After months of bug fixes and overhauls to the game, EA and DICE will finally release the first season of content to Battlefield 2042 on June 9. We were given the opportunity to preview the new content and hear from DICE about the game’s inaugural season, and what their goals are for Season One: Zero Hour.

New Content

Battlefield 2042: Season One – Zero Hour brings with it the first content update the game has seen since launch. Here’s a summary of the new content (for a more in-depth look at the new content, head on here).

• New map – Exposure
• New specialist – Ewalina Lis
• New weapons – BSV-M Marksman Rifle, Ghostmaker R10 crossbow
• New gadgets – Smoke Grenade Launcher
• New vehicle – Stealth Helicopters
• UI and menu improvements
• Season One Battle Pass and Cosmetics Store

New Map: Exposure

Exposure is a new map set in the Canadian wilderness which features large, open forested areas, tall cliffsides, and indoor facilities. The outskirts of the map are large and open, which makes snipers and long range weapons powerful, while the center of the map features more close quarter indoor areas.

We had a chance to try the recently added Breakthrough 64 mode on this map, which cuts the amount of players in half. The Battlefield community has been vocal about their disdain for the 128-player modes DICE decided to go with at launch, and for good reason. 128 players was just way too chaotic, and could make capturing points a living nightmare, particularly in a mode like Breakthrough as I mentioned in my pre-launch impressions.

Thankfully, the change to 64 players is definitely an improvement. It gives you the opportunity to actually move around the map as a unit and go on long flanks without immediately dying. 2042 actually feels more like Battlefield in 64 player modes.

Unfortunately, Exposure as a map is forgettable at best, and highly frustrating at worst. In Breakthrough, for the most part defenders are able to sit on their point and pick attackers off at will. One of the B points is a perfect example of this. It’s set in a long tunnel which funnels attackers into a small chokepoint, where they have to fight a team of defenders to capture the point. There is some cover but making moves on the point is difficult. The new Smoke Grenade launcher helps with this, but overall this is just a frustrating point to attack on and is fairly indicative of the entire map in Breakthrough.

Conquest is a similar story, although there is a lot more freedom in where you can attack. Sadly, we weren’t able to get a full grasp of how Conquest plays on Exposure due to rampant networking issues during the event. We were only able to get a few minutes of playtime in a half-full lobby because most of the media members couldn’t connect. From what we played however, Exposure seems to play a bit better in Conquest but some of the large, open areas were similarly frustrating to attack on.

The majority of the map is large and open which makes makes snipers extremely powerful. This is balanced out by a few indoor areas that are perfect for close quarters combat. This makes Exposure perfect for the BSV-M DMR, which has a built in suppressor and is the first weapon in the game that’s able to switch from semi-auto to full-auto modes on the fly.

As for vehicles, they’re actually somewhat kept in check on this map. Tanks are mostly limited to the outer areas, since the center features a tall cliffside with no real roads through it. Aerial vehicles however, will likely have a field day on Exposure. That includes the new RAH-68 Huron and YG-99 Hannibal Stealth Choppers, which are the first assault helicopters in Battlefield 2042. These also have two modes which can be freely switched. Assault Mode is the heli that longtime Battlefield players know and love. Stealth Mode, is a secondary mode which makes the vehicle invisible to radar and targeting systems. Aerial vehicles like these have a clear view of the map and and can freely shoot down at enemies from the sky. There is one new counter to vehicles however, and that’s Lis.

New Specialist – Ewalina Lis

Season One also adds a new specialist to the game. Lis’ kit revolves around anti-vehicle capabilities. Her specialist ability is the G-84 guided missile launcher, which can be fully controlled in mid-air and is perfect for destroying both ground and aerial vehicles. This is strictly an anti vehicle launcher though — its damage to infantry is reduced.

Her passive ability ‘Armor Hunter’ automatically spots enemy vehicles on the radar and can also highlights damaged vehicles through walls. Vehicles were a major criticism of the game at launch so a specialist like this has been sorely needed in Battlefield 2042. Her rockets can take down vehicles in 2-4 shots so hopefully this will take care of some of the vehicle spam.

Unfortunately, there just isn’t much more to say about Lis. Her kit is nice but isn’t game changing… and that’s pretty much where I stand on Season One in general. The new map is fine and while Lis is a nice addition, she probably should have been in the game at launch.

After seven months, Battlefield 2042 has been hemorrhaging players, and unfortunately Season One probably isn’t going to be the big update that brings everyone back. DICE confirmed to us that Season One will be 12 weeks long, so this is pretty much it for the next few months. There will be occasional mid-season updates — DICE confirmed to us, for example, that a player profile and stats page will be added to the game during Season One. As for new maps, weapons, and Specialists? Those will have to wait until at least October when the Season 2 rolls around.