Battlefield 2042 Review

After a minor delay, EA DICE and Electronic Arts’ Battlefield 2042 has hit the scene. Is the game worth checking out, or should you play a different shooter this holiday season? Check out our review and find out.

Battlefield 2042 Review

When you first launch Battlefield 2042, you are presented with a few options. There is no story this time around; only straight-up fighting. You can go to All-Out Warfare, which are large maps with lots of vehicles and players that task players with taking control points to earn the victory. The new Hazard Zone pits a squad of four against other squads of four in a bit of a free-for-all-style match. Finally, there is the Battlefield Portal – the best part of the game that has old maps and rules from the series.

The crux of the content comes from All-Out Warfare. Here, you will play with up to 128 players as you defend points and fight epic battles. Usually, this would be my bread and butter, but I am not a big fan here. While the matches themselves can be close, there is far too much downtime. If you get a vehicle, that’s great; if not, you are likely running a long time. There is too little action in many matches as well; imagine running for a couple of minutes to get to a point only to have sniped. Now you get to run again. Fun, huh?

You can spawn on SQUAD mates and certain vehicles, but it isn’t enough. To help alleviate this, you can call in vehicles on the fly, such as jeeps, hovercrafts, or sometimes tanks. You call them down, they drop in, and you drive. Unfortunately, sometimes these are on cooldowns and you aren’t told why. I know it’s because there are too many vehicles out already, but the game doesn’t explain that. When you do get a good match going though, it feels fantastic. However, without some changes to the spawns, I don’t think I’ll be going back.

As of this writing, I am currently in a Breakthrough match waiting at the deploy screen. We are out of reinforcements, but the game is still going. No one can spawn. No one can do anything but sit there and chat. I’ve been playing since Early Access launched, and this has been a problem since then. I am not sure when the servers will be fixed, but expect some bugged matches.

Hazard Mode is Battlefield 2042’s new mode – or at least it is new to me. These are much smaller modes with only 32 players. Eight squads of four try to steal data and then get out of the zone. The mode is much faster, and combat is persistent. You get scanners that show the Data Drives on the map. When a play has a drive, you find them instead. That means players are constantly at odds with each other, trying to get as many pieces of data as possible. Then the extraction comes, and the place becomes the O.K. Corral-shootouts from all angles as everyone wants to get their data and leave.

Hazard mode shines in another aspect as well. Battlefield 2042 has operators, each of which packing their own abilities. For example, medics can resurrect anyone, but Angel gives armor on rez. Likewise, Sundance has a wingsuit instead of a parachute to glide in and out easier. Irish can put up a barricade for you to take cover behind. There are ten operators in all, each bringing value. They do play a factor in the larger maps as well, but they really shine in Hazard. Falck’s syringe pistol heals at a distance, so I can take cover behind Irish’s barricade and keep my team alive. Although it feels weird, the tinier mode of Battlefield is the one I prefer.

Unless, of course, we are talking about Battlefield Portal, and then I want large maps. Battlefield Portal is by far the best feature of the game. I have to admit that when they told me about it, my first reaction was, “Oh, we are being lazy this year,” but I was wrong. Portal allows you to play maps and modes from Battlefield 1942, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, and Battlefield 3. A lot of these are user-made maps and modes, meaning the community did it. The modes suffer from the same server problems as All-Out Warfare modes, but it isn’t nearly as bad. I can typically get four or five matches in before I have server issues.

The biggest downside to this is the fact that I find it superior to all the new content. I thought it might rose-tinted glasses, but the games do in fact play better. I land shot easier with these guns, the rockets fire quicker, and the vehicles all feel more responsive. You lose the call-in ability, but it also isn’t needed because I am in fights far more often. Electronic Arts and EA DICE now have a more significant problem on their hands. Battlefield Portal is now a requirement for all future Battlefield games in my eyes. It is too good to be ignored, and might be the only reason you stick around the game. We’ll see what they do in the future.

Outside of server problems, I haven’t had many other tech issues. Of course, if you can’t get into a game, there really doesn’t need to be any other problems for it to be a failure. It came in fresh out of the oven and is still cooling.

Battlefield 2042 has the potential to be a fantastic Battlefield game, but its server problems really put a damper on it. At this point, wait for a couple more patches before checking it out.

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