Battlefield 2042 test: but where does the license go?

After Battlefield I which took place during the First World War and Battlefield V centered on the Second World War, DICE returns three years later with Battlefield 2042, a title about a semi-futuristic and exclusively multiplayer war. This new opus is presented as a breath of modernity for the license, at the risk of upsetting the codes. A strong comeback from the Swedish studio on the massively multiplayer FPS scene? Here is our opinion on the matter.

This title was first announced for October 22 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S, but, arguing that it needed polish, DICE and Electronic Arts decided to postpone the release to November 19. Sufficient time to correct the problems anticipated during the beta? Response following our experience on early access, available since November 12.

Battlefield 2042 test: but where does the license go? View PriceRead ConclusionBattlefield 2042

Portal mode, paradoxically the best mode in the game
Visually accomplished
Great flexibility offered to players
True to franchise feel

Big performance and netcode issues (especially on 128-player maps)
Very random gunplay
Hazard Zone mode that struggles to convince
Many elements inherent to the franchise absent

Test carried out on the early access launched on November 12 via Origin on PC thanks to a code provided by the publisher. Battlefield 2042 will be released on November 19 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. Cross-progression will be supported on all platforms, but cross-play will only be possible between PC, PS5 and Xbox Series versions on one side, and PS4 and Xbox One on the other. Purchasing the Digital Standard Edition on next-gen consoles will, while waiting to obtain one, play on the corresponding legacy console.

Battlefield 2042 test: but where does the license go? — © DICE / Electronic Arts

Redo your classes

Battlefield 2042 projects us, we give it to you in a thousand, in 2042. The Earth is then in the grip of terrible natural disasters and humanity is on the edge of the abyss. The two great powers still present, the United States and Russia (and yes, again they) are waging a desperate war in order to recover the last crumbs of resources that remain.

To help them in this conflict, the two factions rely on the mercenaries called Sans-Patries, one of the elements at the heart of the communication of this Battlefield, who come to replace the traditional classes. Ten in number at the launch of the game (new faces will come later) we can compare them to the specialists present in Rainbow Six: Siege.

Each of the mercenaries has its own ability, such as a deployable turret, a grappling hook, smart grenades or even a wall-hack. In addition to these abilities, they are associated with a specific passive or accessory, including a Wingsuit for (cocorico) Emma “Sundance” Rosier, the Homeless representing Spain in Battlefield 2042. Note that certain abilities will prove useful on any battlefield, when others will be much more situational, creating a certain imbalance between the different Homeless.

This particularity reflects DICE's desire to modernize its formula, but upsets many codes established for years on the license, and not necessarily in a good way. Indeed, this creates some confusion on the battlefield, since we no longer find the very recognizable uniforms for each faction, the latter actually opposing the clones of the various Homeless. The only way to tell them apart is with a light, blue for allies and red for enemies.

However, it is possible to stand out by unlocking appearances for each Sans-Patrie, customizing their uniform down to their color. The weapons also benefit from different skins. For now, only cosmetic items that can be unlocked by completing certain objectives are available. Others should be offered for sale in a shop, disabled during early access.

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Each Homeless has different appearances...

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... like the weapons in the game.

A futuristic gear that lacks calibration

Confusion is also about leveling equipment. Indeed, exit the kits specific to the classes "Assault", "Doctor" and others, now replaced by packages "oriented" according to the old classes of the franchise. Concretely, any Homeless can arm themselves with a sniper rifle or an assault rifle, with a care kit, ammunition, or a rocket launcher. By playing and leveling up, you unlock other weapons, accessories and vehicles. But the arsenal available at launch remains generally quite meager. We bet that it will benefit from many additions in the future.

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The packages make it possible to create typical equipment for the traditional classes of the license.

This way of equipping ensures great flexibility and versatility for players, but the maneuver risks making diehard veterans of old Battlefield titles cringe, especially since gunplay, one of the pillars of the franchise, still suffers from several problems. Among them, we can cite the very hazardous dispersion at medium and long range, so much so that the snipers act as ball guns as the damage is laughable when shooting at long distance. It also happens that the bullets do not even hit an opponent whose critical mass is yet in the middle of the viewfinder.

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Even at this distance, the ballistics are very random.

Faced with this problem, chaining kills with the same weapon unlocks accessories such as glasses, ammunition, cannons and others, providing various bonuses and penalties. To equip yourself, Battlefield 2042 offers, for the first time in the license, to select options on the fly via a dedicated in-game menu. A very welcome feature.

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The in-game menu for equipping your weapon as accessories is a great addition.

Similarly, it is no longer a question of waiting stupidly at the respawn point for a vehicle to become free: we can choose, according to a given timer, to embark directly in a 4x4, a tank, a helicopter or a plane, from the deployment menu. In the middle of the action, it is also possible to call for help a robot dog from Boston Dynamics, or land vehicles to avoid redoing all the way with our only mud crushers. Like the accessories on the weapons, it is possible to unlock various elements, gadgets or new turrets for the vehicles, by chaining the frags with them.

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The menu allowing to call certain elements by airdrop.

Starting in Conquest without Rush, we triumph without performance

To portray its futuristic vision, Battlefield 2042 went VERY big, at least on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series. The classic modes of the license which are “Conquest” and “Rush” (also playable in squads, against and with bots, in order to train more quietly) indeed welcome 128 players, a number never seen in the license. To bring all these beautiful people together, the seven cards available at launch obviously offer a huge playground. On PS4 and Xbox One, however, these maps will only accommodate “only” 64 players, on a battlefield of adapted dimensions.

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The Sundance Wingsuit really allows you to appreciate the gigantism of the maps.

In this immensity, the graphics of Battlefield 2042 are rather successful in Ultra at 1440p, in particular the lighting effects, but do not stick to us the “slap” to which DICE has accustomed us. On the sound design side, the title also ensures the show, if we do not count the spatialization of footsteps, crucial in a massively multiplayer FPS, extremely poorly calibrated.

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Visually, Battlefield 2042 is quite successful.

For neophytes, remember that the “Conquest” mode requires capturing different areas in order to reduce the number of opposing tickets. The “Rush” mode, on the other hand, offers an unlimited quantity of tickets to the defenders, who must repel the attackers, who have only a given number of tickets. The attackers must take possession of several sectors divided into several points to capture. The capture of a sector advances the front to the next, up to a last square for the defenders.

Note that each game mode comes with a short tutorial to learn the basics.

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Short tutorials teach the basics of Conquest, Rush, and Hazard Zone modes.

These "classic" modes resume, despite the redesign of the classes, the codes that have made Battlefield the chaotic and spectacular license that we know. With 128 players on the clock, the result is even more convincing. As we mentioned, the universe of Battlefield 2042 is plagued by natural disasters, which randomly take the form of a tornado or a sandstorm, depending on the map. Visually impressive, these come to reshuffle the cards and add to the disorder so appreciated in the creations of DICE.

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Natural disasters are truly impressive.

We appreciate less the fact that the tornado seems to have taken with it the performance of these 128-player modes... Particularly unstable frame rate, latency problems, netcode problems, bugs of all kinds thus undermine the experience, even if you are equipped with a very solid machine and fiber optics.

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Here is a particularly problematic glitch.

We also deplore the absence of features usually inherent in Battlefield or any massively multiplayer FPS, such as a browser to search for a game, choose which squad to join, a text and voice chat dedicated to squads, or even a scoreboard in good standing. due form. Likewise, it is impossible to see doctors nearby when our life is at its lowest or when we are down. Hopefully these missing elements will be reintroduced in a patch...

Fortunately, the communication wheel to spot an enemy on the map, indicate its need for healing or ammunition, and others, has returned since the beta.

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In the absence of other means of communication, the Commo Rose is fortunately present.

A Drop Zone… Hazardous

Battlefield 2042 still stands out a little from the classics of the license with the “Hazard Zone” mode. Inspired by titles like Escape from Tarkov or Hunt Showdown, this mode pits eight squads of four Homeless against each other in search of precious hard drives scattered across a vast play area, also occupied by soldiers embodied by the 'artificial intelligence.

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A vast playground inhabited by only 32 players and a few bots.

At the start of a game, each member of the squad must choose a single specialist and equip themselves with weapons, accessories and up to three tactical advantages. The latter, fifteen in number at launch, allow for example to have armor points or to earn more money by killing bots.

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Before each game of Hazard Zone, a menu allows us to choose our Homeland and equip ourselves.

Once deployed randomly on the ground, the squad must find the discs in pods launched from space, scattered around the four corners of the map. You can also come across vehicles, ammunition stocks or drop points that can bring back our fallen comrades.

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Among the fifteen tactical advantages, one of them allows in particular to redeploy fallen comrades.

After a few minutes, two drop zones are randomly placed on the map to extract the precious resources in our possession, before a natural disaster comes to devastate the area. On paper, “Hazard Zone” therefore offers a certain freedom of tactical approach and short but high adrenaline games.

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The main objective of Hazard Zone is to recover and (attempt) to extract these hard drives.

In reality, at least in our experience with random companions in misfortune (and without voice chat, let's remember), games are often over in just a few minutes (counting the welcome screen giving us a minute and thirty seconds to get ready). Result, we have more the feeling of having wasted our time to trudge in a vast area without crossing anyone, to finally make us mow down by a strong squad of an armored vehicle against which we remain powerless.

In fact, our games were not brilliant and we left with a very modest savings, too thin to concretely improve our chances during a next test thanks to the equipment available against cold hard cash. The exercise will perhaps be more satisfying with a group of four friends in voice, if we omit the problems related to the very random ballistics or the netcode. At least 'Hazard Zone' allows for smooth performance, with just 32 players.

A nostalgic portal to save the future

Last part, and not least, of this Battlefield 2042: the “Portal” mode. Battlefield veterans will no doubt happily spend hours on this mode, to the detriment of the rest of the game, as the possibilities it offers are endless.

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Even Portal's browser brings back fond memories.

And for good reason, in the long term, the community will indeed be able to create unique modes mixing elements and maps of Battlefield 1942, Bad Company 2, Battlefield 3, and of course Battlefield 2042. You have always fantasized to see what a fight between Nazis and Boston Dynamics robot dogs can give? Do you miss the unlikely "Knives vs. Defibrillators" battles? Do you want to play a remastered “Deathmatch” game on Canals de Noshahr or Port d'Arica like in the good days of Battlefield 3 or Bad Company 2? “Portal” is made for you!

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Nostalgics will recognize this iconic Battlefield 3 map.

The "Portal" mode is thus, and quite paradoxically, our favorite of this Battlefield 2042. If the community did not have the tools to create unique game modes during early access, it was still possible to afford a cure of nostalgia remastered on the three opuses currently available.

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A hell of a program offered by Battlefield Portal!

It is also quite possible to have the Sans-Patries of Battlefield 2042 confront each other on maps of old opuses, or even pit soldiers from Battlefield 1942 against others from Battlefield 3, among other proposals.

Most of the most iconic classes, weapons, accessories and maps of these three titles can thus benefit from the Battlefield 2042 engine, for an overall experience much more pleasant than what the base game offers, at least in our humble opinion. However, we can still deplore the absence of certain weapons or maps, or even a gameplay calibrated to that of Battlefield 2042, which prevents us from truly reliving the experience of the old opuses.

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Almost all the elements of the three old opuses are available in Portal.

Did DICE choose to add "Portal" to its title knowing full well that the direction taken by Battlefield 2042 would not please? We would be tempted to believe it. But never mind, it still offers the Sans-Patries four games in one, and maybe even more over the coming months. We're definitely not going to complain.

Battlefield 2042 : l'avis de JVFR

If the spirit of what made the resounding success of the Battlefield franchise is very present in this new opus, DICE seems to have a hard time knowing which shoulder to put its gun on (and us with it). The fun, the spectacle and the feeling of being a grain of sand in the middle of an epic battlefield are in order, but the modernization of the formula remains risky. Thus, wanting to offer great flexibility to players, Battlefield 2042 loses part of its essence.

The observation is not the most glorious in terms of gunplay, performance, latency and technique, especially on maps with 128 players that we have a hard time appreciating. A feeling that is hardly more brilliant on “Hazard Zone”, which trades the tension of the titles from which it is inspired for a mode lacking in originality.

Fortunately, and paradoxically, the "Portal" mode comes to save the day by allowing you to enjoy old iconic titles more or less remastered thanks to the visually very successful engine of the last part.

As it stands, it is with some regret, given our affection for this iconic franchise, that we give it a score of 7/10. DICE has no intention of abandoning its new creation, however, and we hope that some issues will be ironed out by the official release on November 19, in order to raise our verdict by at least one point.

For the rest, we bet that regular additions will put Battlefield 2042 back on track so that it lives up to its immense legacy. The last thing we want for this title is to be swept away by a tornado, leaving behind only the ruins of a future that could have been bright.

Battlefield 2042

If the release date of Battlefield 2042 has been pushed back a month, the new DICE FPS still lacks finishing touches. The skeleton of what constitutes a very good Battlefield is there, but the experience is undermined by numerous calibration issues. Hoping that the Swedish studio will quickly manage to rectify the situation so that this opus is worthy of its prestigious heritage.