Battlefield 2042 (BETA)

Battlefield 2042 was one of my most highly anticipated games this year. I know a lot of people didn’t like BFV but I thoroughly enjoyed it and the thought of DICE building upon that foundation, with a not-too-distant future setting, larger maps and a 128 player count . . . it’s quite an exciting prospect, isn’t it?

Oh no. After playing this beta, I’m not sure I want to buy the game at all. A lot has been said about this beta being an ‘older’ build which might excuse the bugs and performance issues, but my problems with the game aren’t technical in nature – they’re problems with core aspects of the game design. Those aren’t things that can be ‘fixed’ or patched because they’re intended to be that way.

And hey, maybe a lot of people will like the way 2042 plays. But I can’t say I enjoyed it very much at all, at least compared to BFV.

So yes, it’s a beta and it’s a bit buggy and the performance isn’t great. I was able to get a fairly solid 60 FPS on medium settings, but it’s hard to be sure how stable it was because my in-game overlay didn’t want to work most of the time. Visually speaking, 2042 still looks pretty good on lower settings but, to me, it still seems like a step down from BFV.

Maybe it’s just the map. Maybe it’s the horrid UI with all those horrible icons I couldn’t seem to turn off unless I turned everything off which isn’t particularly helpful. Maybe it’s that f**king intrusive banner that continually appears at the top of the screen. I don’t know. I’m sure if you scrutinise the textures or whatever, 2042 is pretty impressive . . . but as a whole?

Your screen feels like a nightmare of garish colours and icons and information all in the wrong place. The amount of times I was trying to focus on the map ahead only to be distracted by a dozen colourful icons all in my field of view – objective markers, squad mates, equipment – there’s way too much shit on the screen and no way to remove it.

Everything about 2042 feels messy. To be fair, Conquest, as a mode, could be messy in BFV too, which is why I always preferred Breakthrough – with more clearly defined objectives and battle flow. Conquest always was a bit of a free-for-all. Of course, it’s even more messy in this beta because the map is disabled.

Great. You have no idea of which points need reinforcing or which point your team are pushing onto next because there’s no map to pull up in-game. So for a mode that’s already fairly messy, with no map to help co-ordinate the teams, it’s even more of a random, chaotic mess.

And the map? It’s not that good, to be frank. Maybe it works better in other modes but in Conquest, it’s just too big and too open. It’s weird to think that this is one of the smaller maps in 2042 given how spread out everyone is. You really don’t feel like you’re playing with 128 players. In fact, battles feel smaller than in BFV because of the distances involved.

The vehicle limit for such a big map and so many players feels incredibly small – only 2 tanks per side? It’s not exactly all-out-war. And this results in matches in which most of the time you’re desperately sprinting from one point to another hoping desperately that you don’t get shot on the way because you’ll face another 2 minute sprint to get back there again.

Speaking of vehicles, what’s the point of a repair tool if vehicles can just regenerate health? The amount of times I nearly destroyed a tank or helicopter only for it to retreat out of the fight for a minute or so and then return . . . at full health. Oh, and with unlimited ammo, too. This is, of course, different to BFV where vehicles had to be manually repaired and resupplied.

Medics! In BFV, medics were vital. But in 2042, when your health can regenerate to full without a health kit, why bother taking one? And 2042 doesn’t even really have a medic – not exactly. In fact, it doesn’t have ‘classes’ at all but ‘specialists’. Oh god, I’ll talk about those later.

Unlike BFV where team work wasn’t just encouraged but necessary and everyone could feel like they were contributing to the win – medics dishing out health kits, engineers dropping ammo and building fortifications, assault leading the charge and recon providing spotting and sniper cover – none of that team play exists in 2042, at least not in this beta.

In BFV each class had its role to play but 2042 completely abandons this idea and instead switches to a system in which team play is nice, I guess, but certainly not required. Even ‘squad’ play feels pointless given the size of the map. Most of the time you’re totally separated from your squad. Maybe if the squads were bigger – say 10, or 15 players – actual squad play / support might make more sense.

Reviving is bound to the same button as ‘pick up weapon’ which as you can imagine leads to some incredibly frustrating situations. The map destruction also feels weak compared to BFV. In that game, the entire map would have been transformed by the end of the match but in 2042, nothing really changes. You get a few holes in the ground, I guess, but the buildings all remain standing.

No fortifications system. Seriously, fortifications in BFV were a fantastic idea, adding another way for maps to change dynamically during a match. Completely gone, in 2042. As is the BFV movement system which was pretty much perfect. Gone. Replaced by a far less fluid, awkward and clunky one.

The random weather changes can be cool but they’re not really more than another visual distraction and I hate the UI glitches they cause – it’s bad enough as it is. The general gun play isn’t too bad, I guess? It’s hard to say because this beta has also been a bit laggy and the hit detection feels off a lot of the time. I like the on the fly weapon modification. That’s neat.

So what about those ‘specialists’, eh? They pretty much turn 2042 into the Clone Wars. Now, I know there’s going to be about 10 specialists at release compared to 4 in this beta, but I don’t see the situation really improving all that much. So you don’t choose a ‘class’ in 2042, you choose a ‘specialist’ that has access to a single piece of unique equipment – grappling hook, automated sentry gun, medical syringe or drone. The rest of your load out you can customise as you like.

I guess on paper it doesn’t sound like the worst kind of system but it totally destroys the notion of clearly defined class roles and as a result, everyone just kind of runs around and does their own thing. It’s . . . a mess. It’s also incredibly sad when you’re playing as the specialist Boris and you shoot and kill Boris, only for another Boris to shoot you, but then a friendly Boris shoots the bad Boris and friendly Boris revives you as . . . Boris.

It’s f**king crazy. There’s absolutely nothing to make each team distinct in 2042. You get the same specialists on each side and there’s no cosmetic customisation so everyone looks the f**king same. And this kind of kills what, for me, was great about BFV – you were just another grunt in the army playing your part, doing what you could. That, for me, was what Battlefield was all about, even way back when I played the original 1942.

But now? In 2042? It’s now a Hero shooter, more or less, and it sucks balls.

Christ, there’s so much more I could ramble on about but I think you get the point. 2042 wasn’t terrible to play. I had a few fun moments with it. But it feels like a big step back from BFV in pretty much every department. Maybe there are better maps, maybe it plays better in other modes. Maybe a lot of my issues with the UI will be fixed by release.

But right now, I can’t say I’ll be picking up 2042. A game I had the Gold Edition pre-ordered, now refunded. I’m not going to write it off completely. I’ll keep my eye on it and see if it can change my mind. To say I’m disappointed would be an understatement.