Battlefield 2042
Bigger, badder, stormier
FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 22 OCT / PUB EA DEV DICE, CRITERION, DICE LA, EA GOTHENBURG / PLAYERS 1-128
How many developers does it take to make a modern shooter? Four. Three to make the game and one to take the flak from frustrated neckbeards complaining about the lack of realism. Too cynical? Okay, let’s get crazy…
One thing is for sure, having freed itself from the ‘realism’ of the previous game, Battlefield 2042 is a juggernaut of military mayhem that uses its near-future setting to play loose with realism. It plays up to how we all experience Battlefield – weaponsing vehicles, the acceptance of casual deaths from unhappy accidents, and the general on-thehoof chaos that occurs when 128 players collide on PS5.
Dice and EA have been highlighting the sandbox nature of Battlefield 2042. These are no mere maps but enormous playgrounds where you can do as you wish, according to the particular rules of the game mode you’re playing within. This year’s entry boasts one of the largest maps the series has ever seen to facilitate everything the developer wants to chuck your way. New extreme weather systems will see a hurricane rip through your enemy’s defences – but its unpredictability could cause you problems. Advanced terrain deformation sees the battlefield change too, as buildings topple. You get the sense Frostbite is wheezing away behind the scenes. And yet Dice is committed to bringing the game to both PS4 and PS5 (though you’ll get 128 players only on new-gen consoles).
IT’S RAINING, MEN
There’s a pitch that gives credence to the weather-battered battlefields: as climate change ravages the game’s fictitious world, societies are crumbling and stateless soldiers
now fight for the planet’s limited resources on behalf of the remaining super-states. The setting may be a science-fiction near-future but Dice is giving fans something to think about with that date – the whole thing started with Battlefield 1942 20 years ago. Expect a number of nods to that classic.
The final game will feature three gameplay ‘experiences’, though only one, All Out Warfare, has been revealed to date. Each offers a menu of modes to choose from. First in All Out Warfare there’s Conquest mode, in which you need to hold a sector of a map by dominating all of the allotted points within it. To make the 128 player count work, the game subdivides those players into units. Though you may be committed to taking a certain sector, you can go rogue, grab a vehicle, and spread your wings to a new area of the map to cause chaos. Why not call in a tank and drop it on a camper?
“STATELESS SOLDIERS NOW FIGHT FOR THE PLANET’S LIMITED RESOURCES.”
The second All Out Warfare mode is Breakthrough, which drops two opposing teams into one location with a director’s invisible hand curating the action; maps are divided into sections with multiple points to capture which creates a moving frontline.
Getting up to speed in a new Battlefield can be a steep learning curve, so Dice has confirmed you can play both Conquest and Breakthrough with AI teams, which still adds to your overall progress. This is the only way to play solo – there’s no single-player campaign planned for Battlefield 2042.
Though not ready to reveal everything, Dice has shared one other way to play, called Hazard
Zone, that the developer brags will move the battle royale concept on in a way only Battlefield can. Given how Dice is dividing its huge environments and player bases across the maps, this could be multiple mini battle royales playing simultaneously; a squad-based royale. A third playstyle is being kept secret, and is being developed by Dice LA and overseen by Respawn’s Vince Zampella. One thing is for sure, this new game
“WE’RE TOLD HAZARD ZONE WILL MOVE THE BATTLE ROYALE CONCEPT ON IN A WAY ONLY BATTLEFIELD CAN.”
won’t have a traditional battle royale, not at launch or post-launch, despite featuring Game As Service traits such as a Season Pass structure. Each season will add new environments and Specialists.
CLASS ACT
Character classes are called Specialists in Battlefield 2042, and there are ten types in the game. Each has a distinct Speciality and Trait. Specialities are essentially gadgets to use in the field. Go to war as an Assault type and you’ll be able to employ a grappling hook to scale heights; the Recon class can use an OV-P Recon Drone to mark targets; and the S21 Syrette Pistol used by Support players can fire health
capsules at friendlies. Traits are the innate physical abilities of the various Specialists and hold few surprises; Assault types are nimble while the Support class can bring teammates back to full health. It’s Battlefield 101, right down to being able to customise loadouts.
If it feels as if Dice is playing it safe with the Specialists, the maps could surprise us. They vary in size and purpose, so some support vehicular combat while others may be better suited to small-team close combat. Different maps offer unique methods of entry too, such as halo-jumping into the fray.
The art direction grabs us too, with map design embracing the near-future catastrophe to present eye-catching backdrops to the action. In one, the carcass of an abandoned oil tanker sunk into a beach is impressive – the worldbuilding shows the abandoned ship washed up on an Indian beach, slowly being torn apart.
WORLD OF PAIN
What brings these environments to life are the dynamic events that threaten to alter a map’s layout. These can be weather effects, such as sandstorms that dampen visibility or destructive tornadoes that suck in passing jet fighters and billboards alike. Your actions can alter the world too, from the simple act of lowering a bridge to shutting down a crane or surviving a rocket launch. You’ll need to stay alert in Battlefield 2042.
On PS5 you’ll experience the whole bullet-riddled buffet, but on PS4 player count will be reduced to 64 and maps will be downsized to match, though the weather and dynamics events will remain. It promises the same spectacle, but smaller in scale.