative, I’m not compelled to interact with Portal’s tools since they’re designed for modifying existing game settings and don’t allow you to design your own original levels. 

Portal offers a remastered version of old maps that you can either augment with their rulesets, or in an original format in a developer-featured playlist. It’s a wonderful addition that allows you to quickly return to places like Valparaiso and the Battle of The Bulge. These are effectively remastered versions of the series’ best maps, and I’m interested to see which ones DICE adds next.

Whether you’re grappling above the competition like Spider-Man, flying through a deadly tornado with a wingsuit, or sniping enemies from behind mobile barricades, each Battlefield specialist offers a unique way to participate in the battle. Each of the ten Battlefield specialists were included in the title’s launch. They fall into one of four categories: Engineer, Assault or Support. These characters can be fine-tuned in many ways, including being able use any weapon. I still love the flexibility to swap out weapon attachments during combat without having to respawn. Although the 6X scope has been my go-to for sniper lenses, I found it easy to swap to other optics by pushing a button. This innovative feature significantly improves multiplayer gameplay and should be adopted widely by first-person shooters.

Battlefield 2042 launches with seven maps. Hourglass features an isolated city reclaimed by the neighboring desert, Discarded hosts colossal shipyards along India’s western coasts, and Breakaway is nestled amidst the icy mountains of Antarctica. The other maps – Manifest, Kaleidoscope, Orbital, and Renewal – are standard fare but still feature landscapes worth exploring. Every map is affected by violent weather systems that are exciting to navigate, but I wish more maps hosted unique elements like Orbital’s rocket launch and Breakaway’s explosive silos that permanently augment the map mid-match. Regardless, there aren’t any bad maps, and I enjoy playing on each of them.

Battlefield 2042 feels underbaked at the moment due to an overabundance of bugs. Although most of the bugs that I experienced were minor in nature, they did not diminish my enjoyment when I was playing. For example, the grappling hook’s zipline clipping through the front of the device during its animation or not being able to call in air support on a map like Hourglass because of an issue with the sand’s navmesh. More serious glitches can negatively affect gameplay, like when sniper scopes lose their magnification after interacting with gadgets like Irish’s mobile barricades. The game crashed once to my PC while I was playing it for a week. One of my friends wasn’t as lucky and experienced several crashes in one of our play sessions. I was especially affected by these crashes in Hazard Zone. 

Don’t get me wrong: Battlefield 2042 is playable, packed with content, and often really fun. The title’s seven maps are distinct from one another, its bevy of customization options make it easy to play how you want, and I love the extreme weather systems and the quick-equip weapon feature. Portal hasn’t reached its full potential, but it introduces a convenient way to access six beloved experiences from Battlefield 3, Battlefield 1942, and Bad Company 2. Battlefield 2042 makes a great recommendation to players and existing gamers looking for an updated wargame. But, due to its lackluster polish, it is difficult for me to recommend. As long as DICE continues to publish hotfixes and patches as they have, Battlefield 2042 could eventually become a go-to online shooter, but it’s a shame it was released like this.

Battlefield 2042 was played on a PC using a code that the publisher provided for review.