Battlefield 2042 early reviews are here and everyone is loving Portal - our round-up
Ahead of Battlefield 2042's early access launch tomorrow, a number of outlets have offered their takes on what they were able to play so far.
Battlefield 2042 reviews are starting to trickle down. Well, review-in-progress pieces and early impressions, since no one has been able to spend enough time with the game's various modes to come to a verdict.
While we work on our own thoughts and impressions - look for those sometime next week - we wanted to offer you a look at what the rest of our peers in games media think of what they played so far. Battlefield 2042 is made up of three distinct experiences: the bread-and-butter All-Out Warfare with Conquest, and Breakthrough, the community-driven Portal mode with remasters from Bad Company 2, Battlefield 1942, and Battlefield 3, and the Tarkov-lite Hazard Zone.
The review impressions you'll see below cover all three modes, but since everyone only got a chance to spend a few hours with each, expect more to come.
PC Gamer was a particular fan of Portal, in part because of the opportunities for hijinks it offers, but also because it lets you relive vanilla Battlefield 3, Bad Company 2 and BF 1942.
"Aimlessly running through fields and mulling around on capture points definitely brought me back to the early 2000s, though. BF3 still feels modern to me, though returning to Caspian Border and Noshahr Canals did remind me of how much has changed since 2011," wrote PCG.
Game Informer had a more reserved reception of all three modes, though the reviewer did enjoy what the Specialists bring to the table. Mostly, though, they were unimpressed with the game's technical state.
"Unfortunately, Battlefield 2042 currently lacks a layer of polish in its pre-launch state. Most bugs I’ve encountered are minimal, like the grappling hook’s zipline clipping through the front of the device during its animation or struggling to call in air support on an arid map like Hourglass because of a bug with the sand’s navmesh. Others can have a detrimental effect on gameplay, like sniper scopes losing their magnification after interacting with secondary gadgets or not being able to revive downed teammates in Hazard Zone," wrote GI.
Polygon had one of the less enthusiastic takes on the game. The review praised the Plus menu system, which lets you equip attachments on the fly, but lamented how the large maps slow down the action.
"One unfortunate side effect of Battlefield 2042’s massive maps, which feel much larger than their counterparts from earlier games, is that they can take a little too long to cross on foot. There were a few matches of Conquest, particularly on the desert map Hourglass, which left me feeling like I was playing a battle royale game, following distant bursts of gunfire and far-off players, only to find that the action had moved elsewhere by the time I arrived," wrote Polygon.
Eurogamer agreed that Portal was the highlight, calling out the satisfying recreations of Bad Company 2, in particular. The big new 128-player Conquest, according to Eurogamer, works very well despite the larger map size.
"It's faintly damning that by far the best part of this Battlefield package are some exacting remakes of games that are over 10 years old, while elsewhere the series seems caught in the same muddle it's been for a while. But maybe it's best to look past the lumpier parts of the package and focus on what really works, because if you know where to look Battlefield's special lure is still there, better and brighter than it's been for a while, the sandbox enabling carnage on a bigger, broader scale than before," Eurogamer wrote.
Gamespot couldn't quite decide on whether or not the addition of Specialists was ultimately good for the series. On the right map with the right Specialist, the game can flow really well, according to the review, but that also creates dull moments where you're left scrambling to find one that works better for the needs of the situation.
"The addition of specialists isn't always perfect - a few feel out of place on certain maps. There's also the constant shooter problem where exciting characters that earn high kill counts, like Paik with her ability to see through walls for short periods, will undoubtedly draw more use than support-leaning or more stationary characters like Falck, Angel, or Boris. But DICE has promised to add more specialists in the future, and there's enough diversity of gameplay experience in the cast already that seeing additions and recombinations in how they work together is an exciting prospect," wrote GS.
Battlefield 2042 is out November 19, but you can play it as early as tomorrow, November 12 through various ways.