Battlefield 2042

The network competitive first-person shooter Battlefield 2042 sends 128 players into the near future and offers them to win according to the changed rules of war since the classic Battlefield. The game still features combat on land, sea, and air, involving all types of infantry and equipment.

Year 2042. The familiar world order has collapsed due to weather disasters, economic crises, and depletion of natural resources worldwide. The most resilient powers — Russia and the USA — begin a new confrontation for the last remaining resources of the Earth. Following the tactics of hybrid wars, they send not their soldiers to the front lines, but recruit local fighters (the so-called "displaced").

There are no problems with mercenaries: millions of people are left without shelter, food, and water, and have gained combat experience in proxy wars. Wanting to earn rewards and security, these experienced operatives (specialists) join one of the powers and fight on fronts around the world. More about life in this future can be learned from the official short film "Exodus."

The game does not have a story campaign, only minor info inserts briefly explaining the essence of the conflict between the sides and why it is important to win in this mode or on this map. Due to a failed launch, the studio DICE abandoned further development of the Battlefield 2042 story, limiting itself to short explanations with the release of each expansion.

Battlefield 2042 offers a small set of truly huge but poorly thought out and designed maps, made without considering innovations in game design and the doubling of the number of players. The area of some maps is comparable to the Vikendi map from PUBG, while maps that cannot boast large linear dimensions have many vertical platforms and levels.

Battles in 2042 take place all over the planet: the melting Antarctica, the sunken Qatar in quicksand, a glass and concrete megacity in South Korea, a graveyard of giant ships in India, an overloaded port in Singapore, a spaceport in Guyana, a green oasis in the semi-deserts of Egypt, and other points of interest. Designers were inspired by real architectural and landscape projects. There is also room for popular maps from past games in the series.

Some maps have unique events: a sandstorm, a destructive tornado, the collapse of a skyscraper, or a rocket launch from a spaceport, occurring at different times and in different places on the map, although it may not happen at all. However, this is just a facade that cannot significantly change the game plan.

The maps themselves are now divided into sectors (control points), and they can only be captured by taking all the segments inside. For capturing a sector, the team receives a powerful boost to their score. However, coordinating the actions of players in Battlefield 2042 due to poor level design has proven difficult.

Designers at DICE failed to give the maps a clear structure, highlighting spots for sniper duels, regular long-range shootouts, and close-range gunfire. There was no map control and zones, no division of responsibilities between squads, and no individual skill. Players either run around looking for someone or one crowd tries to kill another, gathering in "bottle necks." Everything is complicated by the lack of cover and selective destructibility of buildings.

DICE tried to redesign many gameplay elements. Characters were supposed to move better, learned to climb and roll over obstacles. The Frostbite engine was aimed to improve the handling of collisions between bodies, vehicles, and objects, which would almost eliminate the chance of getting stuck somewhere on the map. However, due to a lack of development time, these innovations succeeded about 50/50.

The shooting mechanics remained arcade-like and failed to provide new sensations from each weapon and shootouts in general due to a lack of both the number of "barrels" and an abundance of bugs related to their use. However, in the spirit of Crysis, you can change the sight, barrel, grip, and type of ammunition on the weapon right in the fight through the "plus" system, which saves pre-prepared sets. The same way, equipment and tech were reconfigured.

DICE also could not mix the possibilities of our days with futuristic technology and gadgets of the near future. Combat robots-dogs, smart mini-drones, and 5th generation fighters coexist with familiar weapons, tanks, armored personnel carriers, and helicopters, most of which makes the 21-year difference hardly noticeable.

The promise that "you won't have to wait for vehicles anymore" was not fulfilled: an average player finds it hard to stand out in shootouts and score points, the total amount of vehicles is extremely low, and they are taken almost instantly. Moreover, vehicles can be abandoned in the middle of the map, and you will have to go on foot, although they can indeed be dropped anywhere.

Overall, the game is remembered for completely abandoning defining series features, such as the squad system or server selection, which eventually returned over the months and years. The content at release and six months after was unacceptably scarce.

A new feature of Battlefield 2042 is the specialist system, based on 5 familiar classes from the series, but with significant differences.

Now the choice of weapons and additional gear does not depend on the specialist; a player can take a sniper and run with a shotgun, be a medic with an RPG, any options. This decision opened new opportunities for everyone in selecting the optimal play style: a soldier can heal, an assault soldier can scout, a recon can storm buildings, and so on.

However, the greatest effectiveness from healing can be obtained from a specialized operator. In 2042, each fighter has a personal talent and ability that provide significant bonuses when used for their intended purpose. At the time of release, there were 10 unique operators in the game, later their number increased to 14.

After the release, it turned out that this system did not work as expected. Players picked 2-3 of the most effective builds from specialists, weapons, and modules for them, and preferred a selfish style of play instead of team interaction. In patches, DICE tried several times to improve the specialists and fix the balance.

The multiplayer of Battlefield 2042 is divided into three modes: