We return to the future in “Battlefield 2042” – at least to the near future. There is no single player mode, but only three individual multiplayer segments that share a progression system. In addition to the classic multiplayer called “All-Out-Warfare”, there is the “Hazard Zone” and the creative “Portal” mode. All three modes are relatively different and should therefore appeal to different types of players. But one after the other.
“All-Out-Warfare” is the largest part of “Battlefield 2042” and offers battles for up to 128 players. That’s an announcement – and believe us, 128 players are an incredible number. The mode is obviously inspired by the many Battle Royales and therefore somehow to be understood as a combination of classic multiplayer and Battle Royal. In the classic “Battlefield” mode, Conquest, we have to collect and hold points on the huge maps again. The maps are huge. Almost too big to cover the distances between the points on foot. In “Battlefield 2042” you can request a vehicle by air freight at the push of a button, but this is not always possible. Most of the time we walk from A to B to C to D and then walk back again. Everywhere it is teeming with enemies, so that one is often drawn into battles that have nothing to do with the actual objective.
Due to the size of the map, there are actually always several confrontations, but on the whole there is little interaction. So you get the feeling that two or three theaters of war are being dealt with at the same time in a game and you are often torn out of one event only to then join another. Often the tension and motivation are lost. In addition, “Battlefield 2042” moves more in the direction of “Call of Duty” and the shooting time has been significantly shortened, which in turn means faster death.
Speaking of gameplay: “Battlefield 2042” plays well but is far worse than its predecessor. The locomotion, the gun play and the vehicles felt a lot better in “Battlefield V” and one can only hope that DICE will improve it here – which at least has always been the case in the past. The weapon gameplay could also be more massive, but it definitely hides the strength of “Battlefield 2042”.
“Battlefield 2042” breaks down the well-known class system and offers different specialists, each with a skill. Although these are manageable, they bring some dynamism into the game. With the help of equipment, everyone can be a paramedic, which is kind of a shame. On the other hand, there is the feeling that while playing you get less support from colleagues or are healed less often – a fact that has become more and more common in recent years. You can now actively call for paramedics and make it clear on the ground that help is needed. This is mostly ignored by the other players. Certainly: DICE is not to blame for that. On the other hand, the developers are simply not doing enough to encourage or reward the team play of the players.
In “Battlefield 2042”, huge natural events come back that can haunt us during a game. Huge torrents, tornadoes or floods are an important part of the game, which provide the usual action-packed scenes. Due to the variety of vehicles on land, in the water and in the air, we have many opportunities to attack enemy bases and the warfare is intensified. Something is happening everywhere, tanks are shooting, planes explode and bullets fly past you. “Battlefield 2042” presents itself here from its best side. Unfortunately, the hit boxes are not ideal.
Now we come to the “Hazard Zone”. This is a mode that can best be compared to the Dark Zone of “The Division”. Here we are sent as a team to a zone to retrieve data packets from satellites. In addition to NPCs, other players also get in our way. And if you should die, you can only be brought back to the team in certain ways. The size of the maps is very impressive and you therefore spend a lot of time exploring and carefully advancing. But here, too, DICE still needs to improve a few things, but the mode has a lot of potential and is more convincing than the actual multiplayer.
Finally there is “Portal” – a kind of portal into the past. Here the game “Battlefield 1942”, “Battlefield: Bad Company 2” and “Battlefield 3” brings us back in a new edition. You can use well-known modes such as Conquest or Rush on the best cards of the three game games or you can dedicate yourself to the endless range of self-created game modes from the community. Of course you can also be creative yourself and tinker and release modes, so that there will surely be a lot of content here over time. “Portal” gave me the most fun personally and one can ask the question why the actual multiplayer less Mood is fun as a co-op and spa mode, which should originally serve as a bonus.
The menu is unfortunately a bit cumbersome and confusing. The customization menu of “Portal” looks different from that of the normal multiplayer. In general there are too many submenus and it just takes too long to select a new weapon with an attachment, for example in “Portal”. In addition, attachments are often suddenly active that have not actually been marked in the menu. In addition, you hardly get any information as to whether you have received armor and communicating with other players via chat does not always work. There is no voice chat, but that makes no sense with 128 players. Oh, and there is no scoreboard.
Technically, however, “Battlefield 2042” is really well done. While there were still some clipping errors, flickering or texture problems to be seen in the beta, DICE has now done a good job. The characters look detailed, the weapons and vehicles are well implemented and the many maps make a decent impression. In general, “Battlefield 2042” delivers an impressive performance. The sound of the weapons, on the other hand, is unfortunately a bit weak – usually a “Battlefield” trademark – but the general soundscape is convincing. There is a lot of cracking in the game.
One of the biggest problems, which currently makes “Battlefield 2042” almost unplayable on the Xbox, is cross-play. If you could still deactivate cross-play in the beta, this option is now grayed out in the menu. The feature can generally be deactivated in the Xbox system, but this affects all games. Alternatively, you have to deal with 80% PC players in “Battlefield 2042”, against whom you have no chance due to the different input devices. What DICE thought here is extremely questionable. It could of course also be due to the bumpy start of the game, and to boost the number of players, cross-play is simply forced. Of course, cross-play is the future – but “Halo: Infinite” is currently showing that things can be improved. It’s a shame, because “Battlefield 2042” is currently not really recommended for Xbox players. Unless you play with the mouse and keyboard on the console yourself or concentrate on the co-op modes.
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