Battlefield 2042

Online competitive first-person shooter Battlefield 2042 sends 128 players into the near future and offers victory under the changed rules of war since the classic Battlefield. At the same time, the game, as before, offers battles on land, sea, and air, involving all types of infantry and equipment.

The year is 2042. The familiar world order has collapsed due to weather cataclysms, economic crises, and depletion of natural resources worldwide. The most resilient powers — Russia and the USA — start a new confrontation over the last remaining resources of the Earth. Following the tactics of hybrid wars, they do not send their soldiers to the front line, but recruit fighters on the ground (so-called "displaced").

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

In the game there is no 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 an unsuccessful start, DICE studio abandoned further development of the Battlefield 2042 story, limiting themselves to short explanations with each addition.

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

Battles in 2042 are fought all over the planet: the rapidly melting Antarctica, the quicksand-swallowed Qatar, a glass and concrete metropolis in South Korea, a giant ship graveyard 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 was also room for popular maps from past games in the series.

Some maps have a unique event: a sandstorm, a destructive tornado, the fall of a skyscraper, or the launch of a rocket from a spaceport, happening at different times and places on the map, although it may not happen at all. However, this is a façade, unable to 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 within them. For a sector, the team receives a powerful boost to the score. But coordinating the actions of Battlefield 2042 players due to poor level design did not succeed.

DICE designers failed to give the maps a coherent structure, highlighting places for sniper duels, regular firefights at a distance, and close-range shooting. There is no map and zone control, no division of duties between squads, and no individual skill. Players either run around looking for someone, or one crowd tries to kill another, gathering in "bottlenecks." Everything is complicated by the lack of cover and selective destructibility of buildings.

DICE tried to rework many gameplay elements. Characters were supposed to move better, learned to climb and vault over obstacles. The Frostbite engine was intended to improve the handling of body, vehicle, and object collisions, which would almost eliminate the chance of getting stuck somewhere on the map. However, due to a lack of development time, these innovations were about 50/50 successful.

The shooting mechanics remained arcade-like and failed to provide new sensations from each weapon and firefight in general due to a lack of both the number of "guns" and the abundance of bugs associated with 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 battle through the "plus" system, which saves pre-prepared sets. Equipment and vehicles were reconfigured in the same way.

DICE also failed to mix today's capabilities with futuristic technology and gadgets of the near future. Combat robot dogs, smart mini-drones, and 5th generation fighters coexist with familiar weapons, tanks, APCs, and helicopters, most of which make the 21-year difference unnoticeable.

The promise that "waiting for vehicles will no longer be necessary" was not fulfilled: it is difficult for an ordinary player to prove themselves in firefights and score points, the total amount of transport is extremely low, and it is almost instantly taken. Moreover, the equipment can be abandoned in the middle of the map, and you have to go on foot, although it can indeed be deployed anywhere.

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

The innovation of Battlefield 2042 was the specialist system, based on the 5 familiar series classes but with significant differences.

Now the choice of weapons and additional equipment 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 up new possibilities for everyone to choose the optimal play style: an infantryman can heal, an assault soldier can scout, a scout can storm buildings, and so on.

However, the greatest efficiency from the same healing can be obtained from a profile operative. In 2042, each fighter has a personal talent and ability, giving significant bonuses when used as intended. At the time of release, there were 10 unique operatives in the game, later there were 14.

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

Battlefield 2042's multiplayer was divided into three directions: