Day 2: Battlefield 2042 Impressions (Breakthrough, Irish, and the Rorsch Mk-4 Railgun)

 For my second day of Battlefield 2042 I decided to take a journey into a new game mode, Breakthrough, but stuck to the new map, Spearhead, that came with Season 3.  I like to learn a map before jumping to other maps.  Also I am enjoying Spearhead a good bit.

 Breakthrough is a good fit for the new map as its a linear game mode where an attacking team starts on one end and pushes to the other end in sequence (meaning there is no jumping over the current objectives and back capping).  This leads to a more defined "front line" for fighting and I found it a more enjoyable mode than Conquest for this map.  I spent a lot less time getting shot in the back.

 I also figured out some nuance in the control and the ability to change between my attachments.  This is a nice quality of life change from many other games where these sorts of systems require you to make the change outside the game mode. Now I can easily change between scope one and two to fit the current need on the battlefield which fits perfectly with the new map as players transition from outdoor fighting to close-quarters-combat in the factory buildings.

 I am also spending time as other specialists (Day 1 was all Boris). I really like Irish as I am a defensive player by nature (i.e. my aim and reflexes suck so I am better at supporting the team).  One item that I've become very fond of is Irish's APS-36 Shootdown Sentinel (deploy a trophy system that intercepts enemy explosives).  In a single round last night I stopped 96 explosives... which is a bit crazy as each one of those may have been something that killed myself or a team mate.  

 Irish also can pop up defensive shields on the battlefield and combined with a sniper rifle can allow for some unique "sentinel" (apparently Call of Duty's term for campers and I am stealing it) scenarios.  This also gave me a chance to try the new Rorsch Mk-4 Railgun as a sniper rifle.  The weapon takes a bit to get used to but with its chance at landing one hit kills and its pinpoint laser accuracy (i.e. almost zero projectile drop at range) I can see now why so many players are using it.

 I am trying to avoid getting sucked into one specialist as I do want to give more a try, but Irish is really fun and Boris was fun before him.  Zain, the new Season 3 specialist, is likely the next on my list to try just to jump on the bandwagon of trying all the new stuff while everyone else is.

 Who's your favorite specialist?  Whats your favorite game mode: breakthrough or conquest?  Leave a comment!

 

Day 1: Battlefield 2042 Initial Impressions

 I grabbed Battlefield 2042 on sale for $20 and jumped into Conquest on the new Spearhead map.  While memories of Battlefield 2 (my all time favorite in the series) didn't come flooding back 2042 definitely caught my attention.  The visuals are beautiful and the gun play is sufficient.  Here are some other thoughts after a few hours of play on Day 1.

 Being late to the party and knowing most modern Battlefield games rely on progression systems I was prepared to have limited options and that is spot on for 2042.  I had basic weapons without any unlocks.  The first few matches felt a little oppressive as I found myself constantly getting one shot while being unable to take down targets even when I got the jump on them.  

 It turns out this was mostly just an experience with the new rail sniper rifle being strong at one-shot kills and the fact I needed to be more evasive so I wasn't an easy sniper target.  Once more comfortable with the Spearhead map and getting with some better squad mates my kill:death ration improved and I made my way through some unlocks and a few new weapons.

 I do want to mention that the user interface for managing weapons and their load outs is confusing.  It is not clear at all what you have equipped.  There seems like there are multiple slots per weapon part (for example; three slots for scopes/sights) but no explanation of how/which one is active or if there is some way to swap between them in game.  I eventually somehow got the scope I wanted to try in the first slot so just left it there.  Over all the user interface in many areas is confusing.

 Vehicles were also all sorts of confusing and I decided I'll need to spend some time on YouTube to understand these near-future vehicles better and their weapon systems. For example riding shotgun with a squadmate in some sort of SUV-looking vehicle I manned some form of camera with two abilities.  Nothing is explained in the UI on what either of them do.  Then at multiple points I fell victim to vehicles parked on top of the large "cube" buildings on the Spearhead map.  No idea how they are getting there or how the roof supports such large weights.

 Speaking of roofs that should be collapsing there was a definite lack of damage happening on the map.  Some of my fondest memories in Battlefield were in Bad Company 2 where by the end of the match each progressive conquest point was leveled with barely a building left standing.  For the most part in 2042 other than the obvious expendables like piles of wooden crates nothing seems to take much damage.  This leads to some on-rails corridor game play without any of the fun Battlefield work-arounds of blowing out a wall to get behind your opponent.

 There is a specialist system that is new to the Battlefield series.  From what I hear it is a shadow of its launch version and has been re-worked significantly for this most recent major patch (3.0).  The main take away I got from it is that each specialist comes with a unique gadget.  I stuck to the initial specialist I was dropped into, Boris, and his automated turret.  The turret was fun to place and great for helping spot enemy movement.  I will have to take some time to look into other specialists.

 Along with specialists are your standard build outs of assault, engineer, medic, and sniper.  The load outs are really just placeholders in name as a sniper can carry an ammo pouch and a medic can carry a sniper rifle and anyone can revive a player (not just medics).  I believe this is just a halfway state to their entire rebuild of the specialist system.  This is an area Battlefield honestly doesn't need to screw around with.  It has been tried and true for years and not sure why they decided 2042 was the game to screw around with it.

 There is a lot going on with this game and I just scratched the surface day 1.  There looks to be a lot of depth and complexity to the specialists and tuning your weapons.  I have some ideas on weapons I want to work towards and need to spend some time figuring out how to get there most efficiently.  Then there are the vehicles I mentioned.  

 Also an option called "Battlefield Portal" caught my eye.  Apparently it allows players to create custom game modes and mix'n'match content from Battlefield 1942, Battlefield Bad Company 2, Battlefield 3, and 2042.  That means you could have a Spitfire facing off against a F22 Raptor!  This looked very promising and warrants some further investigation.

 Over all I enjoyed Day 1 in Battlefield 2042.  I definitely feel like I will get my moneys worth out of the game and it feels good to be back in a Battlefield game.  Have you given the game a try? Were you there for it's rocky launch?  Share a comment.

Going to give Battlefield 2042 a try

I have been itching to pull some triggers so I grabbed Battlefield 2042 on sale for $20.  Will share my thoughts as I play it.