As Battlefield 2042's open beta wraps up, players across the world have had their chance to get a feel for what the next generation of Battlefield is actually like to play. Many gamers love the way the game plays, but many longtime Battlefield fans aren't too happy with the new direction of the franchise.
In this article, we'll explain how Battlefield 2042 changes the traditional Battlefield formula, if it feels like Call of Duty, and ultimately, whether or not you should check out DICE's latest futuristic, action-packed first-person shooter.
To answer the question directly: Battlefield 2042 does not play like Call of Duty, like any Call of Duty. However, it does play a lot more like Call of Duty than any other Battlefield before it. As a result, longtime fans of Battlefield aren't too happy, but many casual fans of the Battlefield franchise love the new direction.
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If you don't already know, while Battlefield and Call of Duty are both fast-paced arcade first-person shooters, they've always played quite differently. While both are known for weapons that are accurate and easy to control, Battlefield has more recoil and slower handling speeds as well as a focus on destructible environments and squad play.
Ultimately, if you like a twitchy, fast-paced FPS but want it a little slower and more tactical than Call of Duty, you've always had Battlefield as an option. With bigger games and harder to use weaponry, even casual players can stay alive longer in a Battlefield game than in a Call of Duty game, while veteran Battlefield players can handle weapons with ease and outskill opponents.
Weapons in Battlefield 2042 have less recoil than previous Battlefield games, and they come paired with generally high bullet velocities, which means that taking on engagements, even at range, is smooth and easy to do without your gun bucking like a horse or your bullets dropping like bolts shot with a crossbow.
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For some, this change makes the game more accessible: Many like how games like Call of Duty require little recoil control or leading shots and reward pure gunskill. These changes are unsurprisingly popular with that crowd. Fans of Battlefield that prefer guns to require a bit more skill to use easily are concerned these changes lower the game's skill ceiling.
In a similar vein, another historic characteristic of Battlefield has always been squad play. You play as certain classes which have certain loadouts, and being successful in a game of Battlefield is dependent on how well you play with your squad. This is very different from the lone-wolf style of play that's popular in Call of Duty, which is only enabled by players' ability to create their own custom loadouts.
In Battlefield 2042, the class system is a lot more flexible, and even if you want to play with sniper abilities, you can still use an assault rifle or load out with a med-kit. Battlefield 2042 gives the customization over to the player, allowing gamers to build a loadout that suits their playstyle.
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On one hand, being able to play a game exactly how you want to play it is a crowd-pleasing move, but in doing that you encourage squad play a lot less, and squad play is a core series characteristic of the Battlefield franchise many pick up the games to enjoy.
The changes made in Battlefield 2042, however, aren't hard to understand, because Battlefield hasn't been as popular as it once was since the days of Bad Company 2 through Battlefield 4. Each new game doesn't sell as much as they once did, and high-profile launch issues tend to plague each new Battlefield's release.
With this soft reboot of the franchise, EA is likely trying to make Battlefield more accessible and more viable as a Call of Duty competitor. This is normally an idea that would sound bad to Battlefield fans, but even Battlefield fans will tell you that Battlefield 1 and Battlefield 5 aren't as good as the older games, and even popular games like Battlefield 4 weren't nearly as beloved as games like Bad Company 2 or Battlefield 3.
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In short, Battlefield hasn't been Battlefield for a long time, and making the same game doesn't seem to be working for either EA or fans of the series, so maybe a modernization is in order. If you love the squad-focus of the old days, play those games. People love Bad Company 2, and you can still find games today if you really want.
But if you like Modern Warfare 2019's take on Ground War or you love the huge battlefields of a Planetside and want gunplay to be more in line with an Apex or an Overwatch rather than a Valorant or PUBG, Battlefield 2042 is going to feel responsive and fast and it's going to have unimaginably large-scale battles.
Plus, even with more deadly weapons and a more flexible class system, Battlefield 2042's maps are gigantic, and action will often be concentrated into hotspots, where many different squads exchange gunfire and fight over objectives, so squad play is still going to be encouraged if you want the most possible kills and the highest scores.
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Call of Duty has had a similar trajectory as a series. Black Ops 4 was one of the worst-selling Call of Duty games ever, and since the early 2010s, Call of Duty has struggled to remain relevant and be as popular as it once was. Even though Modern Warfare 2019's reception was mixed, many outright hating the way its multiplayer played, it sold better than Call of Duty had in nearly a decade, bringing the masses back to Call of Duty and reinvigorating the franchise.
While Modern Warfare didn't play exactly like any Call of Duty before it, it brought back enough of the classic Call of Duty formula to bring many old players back, and this is exactly the type of game Battlefield 2042 needs to be. It needs to bring Battlefield into the modern-day, keeping what makes the series great but changing things that have kept the franchise from becoming truly mainstream.
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