Most of the community was going to use Portal as a playground to exploit 2042’s progression systems. People were using the powerful editing tools of Portal to make XP farms, not new experiences. XP farming servers, nothing but XP farming servers. I thought, “Wow, Portal is fantastic, but I’ve played Bad Company 2 before. It plays just as well now as it did over a decade ago. Arming MCOMs on Arica Harbor brought me right back to 2010. I played on a server that faithfully recreated Bad Company 2’s Rush mode. Conversely, Portal was exactly what I wanted. We compared it to Escape From Tarkov, only worse. All-Out Warfare runs terribly as of writing, Breakthrough’s fun factor relies heavily on the map you’re on, and Hazard Zone just isn’t Battlefield to me. DICE’s changes to the core formula left me confused more often than excited. My initial impressions of 2042 were mixed. Related: Battlefield 2042 Review - Buy It Next Year
Alienated fans have found solace with Portal, declaring it as “the mode that will save Battlefield.” As someone who’s spent many hours with Portal thus far, I disagree. What’s strange is that 2042 also captures this very DNA with Battlefield Portal, a wealth of remastered content from past Battlefield titles that can be modified to your heart’s content. In an effort to stand out from its contemporaries, DICE has shifted the core sandbox to revolve around Specialists and chaotic encounters, inadvertently contorting the squad-based DNA that made Battlefield the franchise it is today.
Battlefield 2042 is in the midst of an identity crisis.