Today, Battlefield 2042 starts its early access open beta for pre-orderers, and MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus has already had a look at the game. This new installment is his first Battlefield since Vietnam.
On Monday, October 4, EA invited MeinMMO to a playtest. It took place in the evening; we were able to play for 3 hours and had a presentation followed by a short Q&A.
I played with colleagues from GameStar and GamePro in a squad, albeit on an old build. The version we were allowed to test is from a few months ago.
My history with Battlefield is… limited. My last Battlefield was Vietnam, which was released 17 years ago in 2004. In between, I played 2 rounds of Battlefield 3 and then stopped.
Still, I have quite a bit of experience with shooters. Over the years, I have certainly spent well over 2,000 hours in Counter-Strike, various Call of Duty titles (including the beta of the new Vanguard), Overwatch, and more. Recently, I even enjoy Hunt: Showdown very much – the spectrum is quite diverse.
My first steps in Battlefield were, let’s say, rocky. The feel of the game is entirely different. Whether it’s my fault or the game’s, I can’t say, but the matches were quite interesting.
By the way, we are following the beta in a live ticker on MeinMMO.
Am I playing that badly, or am I just stupid?
Here’s how Battlefield 2042 generally plays: Essentially, Battlefield 2042 is somewhat slower than shooters like Overwatch or CoD. The pacing is simply different. Instead of playing with a few enemies in a small space, up to 128 players can battle it out on massive maps.
This, along with the ability to control tanks, planes, and helicopters, is one of the significant differences of Battlefield compared to other established brands. Battlefield 2042 implements this and adds features like:
- Specialists that replace the familiar classes
- destructible environments and evolving maps (“Levolution”)
- 7 playable maps, of which only one was available in the preview (Orbital)
- weapon adjustments during gameplay
In our experience, a round lasted roughly half an hour. Depending on how close the outcome is, it can be about 10 minutes more or less.
Here’s how the first rounds went: The weapon handling in Battlefield is entirely different from what I’m used to. Bullet drop and weapon physics feel significantly different compared to CoD and similar shooters.
Since I normally play snipers, this is particularly frustrating. At first, I didn’t hit anything at all, even with my experience with bullet drop from other games. The adjustments weren’t really proportional and felt somewhat wrong.
Accordingly, I was probably more of a burden than a help during the first 2 rounds. I also diligently ignored my squad leader’s calls. I was probably exactly the kind of teammate that everyone hates.
That’s why I was initially frustrated and unmotivated. However, this feeling subsided quite quickly. Once you learn a bit about what to pay attention to and get to know the map, victories come – and then Battlefield 2042 is actually fun.
Nevertheless, the preview didn’t completely convince me.
The Good and the Bad
What I liked the most: I had the most fun with weapon customization in the game. In CoD Modern Warfare and subsequent titles, I was excited about the gunsmith feature. The big downside there: I had to jump directly into a round to test it and commit.
In Battlefield 2042, weapons can be customized directly in the game. A selection of different sights, muzzles, grips, and magazines changes weapons through a plus menu right in the round.
This way, I can react to every situation. Are the enemies hiding in buildings? Big scope on the sniper. Are we being closely watched? Attach suppressor. Many enemies? Bigger magazine!
It’s wonderful to be able to adjust the primary and secondary weapon while playing, so you can still escape a situation – or at least have better chances. That’s not unfair either, as everyone has the opportunity. The right usage is crucial here.
Additionally, specialists with their abilities and the weapons can be freely combined. Playing as a helpful medic with a hefty sniper rifle and explosives against tanks is really cool!
What I didn’t like at all: Enemies can take an unbelievable amount of damage. Normally, I mainly play tactical shooters like Rainbow Six or Hunt: Showdown. There, a good shot is enough to take down an enemy, and the time to kill (“TTK”) is correspondingly low.
In Battlefield 2042, at most a headshot from the sniper rifle is enough for a one-shot kill. Submachine guns – my preferred category – feel largely useless. Still, enemies tend to take dozens of bullets and even rockets from vehicles.
Sure, it would be frustrating if a helicopter could wipe out an entire squad with the push of a button. But a salvo should suffice to at least get one kill – which is not always the case. One of my teammates was cursing about this as well.
The new features are quite fun
Launching rocket + helicopter = ??? In our test, we only had one map available. On Orbital, the Americans try to launch a rocket into space while the Russians try to prevent it.
This rocket is an essential part of the map. Most of the time, it just stands there being refueled. However, when it’s about to launch, it becomes vulnerable. After taking enough damage, it explodes.
This doesn’t affect gameplay, but it looks really cool. Unlike the tornado that can appear.
With a small chance, the map is hit by a storm. This destroys everything in its way and even disrupts the UI. The overlay flickers, making it clear: it gets really dangerous here.
Such elements are what spice up the rounds. I can imagine they help avoid monotony – as long as they don’t become annoying.
That was my highlight: In our last, slightly longer round, I finally got a bit into the game. The sniper rifle was no longer so unfamiliar to me, and I also knew the specialists roughly.
From this point on, I actually had fun with Battlefield 2042 and became increasingly ambitious. After a few well-placed headshots, I attempted the king class of all snipers: taking out a pilot from a helicopter. Surprisingly, that actually worked, and I must say I have rarely had moments like that in any other shooter.
Unfortunately, I didn’t record it. Still, it was an incredibly satisfying feeling that made up for the challenging start I had – and some of the issues I encountered.
“Door closed = door open” and other funny bugs
The biggest problems with the game: Although I had fun, I see some difficulties with Battlefield 2042. The biggest ones I’ve noticed are bugs that can sometimes affect gameplay.
Elevators are an important means of utilizing the verticality of the maps. However, in our rounds, the doors did not open – at least visually. You could still walk through, which means you cannot see enemies in them and also don’t know what’s actually going on.
As soon as the elevators move, the player models also fail to keep up. This problem also affects passengers in certain vehicles. Everything is stuttering and lagging; it’s constantly rumbling. This can even lead to motion sickness.
Additionally, I had tremendous problems joining games at least in our version. It only worked if my squad was already in the round and I joined after. New rounds were impossible. I spent part of the time just waiting or looking at error codes. After my first attempt in the early access beta, the error is still present in the game.
The beta version corresponds to the preview version we played. Some of the bugs are apparently still present in the game. You can find more information in our Hub for Battlefield 2042’s beta on MeinMMO.
What could be better? In terms of details and polish, Battlefield 2042 still needs some improvement. In addition to the already mentioned balance, there are a few small things that I’ve noticed:
- Lighting and design in interiors is dull compared to the outside world
- Destruction has little impact – I felt hardly any difference when parts of buildings were gone
- The sound design needs improvement; hearing enemies is nearly impossible, even with good headphones
- The selection of specialists doesn’t always work and seems to reset randomly
Once, I spawned in an exploding vehicle but survived. However, I couldn’t get out or react in any other way. The two enemies who arrived were delighted with the free kill on a silver platter…
Additionally, there are several graphics glitches. Strange black polygons occasionally flickered across my screen. And despite low graphics settings, I occasionally experienced quite low FPS with my RTX 2080 and Ryzen 7 2700X – which could also be due to my second monitor.
Strong foundation, but it’s not round yet
What does the future hold for Battlefield 2042? Particularly issues like the non-opening doors and the rather sluggish weapons raise concerns, although I cannot accurately say what has already been fixed in the new build. If the open beta of BF 2042 performs better now and next weekend, I might change my mind. Because the potential is there.
However, I actually like the foundation of Battlefield 2042 quite a lot. Personally, I don’t need vehicles in a shooter, but I feel quite comfortable with my sniper playstyle on the large maps.
Many testers were put off by the map size – even the medium maps were said to be too large – but I did not have this impression. I don’t mind sitting in my nest for a while and watching over a point. As long as I can hear approaching enemies.
Nevertheless, Battlefield 2042 urgently needs to improve in terms of bugs, balancing, and polish.
The biggest problem was probably the playtime. It seems nearly impossible to grasp everything that is good or bad in just 3 hours – especially for someone who has no references to the series.
For newcomers, Battlefield 2042 is… challenging. If you dive into it, you can certainly fall in love with it. But the entry is rough.
As someone who played the series ages ago, Battlefield 2042 feels so far like a new game to me. On the one hand, I can learn to love it anew, but it also has to prove itself to me again. Will it manage to do so?
This will improve: In the Q&A following the test, the developers already promised that many areas of the game have already been overhauled, though for an internal build. There is also a post from the developers discussing the changes. Among them are:
- Improvements to the UI, graphics, and performance
- Crossplay parties
- General polish
- More options and settings for controls
- Balance
We will see what has changed and what will change by the release on November 19.
