Battlefield 2042 is a massive misfire
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I played Battlefield 2042 during its early access period and have also played it during its first weekend when it was officially released. During my time with the game I've felt discouraged and frustrated. Confused and misled. The amount of bugs, issues, lack of basic features, and disappointing level design has made me conclude that DICE and EA just released the worst Battlefield game I’ve ever played.
In the past few weeks I've been taking in different shooters and Battlefield 2042 is the only shooter where I slowly lose interest the more I play. It's just the little things started to stack up, which eventually led me calling it quits earlier than usual. I was simply not having fun.
One factor is the many bugs and issues that are currently plaguing the game. What has been reported so far by the community is a long list of why this game is not ready for release as I've never experienced a smooth issue-free match of Battlefield 2042.
I would either get stuck within an environment, get the revive bug where I can't respawn or be revived, or be stuck in a loading screen with other players with the match never starting after more than 10 minutes of waiting. Weird environmental pop ups, hovercrafts climbing buildings, random server lag, inaccurate hit registration, the list of things that detach myself from the experience goes on.
Due to a bug, a Specialist's exclusive gadget was disabled as it wasn't working as intended. Then, it came back after a few days but another gadget had to be removed temporarily as it was the culprit for server lag. It felt like there were multiple fires going on all at once as there were various hotfixes and changes implemented by DICE on the fly. What I just mentioned is just a fraction of what people experienced in the game as I'm puzzled how this was considered an acceptable state for release.
Battlefield 2042 felt like it was still in it’s beta phase, and that feeling never really went away even during the game’s official release. Whatever Day 1 patch DICE deployed didn’t provide any kind of remedy to improve the overall experience of the game. It’s issues weighed down the game to unacceptable levels that All-Out Warfare, it’s main game mode, is not the place to get the most fun out of Battlefield 2042.
I say this as the main features of the game does little to make me excited to play more of it. The idea of 128 players running around in one map sounds amazing on paper but felt like it was watered down by the game’s seven maps - massive game spaces that have problems of their own as each one feels shallow due to the lack of defensive placements, significant destructible environments, or any means of fortifying a position. Even in the gamemode Breakthrough - where one side is tasked to capture two points while the other defends them - feels like the increased player count doesn’t feel any different or epic compared to the 64-player count found in previous Battlefield titles.
The intense weather conditions meant to affect certain spaces in the map feels like a misfire as well by DICE as a massive tornado or a sandstorm is the only biggest event you can experience in the game right now and they quickly become more of a nuisance instead of it being a source of triggering unique situations in the match.
Then, we have the specialists replacing the traditional Battlefield class system, a change that doesn't sit well with me as the Battlefield series already lacks giving players more incentive to cover specific roles for their team/squad. These Specialists also make it hard to distinguish from friend or foe that most players, including me, just shoot anything that comes near. It also doesn’t help that the red indicator that appears right above an enemy player when you see them sometimes bugs out at times.
Hopefully this gets remedied when the game adds more outfits to make players unique but right now, it could get worse when a meta gets established, as certain Specialists will be played more than the rest since gadgets like repair tools, medic kits, etc are no longer tied to a specific class, or at least in this case, Specialist.
To top it all off, Battlefield 2042 feels raw as basic features are still missing at launch. Players have no means to check their overall stats in the game and the scoreboard during a match only has the list of players on both teams - no kill/death ratio, score, nothing. You can’t even join a new squad or make a new one. You’re pretty much stuck with whoever you are paired with. The list goes on as other features present in previous titles are absent in the game.
Oh, and this is a Battlefield game without any naval vehicles or the means to go underwater while swimming.
I’ve tried on multiple occasions to enjoy the game, but each time Battlefield 2042 just finds different ways to turn me off. Battlefield Portal - the game mode that lets players use maps, vehicles, and loadouts from across games in the series to create their own custom match - is the only high point right now as I have the option to play on my favorite map or game from the series. Hazard mode? Even after multiple games I still don’t get why it exists.
Battlefield 2042 is sadly not the Battlefield game I was hoping for. Even if you set aside the bugs and issues currently affecting the game at launch, the many decisions and design choices still make it a questionable entry for a beloved franchise. It is now considered the worst reviewed game on Steam currently sitting at mostly negative with over 33,000 reviews and counting, and it only took days to reach that. Will it get better as they patch it? Definitely, as I don’t expect this game has the capability of going any lower...but I've been wrong before.
