14 DAY TRIAL // 
Battlefield 2042 is one of the most anticipated game releases of the year, and without a doubt, this isn’t at all a surprise. The Battlefield franchise has become miraculously successful in the last few years, so the release of a new title upgraded to meet the 2021 expectations was supposed to be received with much enthusiasm by the gaming community out there.
In practice, however, the launch of Battlefield 2042 has turned into one huge controversial mess, and if you’ve already tried the game, you probably know exactly why.
The negative comments from early players have plagued Battlefield 2042’s early adoption, and honestly, it’s kind of shocking to see such a popular franchise receiving so poor ratings. On Steam, for example, Battlefield 2042 is rated as “mostly negative,” as only 34 percent of the nearly 68,000 reviews are positive.
But is the new Battlefield 2042 really that bad? Let’s see what the game is all about and try to figure out the answer to this question together.
First and foremost, let’s start with the obvious and say that the graphics are pretty good. The scenery, the surroundings, the weapons, the vehicles, and pretty much everything you see in the game feature an impressive level of detail, and on several occasions, I got killed by an enemy simply because I was busy admiring the view.
This isn’t necessarily surprising, though. It’s pretty clear DICE has tried to make Battlefield 2042 feel more life-like, albeit as gamers know already, this doesn’t come down to just graphics. But in this department, the new game gets it right, and if you play on a PC with all graphics settings set to high, you probably know what I mean.
But then, there’s the gameplay. And this is where things go south.
First and foremost, what’s with all the bugs? There are moments in Battlefield when glitches and the poor optimizations ruin the whole fun, and while the developing team is obviously working on dealing with them, such an experience shouldn’t by any means be offered on day one given the growing community supporting the franchise.
Vehicles feel extremely buggy, and in many cases, it’s no longer a matter of skills but a matter of who ends up struggling with the unpolished gameplay first.
Leaving aside the bugs, which will sooner or later (hopefully, sooner!) get squashed, Battlefield comes with a series of, well, let’s say debatable, changes.
Classes are a big loss, there’s no doubt about this. Going for Specialists and without focusing too much on specialization is a bit of a letdown, and this is why Battlefield diehards are so disappointed. In theory, the idea behind Specialists was supposed to give each character a unique set of skills and gadgets, but in practice, the way the concept has been implemented in the game barely makes any difference.
Items like snipers, repair tools, C4, and rocket launchers are now available for everybody, so in theory, the specialization focus is kind of fading away.
The vehicles are terribly overpowered, and getting killed by a helicopter is something that happens way too often. Pretty much all games are full of helicopters continuously flying all over the place, mostly because players abuse this bad change and just want to get more kills. Sure, this is what the game is all about, but at the end of the day, the gameplay overall focuses more on how to abuse certain glitches rather than experiencing the warfare in all its magic.
The maps sometimes feel too large, though given there are now 128 players, this change more or less makes sense. At the same time, snipers are way too effective, and it’s really easy to get killed unless someone has your back. This is another shortcoming, as playing solo is kind of difficult, as pretty much everything from the moment the action starts is way too chaotic.
But on the other hand, this chaos that Battlefield 2042 unleashes for every player out there is what makes the game fun. Sure, the weapons are unpolished, the vehicles are way too overpowered, and the sniper rifles are ridiculously powerful, but the new Battlefield does manage to digitally reproduce the brutality of what war means at the end of the day.
Running alongside your comrades is extremely motivating especially if you’re playing together with your friends, and healing someone and bringing them back in the battle now feels more involving than before.
Certainly, getting easy kills is not as simple as before (unless you’re a camper and stick with the annoying sniper rifle I talked about earlier), and at some level, this is a good change. However, since the game lacks the required polishing to put the focus on skills, I often felt like killing an enemy was more of a matter of luck rather than a mix of coordination, weapon efficiency, and accurate shooting.
There’s one part, however, that’s absolutely lovable. The Battlefield Portal, which allows players to build their experiences based on weapons, maps, and classes of Battlefield 1942, Battlefield 3, and Bad Company 2, is a super-straightforward way to get a taste of Battlefield in all its glory.
All without having to struggle with most of the problems mentioned above, especially if you’ve been part of the franchise for several years and know exactly what Battlefield is supposed to be.
THE BOTTOM LINE
In essence, Battlefield 2042 is a solid game, but it’s the lack of polishing, the bugs, and the poor optimizations the ones that are turning it into such a big mess.
The game just feels unfinished, and for a release that’s so highly anticipated, this doesn’t make any sense at all. People wanted Battlefield 2024 to be perfect, and unfortunately, it really isn’t. And what’s worse is that it doesn’t even take more than a couple of minutes to figure this out on your own.
The gameplay continues to be chaotic and the team-playing vibes are almost non-existent if you’re not playing together with friends. Portal is pretty much the only solid selling point right now, and unless the new Battlefield urgently receives massive improvements, it could easily turn into one of the biggest disappointments of the year.
