MeinMMO author Dariusz Müller finally enjoys Battlefield 2042 because it feels good to be a bad person.
It is no secret that Battlefield 2042 struggled with some issues at launch in 2021. The eagerly awaited shooter disappointed fans of the popular series with poor performance, gameplay bugs, and missing content – too few maps, no scoreboard, no server browser, and too few weapons.
There were even more points of criticism, but we won’t list them all now.
Almost 2 years after release, a lot has changed in the game and it is approaching the state it should have had at launch. Reason enough for MeinMMO author Dariusz Müller to return to Battlefield 2042 and see how the game has developed – and contrary to his expectations, he actually had some fun!
Still not a good game, but…
I’ll be completely transparent, Battlefield 2042 still has some points that I don’t like. I can’t play this game without getting upset about certain decisions made regarding the gameplay.
Some things just feel wrong, are still buggy, or are simply disappointing compared to predecessors like Battlefield 4. A teammate of mine, an avid Battlefield fan, often has to hear what I think 2042 could have done better.
But that’s not what we’re going to talk about today, because Battlefield 2042 fulfilled exactly the purpose I had for the shooter this summer.
… a little fun in between
I installed Battlefield 2042 as a pastime while waiting for XDefiant. Ubisoft’s upcoming shooter really impressed me in the beta. Now I’m waiting for the scheduled release in summer 2023.
But I couldn’t just wait idly. After the XDefiant beta, I was eager for shooter action. I chose Battlefield 2042 because I had paid money for it once and didn’t want it to rot away unplayed in my library.
The probably better alternative is BattleBit Remastered, but I can’t play it. Regardless of the fact that I don’t like the low-poly graphics style, I suffer from motion sickness in the Lego-Battlefield. Even watching is uncomfortable for me. I don’t have that problem in Bf2042.
Dominance despite lack of talent
Almost with a painful sense of shame, I say: I actually had a lot of fun playing Battlefield 2042 in the past weeks. At some point, I realized that my gaming enjoyment didn’t stem from the game, but from the players. More accurately, from the opponents and definitely not from my teammates.
It feels absolutely wrong to say that so directly, and it certainly makes me a worse person, but: I am simply better.
I am by no means a shooter god and notice in other shooters like Rainbow Six: Siege and especially in Valorant, that there are plenty of players who mercilessly stomp me into the ground. My shooter skills are okay, but nothing more. There are plenty of better players – just not in Battlefield 2042.
Where have you gone, good players?
I don’t know if the matchmaking is just unfair – to my advantage – or if the good Battlefield players are hanging out in the predecessors or in Battlebit, but in Battlefield 2042 I sometimes felt like a young god.
My teammates and I regularly formed the best squad in the match and dominated the scoreboard with kills, captured flags, and the most revives. We often wondered: Where are the good players? Even vehicles couldn’t stop us because they acted too statically and could be blown up by simple C5s.
Of course, there were occasional squads that performed similarly well. There were also players who were simply better. But percentage-wise, that happened surprisingly rarely. The strange thing is, if I were in Battlefield 4 now, I would quickly get reminded of my limits again – so I stayed in Battlefield 2042.
Give a person power…
I am a simple-minded person. I like to be better than my opponents. It feels good to be high up on the scoreboard. I came to enjoy power – or something similar.
Candidly speaking, I can’t really find that good. I’m probably playing against players who only have time to play once every few days or weeks for 1-2 hours and just want to enjoy a round of Battlefield in the evening.
My teammates and I, on the other hand, are much more active and profit-oriented. We usually play tactical shooters, communicate our approach fairly precisely, and also enter chaotic Battlefield matches with a plan. This obviously does not apply to a large portion of our opponents, but also not to our teammates.
Surely some opponents cursed us as “tryhards,” even though we were just playing our way. We certainly didn’t want to ruin anyone’s gaming experience, but it was fun nonetheless.
It looks different in battle royale and extraction shooters, they are not fun for me:
There are only 2 types of new, successful PvP shooters left and both are crap
