Dear DICE / EA - open letter

Dear DICE / EA,

I'm writing this because I don't want you to get the wrong idea/impression.

The vast majority of this franchice's fans are looking forward to a modern age tactical mil-sim shooter, Battlefield 2042 sales and pre-orders confirm this, a lot of copies were sold just based on the pre-release trailers, artwork and communication.

Myself included. Seeing myself also as one of the "Battlefield veterans" who've owned, played and enjoyed all of the previous titles, enjoying myself for hundreds and thousands of hours per title, especially with my all-time favorite: Battlefield 3.

I trusted you. I have pre-ordered the ultimate version for my Xbox Series X ($120) becuase if the game was looking to continue as the next iteration in a great, long running series. I was sure my money was well spent, as I was ready to play this game for hundreds/thousands of hours yet again, so locking in for the base game, the Series X versien, and the additional Y1 content was a no-brainer.

But...
Never before have I felt the urge to speak up.
Never before have I felt let down, previous games all had their challenges and bugs/issues, but they were always resolved.
Never before have I felt betrayed, lied to, scammed.
Never before have I felt anger towards a game I bought.
Never before have I felt the need to seek for a refund - I'm trying my hardest to get the game refunded for weeks now, without luck so far.

Like I said, I don't want you to get the wrong idea/impression.

It's not because we, or I, am not interested in a modern age shooter. we are.
But the design decisions combined with the state of Battlefield 2042, is not what I expected, and not what I was looking forward to.

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So what is wrong?
Let's first talk about the current state of the game, this can all be fixed, and sometimes relatively quick and easy.
There are graphical glitches, there are movement glitches like "superman", there are instances where you can get under the map, there are glitches where you can teleport, there are hitreg issues, there are fake walls where you can walk/fly through, there are invisible walls where you can't walk/shoot through, and many more - this can all be fixed, and I expect this to be fixed within the coming weeks/months.

However, the design decisions..
There are numerous lists out there, that point out all the basic, core mechanics, that this game is lacking. They are not "legacy features", they are mechanics of shooters in general, or are cornerstone features or even USP's within the longstanding series of this franchise.

Battlefield used to have a blueprint. Classes, Destruction, Customization, Immersive mil-sim.

Battlefield used to have a singleplayer, not the most important part of the game, but I always liked, and played them. Now the singleplayer was sacrified so you would expect the time and effort would result in an even better multiplayer experience, but this is not the case unfortunately.

In Battlefield you were able to be on top of the *scoreboard* with just teamplay, not with kills or K/D. It promoted teamplay and it granted rewards and XP towards that. There is an extensive list of actions that rewarded XP in previous games, which are lacking in this title. This completely kills teamplay, nobody wants to revive anymore, drop ammo, or healtcrates for the team, it's just useless now.

Battlefield used to have great movement, leaning, first person takedown, auto bipod mounting, falling when blowing up an objective and many more movements, they are all missing in Battlefield 2042. We only got the basic walk-run-crouch-prone.

Battlefield used to have amazing destruction. In a tactical mil-sim shooter, it's great to blow up things - it's fun. You see an enemy running into a building? blow it up with your tank and crush him with the debris, it's tactical, great, and fun - none of that is in Battlefield 2042, there is no. destruction. at. all. (This is also of course, an issue with the current set of release-maps).

Talking about maps. Battlefield used to have GREAT or GOOD maps. Now in Battlefield 2042, we have HORRIBLE, and some, somewhat OKAYISH maps. We used to have maps that had chokepoints, lanes, (destructible) buildings. there used to be sationary guns/cannons/AA. there used to be boats, ships, quads, jeeps, motorcycles.
We used to have close quarter infantry-only maps like the BF3 rooftop, Metro, Locker, Rotterdam, also with gamemodes like TDM or FFA.
We used to fight within a airship carrier, we used to blow up train rails, we used to blow up a dam and flood an area, we used to hop islands with boats, we used to have carrier to beach landings.
The maps in this game are flat, no destruction, no interaction, no cover, no lanes.
The maps used to be immersive. For example, Battlefield 4 (same setting as BF2042) there used to be roadblocks, streets filled with paper, litter, burning cars, checkpoints - BF2042 streets are empty, clean, soulless.
In these maps, you're a sitting (running) duck waiting to get sniped or ran over by a bolte or hoovercraft.
Also the amount of maps, 7, is lacking.

About lakcing content, we also got just 22 guns. It's the least amount we've got ever. People were expecting, and looking forward to BF3 - 4 - V amount of weapons, attachments and customizations. Now we have a few weapons, some attachments that I don't really felt like the made a difference or felt the need to unlock them. We have some pistols, a launcher, some AR's / SMG / LMG.

Like said earlier, we used to have *official* game modes like TDM and FFA - Now we can host this in portal, but nobody does, because Portal was killed on arrival for being exploitative - basically Portal was launched as a big sandbox without limits or limitations, I was looking forward to Portal - but when people were having fun, it got restricted and with that, killed off.
In the first week, you couldn't host your experience because there was no space for additional servers. Now, there are 3 servers with 3 players, and when you host something, nobody joins. It was literally killed, no other words for it.

Battlefield used to have classes. This system came with a rock-paper-scissors mechanics. Putting limitations came with making choices, having, and acting like / playing your role within your squad and team.
Classes are gone. People can argue saying; you can create loadouts and name them like the old classes and play that way. But that doesn't fix the mechanics it broke.
There now are no limitations, everybody can access the same guns, create their own combinations and therefore, it created a "meta". Everyone will now walk around with the PP-29 or whatever it's called, because that is the best weapon. Snipers will have ammo crates and self-heal.
Nobody will throw ammo or health crates for the team, killing the teamplay, and nobody will play support and repair your tank/helicopter mid fight, also because like I said before, majority of these actions are not (properly) awarded.

Battlefield used to have immersion, screaming, shouting, scolding nameless soldiers. Now we have dozens of the same heroes running around. The time I've played I never switched heroes, just picked the guy that was also in the beta, not sure what his name was. I don't identify with these heroes, I don't want to play with them, I don't want to unlock their santa- or rodeo outfits. I want a no name (no-pat?) customizable soldier with dozens of tactical gear and tactical skins like in Battlefield 3/4. And I want to unlock some more tactical gear like helmets, gloves, pants, shirts, body armor of different kind to further customize my look to look unique.

Battlefield used to have factions. Now we have two teams with the same set of heroes from different origins, fighting each other. While, if I recall correctly, they are still labeled US/RU (factions?). These heroes supposedly fight during the day, killing each other and themselves and then return to their ship out on the open sea and say something like: 'Geez, that was something, eh?', 'Ready for another round?', 'Don't be sad, that's just how it works out sometimes'.
And the only difference there is between my hero and an opposing hero is some glowstick and some unlockable or -in the future- purchaseable non-tactical skin that I don't want to see in a tactical mil-sim shooter game.

I already talked a bit about the new additions, specialists.
Another addition is the game mode Hazard Zone. I can't comment on this, I haven't played it, nor do I have interest in playing it.

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Now, like I said, some items will be fixed. Some content (few maps/guns) will be added. But the core problem why I, and many with me, have stopped playing this game and will not return, are the majority of these design decisions that will not be changed.
It's why I stopped playing, I am trying to get in touch with Microsoft / Xbox support almost daily since 25th of November to try to get my Ultimate version refunded. I don't want another 4 (or whatever number) of additional specialists I don't want to play with. I am back to playing Battlefield V, I don't really like this era as I am more into modern attachments like holo scopes, grips, laser/flashlights, etc. But BF3 and 4 don't look too good nowadays on Xbox Series X because of the 720p resolution.

I hope to get my game refunded.
I hope, in the future, there will be a new modern era battlefield experience that can live up to the series previous titles.
Until then, I will see you on the battlefields of Narvik, Rotterdam, Arras and Wake Island.