Battlefield is one of the best shooter franchises ever made. DICE has created mind-blowing action experiences that can truly only be had in a Battlefield game. There are major fans out there that want to keep this series alive, but EA needs to stop chasing after the next gaming fad, a la battle royales, and stop trying to “Call of Duty-fy” the series. I think I speak for all life-long Battlefield fans when I say, we do NOT want another Call of Duty clone!

If It Aint Broke…

With the abysmal reception of Battlefield 2042 there has been much upset about the fact that the series had completely undergone a re-work of its class system in favor of “hero shooter” characters. These specific soldiers have skills and tools that are specific to them, all while players can select ANY type of loadout they wish.

This type of move negatively impacts teamwork and team play. In previous titles, players would have to work as a team in order to resupply ammo or heal, but now this can all be done solo. This gives way too much freedom to the players to create a great “battle-royale” loadout but not so much for a team and objective-focused loadout. Battlefield 4 offered a class system that allowed you to customize weapons, but the accessory items were locked to that specific class. If you were a sniper, you wanted to make sure you had a squad with a support class to feed you ammo. This type of gameplay helps differentiate Battlefield from the rest. Teamwork and squad gameplay.

Next-Gen Consoles, Last-Gen Gameplay

What seemed like the biggest addition to Battlefield 2042 was the increased player count per match, and the weather disasters. Although these are a welcome addition to the chaotic series, this isn't necessarily screaming ”Next-Gen.” Battlefield 4 brought near fully destructible structures, in-game events that would cause the entire map to shift, and not to mention increased player size from previous consoles. It even had a dynamic weather system! Give us something new, something we haven't seen before. Utilize the new systems with more than just the number of players because clearly, that doesn't make the game more fun. In fact, it could lead to opposite results. With bigger maps comes longer travel time and less action.

Make the game more realistic, but keep that Battlefield flair that we know and love. Being able to call in-vehicle drops at any moment definitely takes me out of the immersion and almost makes capturing bases pointless. Sure, it's how you win, but in all other titles, certain spawn points meant that team had control over anti-air missiles, gun turrets, and vehicle spawns. Although some of this is still the case, it exists in vein because one could just simply spawn it on command.

Go Back To Its Roots

DICE and EA need to take a step back and realize we don’t just want constant chaotic explosions and firefights, we want objective-based team tactics, which result in rewarding gameplay. Make the game more realistic, similar to the direction of BF1 and BFV. Give us our class system back and drop the heroes. And when in doubt, follow in the footsteps of the almighty, Battlefield 3 and Bad Company 2. Sometimes smaller maps give better results.

At this point, just a remaster of Battlefield 3 would make fans happier than the continued support of the mess that is BF 2042. We can only hope that DICE will continue to fix the game with upcoming patches and hopefully pull off the same type of rebound that Ubisoft did with Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint. 

Battlefield games are known to provide awesome objective-based gameplay with heavy teamwork and light hardcore tactics. This isn't a permadeath type of game, but we do want strategy and squad tactics to have a heavy role. Oh, and scoreboards. Let's hope EA and DICE learn from their mistakes and deliver us a half-decent patched BF 2042 very soon. Either that, or just re-release Battlefield 3 on Next-gen consoles and remaster it for PC, offer crossplay, and fans will be happy once again!