Battlefield 2042 Review

Battlefield 2042 is multiplayer-focused and has no single-player campaign, the first main series entry to not include one since Battlefield 2142. However, similar to older entries in the series like Battlefield 2, players will have the option of playing against AI bots in either solo or co-op modes, although the game is always online and cannot be played offline.

Certain multiplayer modes like Conquest and Breakthrough will support up to 128 players per server on next-gen consoles and PC, the first Battlefield game to officially support over 100 players in a single match since the Korean exclusive Battlefield Online. The Playstation 4 and Xbox One versions of 2042 will only support up to 64 players with smaller-scale maps.

2042 takes place two decades after the events of the War of 2020. Extreme climate change events take place during the 2030s, causing massive global upheaval. The collapse of many government powers and the shuttering of borders has resulted in over 1.2 billion people becoming displaced. Many of these outcasts band together for mutual survival, becoming known as the Non-Patriated or “No-Pats” for short.

By 2037, advances in technology have allowed humanity to begin rebuilding a global society, and some of the remaining countries begin to open their borders once again. However, distrustful of the governments of the “Old World” that abandoned them, many No-Pats refuse to rejoin their former nations and create their own identity, unbound by loyalty to any country. The No-Pats create Task Forces of military Specialists to defend themselves.

In 2040, a space debris storm causes a Kessler Effect to occur, where most of the satellites orbiting the Earth cease to function and crash into the planet. A global blackout takes place, plunging the world into chaos as communication grids are destroyed and supply lines halt. The United States of America and the Russian Federation, the only two remaining superpower states, blame each other for the catastrophe. The two nations begin a proxy war to secure remaining food and fuel supplies, hiring the No-Pat Task Forces to maintain plausible deniability. By 2042, a massive open war is all but certain, and the No-Pats must choose sides to survive.

In a world full of online multiplayer shooters, especially this year with the very crowded space with COD and Halo also coming out in the same time frame, Battlefield does something a little bold, which isn’t for everyone. But for me, it got my attention, and that was the utter chaos of the 128 player modes. The other big change for the series was the introduction of specialists. Specialists have one unique Specialty gadget, such as Maria’s Syrette Pistol and Boris’ SG-36 Sentry System, and a unique passive Trait, such as Casper’s passive Movement Sensor. The rest of each Specialist’s kit is fully customizable. Making it almost of a hero shooter where depending on who you pick, you’re gameplay style may be different. Unfortunately, the odd choice of allowing anyone to equip anything makes this redundant as you can fully customize everything you want.

The progression is also a weird take on it. Largely the guns in the game are terrible, however, once you get a certain number of kills you unlock the attachments that make the guns good. Very weird and can make for a very STEEP learning curve if you jump into the game with a bunch of experienced players. Vehicles are everywhere, my first match jumping in, I was overwhelmed. Looking at the sky there were attack helicopters, transports, on the ground you had humvees and tanks, and hovercrafts all shooting missiles, machine guns, explosions. I just kept running till I found an objective for my team to capture and held my ground. It’s the utter chaos that makes this game fun, you never know what’s going to happen nor can you be prepared for it. You die quickly though as you can’t take a lot of damage outside of a vehicle, but you respawn until the match is over, so there is that at least. Visually the game looks pretty good with a handful of awesome weather effects to boot.

Battlefield isn’t just about the massive maps (which are cool in comparison to other MP team shooters), but there is also Portal which has (as of right now) three full classic Battlefield games in there that you have complete freedom over, you can customize damage, friendly fire, and so much more. You can do whatever you want and set up custom matches. A nice (and surprisingly deep add-on for Veterans of the series).

Hazard Zone is another new mode added where it’s a smaller map, and smaller player count, and your objective is to get Data drives and escape the map before it’s too late. If you are successful you gain extra perks and bonuses for the next round. Although after a while if you continue to be in the lead it makes it easy to steamroll opponents who are at a disadvantage.

The downside to Battlefield is it doesn’t feel like a full game, there are plenty of technical issues for some folks, placeholders for future enhancements, so on and so forth. We know this game will continue to develop and grow to add more features and changes, but it almost seems like it needed some more time to cook and may have benefited from a further delay to get out of the Call of Duty/Halo sandwich it’s caught between.

So for now, I would say I can’t score this title but I will say right now for fans of Battlefield, you will have fun with this title and it’s something you have been hoping for I believe. But if you are new to the series, OR you haven’t liked previous entries, I’m not sure you will enjoy yourself with this one. I will keep an eye and revisit and update accordingly with future updates to the game, as I am having a good time with it.