Battlefield 2042 Beta: 5 Things That Need to Change, and 5 Things That Worked

Battlefield 2042 Update 1.000.009

With the Battlefield 2042 beta in full swing for those with early access privileges (and soon open to everyone), I’ve managed to get some quality hands-on time with the PS5 version of the game (thanks to EA), and as an old-school Battlefield fan, there’s a lot to take in — both good, and bad.

With that said, here are five things we didn’t like about the Battlefield 2042 beta, and five things we think worked. Important to note: we didn’t include bugs, and other stuff that we know DICE has been working on; most of the items here are purely gaming-related, design choices and the like, that we hope DICE takes a look at it.

Same as with any list, this is mostly my (the author’s, not the site’s) opinion, and there are stuff that we missed, or you just don’t agree with, and that’s fine.

Five Things About the Battlefield 2042 Beta That Worked:

Battlefield 2042 Plus System

Gunplay

Possibly one of the most important aspects in any multiplayer shooter, and one we’re not surprised has been nailed right on the head by DICE, is the game’s gunplay. It feels satisfying downing enemies, shoveling bullets and other explosives at enemy infantry and vehicles feels good, which shouldn’t surprise no one. Even the time-to-kill (TTK) feels fine, which might probably be one of the main concerns from series fans after what happened with Battlefield V.

Plus System Is a Good New Addition

In case you didn’t know, Battlefield 2042 features the Plus system where players can swap various weapon attachments on the fly, which helps in tackling multiple engagements, and the like. It’s a step in the right direction when it comes to letting the player customize their loadouts, and not feel penalized for going with a specific gun attachment instead of another. Locking weapon attachments might work in standard multiplayer shooters, but in Battlefield where there are multiple ways to engage with enemies, and the distance that gunfights play out vary greatly, this is a much-needed addition.

Battlefield 2042 LCMG

Vehicles and Overall “Feel” Are Reminiscent of Battlefield 4

Adding to the gunplay is how the driving and using the vehicles feel like Battlefield 4, which is considered by many to be the best in the franchise (or at least one of the best ones). This same “feel” applies to the overall game, too. It feels like Battlefield 4 in a good way, even if you know it’s not.

Battlefield 2042 Digital Standard Edition

Call-In System for Vehicles Actually Work

Another new-ish (since it was implemented before with Commander mode albeit in a different manner) addition to the franchise is the call-in for vehicles. It’s a system that feels like it can be abused, but so far, it works. Mind, we don’t know how it’ll play out once the game is out in the wild in its final form, but in the beta, it’s good to have a way to call in a vehicle right at the palm of your Specialist’s fingertips.

Variety in Environments 

While there’s only one playable map in the beta in Orbital, it does offer a wide range of environments to fight on. There’s greenery scattered across the map, there are structures, bunkers, and verticality even. If the rest of the game’s maps are the same in terms of environmental variety, that’s definitely a win column for DICE, even if we’re not getting a whole of maps available at launch. However, not everything regarding the map is good, which we’ll talk about more in detail in a bit.

Five Things About the Battlefield 2042 Beta That Needs to Change:

Battlefield 2042 Beta Build

Map Size Is Too Big, Layouts Needs to Be Better to Have the Action Flowing

As mentioned above, while Orbital does give players variety, it also feels kinda empty even with 128 players. There are hot spots in maps where almost all the action takes place, but outside of that though, you’ll experience moments where you’re actively looking for action, which isn’t something you want in a multiplayer shooter.

Sure, one can argue that trekking and walking has always been part of the franchise since you need a good-sized map to make sure vehicles and infantry can co-exist, but in the beta, I experienced quite a lot of downtime where I was just walking, and generally not shooting or spotting anything or anyone. The map felt empty at times, which is possibly one of the worst experiences to feel when playing a shooter.

UI Is Hard to Navigate, Map, Objective Markers, Scoreboard and the Like Need to Be Clearer

We’re lumping all these in one entry since they are essentially part of the UI (user interface), though different parts of it.

The UI for loadouts while clean, is just hard to navigate. Never mind the bugs (which we’re hoping will be fixed at launch), but just changing your gear, equipment, Specialist and the like, feels like a drag. One might argue that the UI is the same with past Battlefield games, but isn’t it time we had a better one? It just adds way more button presses than it needs to.

At the same time, objective markers, and stuff pertaining to how to win the match should be clearer. Countless times, the way colors blend in and whatnot, I couldn’t tell where Flag B was and so on. Mind, I’m a franchise fan, even. Now imagine a franchise newbie, they are going to be lost on where to go, what to do, and just how to contribute to the team.

Not only that, but even the map is a lot harder to use than in past Battlefield games. Not only is hard to “read,” but you can’t even expand the mini map outside of what we can see on the lower left. Mind, this should be quite an easy fix, so it’s not that big of an issue.

The scoreboard is an odd one as well. Can we have the old scoreboard from past Battlefield games, please?

Air Vehicles Take Way Too Many Hits to Destroy

Hate air vehicles in past Battlefield games? Well, you’re going to hate how durable they are in BF2042! It takes four rocket shots to down a heli in the beta, which is simply just too much! What’s worse is, sometimes your anti-air rocket just disappears or something. From our count, it takes roughly 3-4 rocket hits to down a chopper, which is just insane. Fortunately, this is something DICE can fix quickly should they feel these flying death bringers are a tad too hard to take down.

battlefield 2042

Figure Out a Way to Let Players Know Which Character Can Do What for Their Team

This is an odd one. In past Battlefield games, you know that the Engineer can repair and destroy vehicles; it doesn’t matter if they’re carrying an anti-air missile, mines, an RPG, or what, as the important thing is, we know that once we see the character model, that said character is for repairing or destroying vehicles. The same could be said for Medics, Support, and the Recon. We know to ask for a med box from the medic class, and so on.

In Battlefield 2042 though, given how Specialists can essentially equip anything, it’s guesswork whether X character can either heal you, resupply, or have an anti-vehicle weapon in tow (this is outside of each Specialist’s specific ability). This adds a whole layer of confusion among your entire team, as you don’t know which character can do what specifically.

Speaking of confusion…

Specialists Needs to Have Proper Factions and Color/Skin Coding

Possibly the most annoying thing out of the entire beta is the game not having faction-specific skins/outfits! Imagine going up against an enemy with the same Specialist as your teammate. Yep, they look exactly alike, and it’s quite hard to know which one is your teammate, and which one is an enemy. Here’s an example of what I mean:

See? With Battlefield 2042 confirmed to be getting cosmetic customization, I don’t see this getting any better. Let’s say a cool new headgear or something is released, what if your enemies and teammates wear it? You’re back on square one! It doesn’t matter how these cosmetics are mixed and match, the fact that they look exactly the same for both sides means that people will get confused as to who the enemies are, and which ones are on their team.

A simple fix? Perhaps add a hue to each side, and this could be done without redesigning how Specialists look. Here’ an example:

That simple thing alone would make a world of difference, no? This is one complaint that people on social media, Reddit, etc. are all in agreement with, and I agree as well, given the times I was confused whether the Specialist I was aiming at was a friendly or foe.


That’s it for our list! If you’ve played the beta, do you agree with our picks? Sound off below and let us know what you think in the comments!

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Coniac
2 years ago

The Beta is just downright horrible, too long a periods with no action, spend half the game looking for enemies, hit a helicopter 3 times and still didn’t bring it down, aiming system is horrid, can hardly tell your teammates from enemies most times, far easier to get killed than to get kills. Just looks like a unorganized mess. COD just dropped season 6 i’ll spend my weekend actually playing something fun instead of being aggravated by this crap.

Jason Quince
Reply to  Coniac
2 years ago

Not sure we were playing the same game? The only time it was slow is at the start as people spread across the map. After that spawning on points that are under attack you are instantly in the action

Rafael
2 years ago

Too many choppers! I don’t mind their health, instead they should have a longer refill of the anti-heat seekers, and AA should lock-in faster. And that without and engineer fixing it from inside! They spawn all the time and are invincible. A team needs to make better use of the chopper or lose it. You can be totally reckless.

But make greatest beef is how the bullets are not suppressing movement and how PC players have an unfair advantage with it. A PC player starts running instantly while depressing L3 takes 0.5 to 1 second to start running. There is no movement slow down, and they run and jump, turn around 180 degrees and kill you easily using the mouse. They should restrict the movement to 120 degrees turn until returned to neutral for mouses, slow down movements, add a delay after a jump for aiming, hip firing, running and jumping again, just like in BF4. Feels too much like COD.

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