Initially my expectations were through the roof for Battlefield 2042, especially considering how much fun the open beta was. Unfortunately the final release has been one of the largest disappointments this year. Between the sheer lack of content and the mountain of technical issues, Battlefield 2042 is a giant unfinished mess. As a longtime fan I cannot believe how unpolished the title is and how EA and Dice studios are allowed to release the game as a buggy and incomplete experience.
What Happened to QA Testing???
Right out of the gate things are pretty ugly with the game consistently popping up with connection error issues. This happens frequently even if you have a stable connection. When you are able to log in and start playing you are presented with muddied up textures and broken character models and that’s just the beginning. During each match, most environment textures are still popping up even after a few minutes into the game. All the texture loading issues simply make the game look unstable.
There are also performance/ optimization issues regarding the games resolution and settings. If you decide to change visual settings to lower resolution and increase performance, nothing changes. Your frames don’t increase and visuals don’t adjust. On pc the game is not optimized at all.
Once you are able to make it past all texture and resolution issues you’re met with problematic gameplay issues in different areas. One of the most broken is the revive mechanic. Many times when you attempt to revive your teammates the game won’t bring up the prompt to heal, or it will begin to start and cancel halfway through the progress bar, then proceeds to stay frozen with the reload button on the screen which is a complete disaster. Reviving teammates is one of the most crucial parts to gameplay as it allows you keep the momentum against opponents and it’s completely broken. As well, the game also suffers with weapon hit detection between some base weapons and smaller vehicles. Weapons like the M5 assault rifle seem absolutely useless in medium and longer ranges even if you get direct hit markers or trade shots. In smaller vehicles like the hover craft you can directly hit a player multiple times and get hit markers with a mounted cannon and they can still walk away like nothing happened. Something clearly went wrong in regards to quality assurance or play testing with Battlefield 2042 or perhaps they skipped it altogether in the final game, which is so odd considering the beta test for the game performed much better.
Where’s The Content!??
One of the worst parts about Battlefield 2042 is simply the lack of content for the game. There is no campaign, no smaller/ basic multiplayer modes (for the main game), no leaderboards, and no in game voice chat. You simply start out with “all out war” which is their staple conquest mode, Hazard Zone which is the only co-op mode which puts you against both AI soldiers and real players, and finally Portal mode. Portal mode is probably the most stable portion of the game and here you are able to play a few smaller maps of rush mode from older Battlefield games particularly BF 1942, BF Bad Company 2, and BF 3. With the latest update a version of team death match was added to Portal mode but it doesn’t feature the main weapons or characters, it only features sections of the new maps.
In addition to the lack of modes there is also a weak selection of weapons. There is about 4 for each specialist including the weapons that haven’t been unlocked. It’s an insult to fans of the series with how little content there is to offer. Truthfully, all of this missing content wouldn’t have been so bad if at the very least the rest of the game was polished and working correctly. To add onto the insult, the game is plagued with bugs, texture loading issues, glitches, and server problems across the board leaving the game an unpolished mess.
The Silver Lining…
While there is a mountain of issues and complaints from the disaster that is Battlefield 2042 in this current state, there is some hope for the future. EA is known for continuing to drop support updates to their games that initially launched in a flawed state. All this means is that with some luck in a few weeks Battlefield 2042 will actually be ready for “launch” with most of its kinks worked out. As of this past week there are also staff changes happening at EA and it seems the head of DICE is stepping down and being replaced by Respawn Entertainment’s Vince Zampella. All of this could be indications of a new direction for the franchise with a change in leadership and perhaps Vince will turn things around for both fans and the company.
Final Thoughts
With all the complaints and issues set aside, Battlefield 2042 was launched in an incomplete state regardless of what anyone says. There was barely any content available at launch and what was there is pretty screwed up and unbalanced. There are some rare occasions when everything seems to work for a short while and it feels like that core Battlefield experience and those moments are awesome. Unfortunately, for the rest of the game, it seems it needed to be delayed for another six months or so to be finished, and properly polished and stress tested. It is a true shame Battlefield 2042 was released in this state and because of all its problems, it really left a bad impression with many players and some have decided to jump ship and not return to the game at all. At the time of this posting, we have just gotten to update 3.0 for the game and already things are looking up with more stability for gunplay and new modes, skins, and challenges being added. I’m glad things seem to be turning around for the game, however, lets just hope it’s not too late for everyone who actually wanted a polished Battlefield experience.
As always thank you so much for taking the time to read my post. This one was difficult to write without having everything about it be a complaint. Thankfully it looks like things are shaping up, but it was really a disappointing launch. Stay safe and stay positive, have a great day!
Inside A Gamer's Life 