Battlefield 2042 put to the test: on the mend

The Battlefield 2042 test now takes around four weeks. Why did so much time pass before the scoring? Because the start of the tactical shooter was anything but successful, but updates and patches were to be expected. There was no need to rush. And indeed: Battlefield 2042 is now on a good path, but there are still many steps to be taken at the same time. 

Battlefield 2042 is the eighteenth part of the shooter series - and it was longed for by fans like hardly any other Battlefield title. Last but not least, this was due to the sometimes radical changes that EA Dice, the developer studio behind the tactical shooting game, made.

That was brave and somehow also clever, but anything but easy. For several reasons: Fans of the series do not necessarily appreciate changes, and there is also the risk of failing with a new kind of gameplay concept. In any case, since the release of Battlefield 2042 it has become clear that EA Dice will still have to invest many hours of work to turn the fundamentally good idea into a good game.

Battlefield 2042: 1.000 miles to the frontline

EA Dice would certainly have imagined the start differently for Battlefield 2042. Dissatisfied players punished the shooter with lousy ratings, especially the technology and countless bugs met with little approval. Understandable: With such a popular video game series one has to be careful. Other video game companies have recently shown that this is no longer the norm, and their work received anything but positive after its release. Battlefield 2042 also has to struggle: with the technology, with the concept, with bugs, with errors, with disconnections - it does not work properly. Even four weeks after the start, things are clearly stuck. 

 The prerequisites are good on paper: Three different game modes (All-Out Warfare, Hazard Zone and Portal) are the attractant for virtual soldiers or mercenaries to stay a little closer to the story. It is there, but pale: Apparently it has no place in a multiplayer shooter. Why did Dice not give the tactical shooter a solo game area? Incomprehensible. Especially because it has already worked with other shooters from EA Dice and has been well received.

So somehow the looming Third World War is the scenario. Climate change has plunged the world into catastrophe. Resources are scarce, people are struggling to survive. The US and Russia, as the remaining state powers, are recruiting those now stateless as mercenaries. Then it's shot. story end. Dice would like to continue the "story" through the season pass, but could also leave it as long as the presentation continues to consist of the snippets of narrative, albeit with the help of multiple sources. Coupled with the system of specialists, there is hardly any mood when the maps are populated by clone warriors. In the end, it's surprising how EA Dice, as an experienced development studio, was able to implement the story part in such an amateurish way, while the quality department obviously just kept its feet still. It's a shame, there's a lot of potential lost here. 

Better on comfortable maps

Regardless, you shoot your way through the cards against human players - they play better anyway. If you can find them. With a full team of 128 players, the gameplay feeling is absurd: First you run through the desert or through urban canyons or harbors or whatever, if you are lucky you will meet one or the other teammate and spend minutes on the front line or one of the hotspots to reach. The gigantic maps then melt into small arenas and celebrate mass battles in a confined space. If your own mercenary has blessed the time and no other player has mercy on reanimating the deceased, you have to start running again. It's annoying and very annoying. With a little luck, a vehicle will be available or a place in the vehicle of another player will be free - provided that he stops. Battlefield 2042 is a team shooter, but there are also many lone fighters in its own ranks. It has always been like that and is no different with this title. 

Allowing up to 128 players was one of the innovations EA Dice came up with for Battlefield 2042. In the meantime you can halve the number of players if you wish, and that's a good thing. It takes a major point of criticism from the game, which has now been linked to a setting option. The developers are working at full speed to get the shooter on track. In any case, it is the much smaller cards that players prefer. The reason is obvious: there is simply more going on there and the downtime is lower. Absurdly enough, Battlefield 2042 has a direct impact on the strategies: Tactical play works much better on a manageable battlefield. 

The initially criticized system around the specialists ultimately works better than expected. What's more, it's fun to build your own fighter. You can craft the virtual alter ego from many individual parts and thus adapt it to your personal playing style. This works wonderfully, it only takes a while because you have to unlock features first. There are also classes, but they are rudimentarily divided into Assault Soldier, Provisioner, Engineer or Reconnaissance. The rest is pretty much up to the player himself. A real ray of hope Battlefield 2042 and definitely the way that EA Dice should conceptually go in the future. The game also allows you to customize the weapon "on the go" - something regarding the scope used. There is obviously a lot more to the idea than fans had previously suspected. How well the classes or specialists can then be integrated into the battle is ultimately a question of the team. Anyone who runs off in the best Doom manner to collect kills can also do so in Battlefield 2042, but it becomes much more exciting with coordination and communication. But the fans are responsible for that themselves. 

There are enough weapons and gadgets, if not in excess. The weapon feel also fits, has already been fine-tuned and gives little reason for criticism. And most of the guns are efficient too: You don't have to throw a truckload of bullets into your opponent to shoot him out of the boot - targeted volleys or even perfect hits are sufficient. Together with the recoil and the grandiose gun sound, the mood arises.  

Playfully, Battlefield 2042 is currently on the mend. What still hampers the fun for the player, however, are the countless bugs: The healing did not work, sometimes the deceased glitched around in walls and signs, sometimes the game even gets stuck in the resuscitation area and only a restart helps. The disconnections are also sometimes ugly. And the performance goes to its knees even on the next-gen consoles when the players shoot down their fire brigade on the large map. Then lag is noticeable, stuttering too, the frame rate drops dramatically in some cases. It is important to work on improvements here. EA Dice is already doing this, but the measures are not yet sufficient. Fans need patience with Battlefield 2042 - but that's not really new for veterans of the series anyway. 

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Conclusion

Battlefield 2042 does some things right, but also does a lot not. Is the shooter still fun? Yes, but with some drawbacks. The current patches give hope for significant improvements, and these are also necessary. Battlefield 2042 doesn't make it easy to like the game. Too often the fun is disturbed by the technology, sometimes by the concept. 

But there are also rays of hope: the specialist system is significantly better than expected. Dice's plan works. Players can actually let off steam building fighters and adapting their own mercenary to their favorite playstyle. That even motivates you. The different game modes are also successful, above all "Portal" is terrific. In Battlefield 2042, fans can use the construction kit to create their own matches and set the rules by which the game must be played. For this, the developers have taken several basic building blocks with Battlefield 1942, Battlefield 2042, Battlefield 3 and Battlefield Bad Company 2. Be creative in a shooting game? This is possible with Battlefield 2042 in a comparatively uncomplicated way - a milestone for the genre.

Those whose creative streak is not so pronounced looks around at the works of the others. The portal mode also offers enough incentive for this, because what you can hardly or not at all manage yourself, apparently others can do pretty well. If you can't do anything with it, you can use the all-out warfare mode or hazard zone. There's a lot of fun there too - if the technology of Battlefield 2042 allows it.

Battlefield 2042 is comprehensive in terms of content. It appeals to different types of players, offers a lot of content and a neat package of shooter content, including weapons, maps, vehicles and goodies. So here the concept works. It is all the more incomprehensible why the errors occur precisely at the level of detail.

Battlefield 2042 is currently a problem child, but at the same time it is in good hands with EA Dice. The developers have already impressively demonstrated this several times. Players need patience and a certain tolerance for frustration until the new tactical shooter becomes the game that it should have been from the start. In any case, the course seems to have already been set: In many corners it can already be seen that Battlefield 2042 will become a big game. 

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