Battlefield 2042 Reviews
Battlefield 2042 isn't just a lackluster Battlefield game, it's a bad FPS in general. It's an overcorrect after Battlefield 5's marketing was criticized for its "out-there" CGI trailers. It isn't clear what Battlefield 2042 is, or even what it wants to be, beyond a bland step back. One can hope for meaningful content updates later down the line, but the ship is sinking before even leaving port.
Battlefield 2042 makes gutsy changes to a series that needed them and sets a new standard for built-in custom mode support.
There are some neat new toys while Portal delivers the series at its best, but 2042 launches as the weakest Battlefield in some time.
Battlefield 2042's highpoint is its powerful Portal mode, which lets you relive the series' past glories and tweak them to your liking. Its current batch of modes is overstuffed with players and utter chaos, though Hazard Zone scales things down in an interesting, high-stakes way.
Unfortunately, this goes deeper than a rocky launch. It’s hard not to be disappointed with this 2042 offering. You know when the devs said this is a game to “celebrate Battlefield”? They’ve stripped away some of the most fundamental elements of the series and added tornados and Wingsuits to make up for it. It’s Marketing 101. Explosions, tornados, and swooping helicopters look great. One day, they probably will be great. DICE is one of the best when it comes to post-launch patches - for better and for worse. But if you’re on the fence about buying Battlefield 2042, I would just wait.
An odd, but admirably experimental AAA game, which offers plenty of epic scale action at launch but whose true worth will probably only be revealed in the months to come.
Battlefield 2042 is a strong foundation for future expansion. DICE's multiplayer-only FPS has scale and spectacle, but there are elements in need of careful refinement and optimization.
Each weapon has a unique feel that is fun to master and contested objectives always keep you busy
Although some specialists can feel a bit useless at times, tweaks to the formula with Battlefield 2042 add a lot of interesting gameplay variety.
There’s still nothing quite like being in the middle of a massive firefight with dozens of players, while jets strafe the ground around you, and a tank rumbles over a hilltop only 50 feet away. DICE has been in search of that old Battlefield magic for more than a decade, and Battlefield 2042 comes extremely close. But 2042, at least so far, rarely manages to be much more than that. It doesn’t feel like a real step forward for the franchise, or a meaningful update on a 20-year old formula. As of now, I’m still waiting for that next big leap.
Battlefield 2042 feels like it could become a cool game, but it’s tantalizingly out of reach today. There’s enough promise with the satisfying-when-it-works gunplay, large-scale chaos (that’s starting to feel more controlled over time), and fantastic legacy Battlefield content in Portal that I’ll stick around for a bit. It didn’t have to be this way, though.
There's a good game to be found within the Battlefield 2042 and fun to be had as the spectacle of Battlefield's signature gameplay is taken to new, more expansive heights, but it's marred by a handful of unsuccessful gameplay design changes, hurriedly implemented features and bugs at launch.
Battlefield 2042 dispenses with the campaign and sticks to what it does best: a deep and very fun multiplayer mode. The figure of 128 players (on PC and next gen) ensures the most spectacular battles of the saga, and we love the winks of Battlefield Portal to the previous installments. The analyzed version had some minor bugs.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
We loved Battlefield because it wasn’t Call of Duty or Counter-Strike or Fortnite or Apex or any other popular shooter. This mismanaged project clearly needed more time in the oven and a cohesive design that works to Battlefield’s strengths rather than a game attempting to be multiple things to multiple audiences. In a year where so many releases have been marred by a lack of polish and bugs, Battlefield 2042 may be the biggest offender.
Battlefield 2042 was a ship that I was looking forward to and from a distance it seemed that the journey was going to be long and different from what I had known so far. But the ship arrived and then I realized that perhaps it was not coming for me, but I was desperately looking for a port to dock so as not to sink. I don't recommend buying Battlefield 2042 during its release.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
I am hopeful that 2042 will be a more interesting Battlefield game at some point next year, but having been through varying degrees of rough launches with this series - from BF 2142 through BF 5 - I can’t say I have the stamina to perform the dance of chastising DICE for technical problems and missing features, only to turn around and celebrate when the game is inevitably ‘good now, actually’ a year into it.
Though that's an exaggeration (if a slight one), allowing you to kit out any character you want with whatever equipment naturally tilts combat from decisive to unwieldy. Players can access whatever tools necessary for self-sufficiency or going off solo, guns blazing. Don't expect to get many revives from your teammates even when medics are around. Meanwhile, this half-exploit system exposes several character gimmicks as same-y, underwhelming, or borderline useless-this is absolutely a game that plays favorites. Combined with the level design, it becomes painfully clear how disorganized and thoughtless the bulk of 2042's systems really are.
Almost twenty hours of having war on Battlefield 2042, divided between the open beta sessions at the beginning of October and the last three days of full-immersion with the final version, were certainly enlightening and allowed me to deepen many aspects related to both the content and the gameplay mechanics. However, we thought it appropriate to take a few more days before giving a final judgment on the DICE shooter, mainly to check the tightness of the servers and better frame the portal mode editor.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Battlefield 2042 is a fun game to play, but its base game content will leave you wanting. Thankfully, Battlefield Portal is there to pick up the slack and does so splendidly. There’s still some gas left in Battlefield’s tank.