Battlefield 2042’s Hazard Zone is not a battle royale

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DICE has revealed Hazard Zone, the third big game mode for their highly anticipated online shooter Battlefield 2042, which is set to launch this November. Many were pointing that this game mode could be another take on the battle royale formula but leans more towards games like Hunt: Showdown and even Escape from Tarkov.

It’s a more scaled-down high-risk mode if you compare it to the all-out Warfare we all experienced in the open beta last week. Instead of up to 128 players in one match, Hazard Zone matches will have up to just 32-players divided into four-member squads. The goal is to get in, retrieve precious data drives from downed satellites in the map, then extract safely to reap the rewards. If you die, you’re pretty much out as there will be no respawns.

Firefights will ensue when retrieving these drives against other teams. If a team gets one, they’ll have two extraction opportunities - one will occur mid-match and one at the end of the match. With that in mind, there’s a lot of decision making involved as only two teams will get out of the match alive. Extracting will reward you with a currency that can be used to unlock tactical upgrades like being able to carry more drives in a match, Loadout insurance, and more. 

Before a match, players will get briefed and will be given time to buy and equip gadgets that could potentially help them in the match. Battlefield 2042’s Specialists will be available in the Hazard Zone so the right composition is needed to pull off a successful extraction. 

Battlefield 2042’s Hazard Zone sounds rather intriguing as iit delivers a complete opposite gameplay atmosphere. On one hand, Battlefield’s primary game mode is all fast-paced and is pure chaos, the second game mode, Battlefield Portal, just sounds like a bag of nostalgic fun, while the other requires a bit of strategy, patience, and proper execution. 

With this announcement, it did improve my interest with the game as I wasn’t too keen on it due to my experience with the game’s open beta. I’m just surprised DICE and EA took this look to reveal the game’s third main game mode, which is just weeks away from release. 

Battlefield 2042 is launching on November 19, 2021 on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC.