Battlefield 2042 Review: 6 Ups & 6 Downs

DOWNS

6. A Severe Lack Of Content

Okay so this is technically one down, but it’s a biggie.

On the surface, Battlefield 2042 seems to provide decent bang for your buck. Yes there’s no campaign, but the three main modes of play are expansive, the maps are bigger than ever, and there are a wealth of specialists to choose from.

When you actually look at what’s on offer though, it’s incredibly lacking.

First up is the weapon variety. In All Out War players have a mere 22 weapons to choose from. SMGs and Assault Rifle classes get four weapons each, but on the other side of the coin there’s only two LMGs and one shotgun.

Unfortunately, weapon attachments aren’t much better, and don’t offer the kind of transformational opportunities that, say, Gunsmith provides in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. In fact, a lot of the attachments share stat buffs, meaning the choice is purely cosmetic. Weapon variety is at an all time low, and it removes the incentive of levelling up.

The same is true for gadgets. Anti-armour options are laughably slim, while cosmetic changes like camouflages are few are far between, and require demanding grinds to unlock.

Next up is the maps. With seven in All Out War, the selection isn’t awful, but the size of the areas don’t make up for the lack of variety and the sense of familiarity that quickly sets in.

What compounds this even more is the lack of continuous lobbies. After every round you’re thrown back to the menu to search for another game, meaning if you’re unlucky like me, you can go hours playing the same handful of maps. If I have to replay Kaleidoscope back to back one more time, I won’t be held responsible for my actions.

Portal is perhaps the most disappointing though. With each older game only getting two maps each, players will be yearning for more at launch, especially as Portal is such a saving grace overall. Let’s hope fan favourites arrive in future seasons.

That’s part of the problem though. The content here feels barebones for a multiplayer-only experience, and you can’t shake the feeling that the game won’t feature a full arsenal or suite of maps until post-launch content is added with the planned seasons.

There are glaring omissions here, and it sucks for a full-price game of this calibre.