Although Battlefield 2042 officially releases on November 19, some players can already play the game in Early Access. This includes players who pre-ordered more expensive editions of the game. Therefore, we know the opinions of the most loyal Battlefield fans about the current state of the game before its release. MeinMMO has summarized the biggest criticism from players.
Those who follow the Battlefield communities on social media will recognize 6 main issues that fans have with Battlefield 2042. These include PC performance, maps, weapon accuracy, issues with revives, missing chat options, and lack of transparency in player statistics.
These problems go beyond the general server issues that appeared shortly after launch. Bugs like loading “persistent data” can completely prevent gameplay, and even during rounds, there are issues.
We explain what exactly is problematic about these aspects and how the developers have reacted so far.
Note that this is an unordered list and not a ranking.
1. PC players have major performance issues
What is the problem? At the start of Early Access, Battlefield 2042 is not just a technical disaster for the authors of MeinMMO. Even with the latest PC hardware, many players find it difficult to maintain a consistent FPS in the triple digits, even at low graphics settings. Curiously, even in the official trailer showing the game with ray tracing, there are noticeable frame rate drops (via YouTube).
On social media platforms like Twitter, Reddit, or YouTube, many voices can be found complaining loudly about their performance in Battlefield 2042.
- YouTuber Bigfry says: “DICE and EA should be ashamed of the state of Battlefield 2042.” (via YouTube)
- reddit user Soulshot96, who owns an Nvidia RTX 3090, writes: “The performance on PC is completely unacceptable.” (via reddit)
- @Kotton_Gamer writes on Twitter: “The FPS drops are so bad that it even changes your mouse sensitivity.” (via Twitter)
Is a solution being worked on? Neither DICE nor EA has officially commented on the performance issues so far. However, it can be assumed that the developers are aware of the problem and that future patches should address it.
It is still unclear whether and when this will happen. In the meantime, we recommend 5 settings that will improve your performance and gameplay.
2. The maps are too large and too empty
What is the problem? In Battlefield 2042, battles with up to 128 players are possible for the first time in the franchise on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. This is twice as many as before. Accordingly, the typically large Battlefield maps in this game have become even larger.
Breakaway, the largest map in the game, is about as large as the battle royale map from Battlefield 5. It is also only about a third smaller than the Verdansk map from Call of Duty: Warzone.
From the first impressions, many fans believed that the maps, while impressive due to their massive dimensions, are too empty.
This impression has been confirmed for players like the German YouTuber m4xFPS for all 7 maps in the game. He argues that the maps are designed like maps for a battle royale: “There is a lot of terrain, boring terrain, […] a lot of running for next to nothing” (via YouTube).
Consequently, the maps are overall too empty and sprawling, leading to snipers being very strong and therefore very numerous. m4xFPS sometimes ends up taking his own life in the game for this reason, allowing him to respawn directly at a point instead of walking there, thus getting back into action faster. He therefore questions the decisions to inflate the game to such dimensions.
Is a solution being worked on? There is also no official statement from the developers here. It is clear, however, that this problem is related to map design and not technical issues. Therefore, a potential solution—if it comes—would need to be comprehensive and fundamentally change these maps. While this could happen, it is unlikely.
With the already announced new maps, which are set to be released in the future, EA and DICE could respond to the feedback and offer smaller maps that appear less empty.
3. The weapons are too imprecise
What is the problem? The assault rifles in Battlefield 2042 have much more recoil on the first shot than in the beta or any other Battlefield. The high recoil on the first shot means that every time you start shooting, your assault rifle fires very imprecisely. This is especially noticeable due to the large, sprawling maps in Battlefield 2042.
This video from reddit illustrates this impressively:
The lack of precision on the first shot, combined with server issues, makes gunplay with automatic weapons feel very vague in many situations. It can feel like a gamble whether you hit or not.
Is a solution being worked on? The lead game designer at DICE, Florian Le Bihan, responded to a fan on Twitter. In this tweet, he says that the developers plan to adjust weapon precision. However, he has not announced anything specific (via Twitter)
In the meantime, we recommend our article on the currently best weapon in Battlefield 2042, which is not significantly affected by this problem:
4. Players cannot be revived
What is the problem? In Battlefield 2042, it is sometimes impossible to revive fallen soldiers, even when it should be possible.
Players attempt to press the interaction button that is supposed to help revive the fallen teammate. However, the medic is never given the opportunity to initiate the revive. Thus, medics run around a player desperately trying to force the prompt while the teammate bleeds out.
This issue seems to occur whenever the fallen player touches a solid object, like a wall. This happens even in Battlefield Portal, where players have access to the defibrillator from previous games and do not rely on any prompts.
A display for fallen players to indicate whether medics are nearby and how far away they are is absent in Battlefield 2042. This feature existed in Battlefield V. Players thus see less frequently whether they can still be saved and give up before help can arrive (via reddit).
Is a solution being worked on? In the list of known issues that EA shared regarding Battlefield 2042, they do mention buggy revives, but seemingly not this specific issue (via EA). Again, it can be assumed that a future patch should address this issue, even without an official announcement.
5. There are too many statistics that cannot be viewed
What is the problem? A major topic on reddit has been the scoreboard. The scoreboard usually displays each player in a match, including important numbers from the respective match. These include:
- The K/D ratio, meaning kills and deaths
- Assists
- Player rank
- Score and placement
However, Battlefield 2042 handles this differently. Here, the scoreboard shows only the statistics of the individual squads on your team next to your own values, rather than the statistics of individual players. How little players think of this decision is explained in the following article:
Another issue is that you no longer have information about your overall statistics. Your K/D in Battlefield 2042, for example, cannot currently be seen anywhere.
Is a solution being worked on? The developers have explained this decision due to the increase in player numbers. They claim it is difficult to fit 128 players in a scoreboard. However, players do not accept this argument and suggest simply implementing a scrollable scoreboard. Yet it seems the developers do not want to change this decision.
The missing information regarding your account’s K/D seems to be getting added. A tweet from Aleksander Grøndal, the executive producer at DICE, suggests this:
6. There are too few ways to communicate with other players
What is the problem? In Battlefield 2042, you can communicate with your party, squad, and team via text chat. However, the option to communicate with the entire server via global chat is missing. There is also no voice chat—unlike in the beta.
Is a solution being worked on? The developers have not yet commented on a global text chat. However, in a media event, they confirmed that they aim to add a voice chat “shortly after the release” on November 19 (via Washington Post).
Would you add anything to this list? Do you think the game is already good despite the issues? Do you believe it will only be good when these problems are resolved? Or do you think no patch can make the game good? Feel free to let us know your opinion in the comments.
Battlefield Portal appears to be the game mode that truly excites fans. This was already the case before the release, as the corresponding website has been online for a while and even works for free. We explain why Portal is so popular and how the mode works.
