Let’s say it right off the bat, Battlefield 2042 is making a comeback for the popular shooter series. This new installment from DICE studios is chaotic, exhilarating and hilarious, all in one Battlefield should be. It’s only a few tweaks away from being the long awaited experience for fans.
Battlefield 2042, it’s sort of three games in one, or at least three game concepts: the classic All-Out Warfare and the new ones Hazard Zone and Portal.
Composed of timeless Conquest and Breakthrough, All-Out Warfare offers seven huge maps on which up to 128 players compete. Conqueststands for a 360-degree chaos typical of Battlefield, while Breakthrough Offers a more “organized” version with an understandable frontline that attackers push back as they capture objectives. We love.
Hazard Zone pits eight teams of four players in charge of recovering data disks from crashed satellites all over the map. In addition to opposing players to be wary of, each crash site is also guarded by “bots” who shoot on sight. Discs in hand, we “win” the game by leaving the scene in a highly contested helicarrier that only visits the map twice per round. If we miss the flight or die before getting on board, it’s screwed up. Carrying discs earn credits to spend on equipment for subsequent rounds. We like the concept, but we find the game loop unrewarding for now.
In Portal, players will be able to revisit old games Battlefield remastered, or even create unique experiences by deciding the rules of the game themselves. For example, by pitting WWII soldiers against modern troops. Would the future of the franchise pass through this almost infinite replayability? To have.
Another novelty for the series: the traditional “classes” of combatants are replaced by a series of “specialists” with unique gadgets. One can hover from one objective to another with its ” wingsuit Another can quickly reach heights with their grappling hook, yet another can briefly see enemies through walls with their scopes, and so on. It remains to be seen if this will be balanced, and how it will be deployed. One thing is certain: we are entitled to a ton of customization options to accommodate all styles of play.
Having said that, it wouldn’t be a real Battlefield without a rough launch, and one cannot ignore the many problems that sometimes spoil the experience. These range from the smallest display bug to crash the most complete in the game. We consider ourselves lucky to have been spared the worst problems, which is not the case with many players. Battlefield 2042 would certainly have benefited from a few more months of development, but the majority of its issues can be fixed with some tweaks which we hope will come quickly. Its foundations are nevertheless the most solid for at least Battlefield 4 and it is believed that the experience will only improve over time.