Battlefield 2042 Final Review

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Despite many fixes and tweaks in the years since its release, Battlefield 2042 is still not a worthy entry in the franchise. Back in 2021, my review pointed out problems with vehicles and maps, along with many technical bugs. It ended up getting a modest and disappointing 66% score, but in hindsight that was generous given how little joy it brought over those first 50 hours. With Battlefield 6 fast approaching, and EA sneaking rewards for BF6 inside the free pass for 2042, it was time to revisit the game and see why it is still best left forgotten.

The most obvious change is that 2042 now has traditional classes. The specialists have been regrouped into the typical four: Assault, Recon, Support, and Engineer. Each specialist still has a unique gadget or two, like a wingsuit or gun emplacement, but each class has a more familiar kit setup, including the repair tool and defib. And players can pick and choose from additional and familiar gadgets inside these classes, including rocket launchers, C5, or armor plates.

While the specialists did not seem like a huge problem originally, the return of classes reinforces the fact that they are essential to the series. It is a good change but one that does not go far enough. Specialists are still caricatures that fight each other, which is out of place like in Call of Duty: Vanguard. And having unique gadgets still nudges it towards a hero shooter, not a war with soldiers. It is nice that the developers recognized the importance of classes but it is not a dramatic improvement.

While 2042 has more maps now, it is important to take another look at the originals. It is clear now that the starting roster of maps are the worst in the franchise. It might be because they were built for 128 players, which was an unnecessary change to a series that never lacked action. Such a big number of players might have worked with creative flag clusters or dedicated battle lanes, but they’re akin to a fruit cake with fewer sweet raisins. In general, the original maps are featureless, flat, with too much space between areas of interest, minimal destruction, and very dull capture points. Just moving around is a chore, unless you have a wingsuit and elevation. The inadequate number of transport vehicles is rectified somewhat by playing only 64-player matches. You can call in a vehicle too, assuming it’s not on a cooldown, but a vehicle drop reveals your position from halfway across the map.

Some maps were reworked, but the results are lackluster. Breakaway was compressed and the oil-rig shifted, but it’s not a fun map to play. The C flag has an oil tank that explodes within a minute of round start, blurring the screen and making life miserable for anybody fighting nearby. Approaching the oil-rig on foot (via the bridges or ice) is a death sentence, and only the warehouses offer some decent battles. Discarded and Renewal are both still awful wastes of space, and the flags are even less fun to fight on than back at launch. Manifest should have been a scaled up Noshahr Canals (Battlefield 3) but it is absolutely miserable because of poor flow and an endless stack of containers that might as well spell out maze. Orbital, which is probably the best map because of elevation changes and structure, feels like it would still be down the bottom of a list of all maps in the series.

Most of the maps still love to put players out in the middle of nowhere when they spawn on a flag. While this might have been done to help attackers, players capturing flags will usually be taking cover. All it does is force the freshly spawned player to cross no-man’s land with snipers and tanks and every other vehicle trying to kill them. Players that spawn on flags should be near cover, even if it means putting them farther away from the capture zone.

The maps added post-release are better, generally. Over my 30+ hours of play, the Flashpoint map rarely came up but it seemed well structured. Spearhead is visually super clean and the cubic buildings keep action pockets isolated. Reclaimed felt the most like an old Battlefield map, circa Bad Company 2 meets Battlefield 4’s Zavod 311, because the size was ideal and the map has adequate breaks in line-of-sight. Not all of the new maps work. Exposure has stupidly extreme changes in elevation and offers only decent action in the middle platform. The most fun to be had with 2042 was in the mindless meat-grinder map, Redacted. With no vehicles, infantry battle over four flags in a line. Unlike Operation Metro, the flanking routes are generous and make it almost too easy to capture back flags. But this can compromise the team’s defensive line, so it is not always the best option. It is telling that the best map in 2042 is like one of my least favorites in Battlefield 3.

When it comes to the gritty action, 2042 is merely okay for shooting. The weapons feel a little bit clunky and movement is not as slick as some other games. There is some odd behavior with the camera when you get revived, which is distracting. Vehicles are still poorly balanced, being no fun to drive or destroy, partly because of map structure and also how they seem tuned for more players. Feedback when trying to destroy vehicles is generally terrible. Combat vehicles do not spawn on flags either, which is one of the most underrated features of the franchise that adds strategy and improves infantry flow. It is also an inconsistent game tonally; not futuristic enough to draw comparisons with the best game in the series, 2142, but too messy when compared to the brilliant elegance of Battlefield 2.

At least the game is technically sound now. There were some occasional connection issues, but nothing compared to launch. Portal is still a fractured mess, but it was a good place to complete annoying challenges to advance the free pass and get those Battlefield 6 awards. While 2042 is better now, the overall experience is not much of an improvement due to terrible maps, clunky action, and mediocre vehicle balancing. The return of classes is appreciated, but only a half-step. Some new maps are fine, but not worth writing home about. So was Battlefield 2042 even worth fixing? Probably not, but hopefully the developers have learnt enough to never make the same mistakes again.

Performance: Great @ High Settings. Upscaling: None @ 1440p

Test Machine: Ryzen 5 3600, ASUS 6700 XT, 16GB DDR4, Win 10 Pro