FEEDBACK: End of Round feels lackluster and here is why
The EoR flow with all the screens, their content, stats, animations and sound just feel like they are not done yet. In case you need a refresher, just watch this video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOwXMrgOiLA. The sub headlines in this post are links to the video with the respective time code. The example screens are my own, from the Early Access version on the PS5 without the patch from November 18.
I know about all the other issues of BF2042, but I want to give my personal feedback to this very specific area for now.
Part 1 - "Round Overview"
Round Overview
It looks okay, although I would expect some more fanfare for winning a round. There is only this little header plopping down with a tiny sound effect and a generic voice comm. Give me something more - we just won!
The "your contribution" section is of not enough info for me. Merging kills and assists does not feel earned, but is rather a participation medal. Especially, since it is seemingly enough to land one shot and you get an assist.
Adding your server rank to some categories (e.g. #2 for kills and assists in my example) is a bit cheeky, since there is no scoreboard anyway. How much did #1 do?
The contributions shown are chosen poorly anyway, so show me all my stats like in BFV, please. Or let me at least still open the "scoreboard" during this screen, like we could in BFV.
Part 2 - "Outstanding Performances"
Outstanding Performance
Apart from the very annoying and out-of-place quips from the specialists, I find myself really disinterested. Without having the chance to look at a scoreboard, I have no idea who those people are, how they stack against others on the server and it does not even say, what team they belong to. In its current iteration, this is just not it. And for being this irrelevant this goes on for too long.
I've also seen one instance, where someone had "the most revives" with 4 and on the next screen, the game told me I revived 5 squad mates.
Part 3 - "Squad Overview"
Squad Overview
First of all, I have never seen the squad walk in front of the camera in my game. The screen has some info on the top and some at the bottom and the middle is showing an empty, blurry shot of the map. I guess, this bug will be fixed, but still...come on.
The individual contributions that are shown on top are once again chosen poorly. Showing me that someone in my squad had 1 melee kill is unnecessary. And so far, it is mostly damage or assist/kill oriented, very rarely showing revives. Show me flag defended and/or captured, resupplied, spotted etc. for more variety.
The squad stats are fine, but they are again random and chosen poorly. They are not as extensive as BFVs overview and also it's detached from my personal contributions (except my 1 sidearm kill, I am sometimes informed about). It's also again mashing kills and assists together, which I disapprove of.
And in this example, you see that we were #1 squad, but it does not feel like this at all. I just saw this by accident today, when I looked at the screenshots after the fact.
Part 4 - "Level Progress"
Level Progress
Level Up
This is a huge disappointment in terms of giving me a feeling of achievement and progress. The animations on the ribbons are weak (just a boring swipe) and there is no sound to it as well.
The points I receive are out of context, as I was not informed in any of the screens before, what I did to earn those. Was it my revives, my defending flags, my kills and assists etc.p.p.? What is the difference between round actions and the match reward?
The XP bar also fills very quietly and even if I get a level up, there is nothing to it really. It shows me the next badge, that looks slightly different to the other one and that's it.
Part 5 - "The Unlock Screen" (not shown in video)
Loading Screen for the Unlock Screen
Unlock Screen
In order to see my unlocks, I have to sit through a loading screen and then it's a silent, unimpressive screen again. Even BFV had some impact to unlocks, even though this screen was buggy as hell (e.g. not showing the thing I unlocked). But there was a sound effect, some light highlighting the part of the gun I unlocked etc. Here, it's like a photo album I am allowed to click through. Very disappointing.
Remember the first Portal trailer, where the vehicles came crashing down? Imagine this on that screen? Imagine attachments being added on the gun with a little animation. A new skin shining with a bit of a highlight. Stuff like that would go long ways and make me exited to keep unlocking.
Conclusion
A lot has already been said about the UI from BF2042, but here it is mostly a UX issue for me. Where is the experience? Where is the excitement? Add some (secondary) movement and especially sounds, so it has an impact and feels nice. I did stuff, I progressed and I unlocked weapons and gadgets, but it feels like the most boring part of the game right now.
P.S.: Shoutout to my squadmate Freaky-b0n3z from the round I took those examples from, who was the best gunner in the M5C Bolte. That was a fun ride.
