First thoughts - bugs and concerns
So...
There's a lot to digest. I'm playing it and enjoying it but there's a hell of a lot that needs fixing.
Sniping
It's 2042 and the scopes are more basic than BF3 and BF4. Completely illogical. Lying prone? You keep doing a thumbs-up as if this was a 2010 graphics glitch.
Pings
Completely broken. Try to ping a soldier in the sky you get a hanging ping. Ping a vehicle? Completely irrelevant voice line and rarely appears on the minimap. Instead get a red location ping but not the usual hat highlight. (Bring back the triangles, more Battlefield than the dots.)
Revive
Die near a wall? Revive bugs out. Three times in five.
Spawning
The maps are vast. Beautiful in places. But miss a vehicle? You are in a crap running simulator for a couple of minutes, before you get your head blown off. How about an option to drop in nearer objectives as infantry. Forces a choice between objectives and vehicles and reduces helicopter hogs snagging nearby objectives. Would mean quicker fire fights, but potentially more strategic.
Guns
In Warzone, mods matter. The guns feel different. Here? SMGs feel like SMGs. Assaults like assaults. Snipers like snipers. The pistols? Meh. 2042 and no auto?
Suppression
Where is it?
Comms
Ridiculous you are treating us like kids with the profanity filter. Either kill chat completely cos of crossplay and consoles that can't chat, and comms rose only, or take the filter off. No voice comms at pre-launch? Basic error in 2021.
Orders and Squad Leader
Seriously. This is so crapped out. Giving, acknowledging etc. Screws with regular pings all the time. Also - why no mechanism for voting to change Squad Leader? Or ability to resign?
Ranger
Gets separated, comms are buggy with it.
Lack of Commander
Was a niche role but potentially makes more sense in 2042 than BF4. Shame it's missing.
Vehicles
Hovercraft are massively OP. Not fun. Need to make the risk/reward higher. Make them vulnerable to lighter ammunition or more vulnerable to frags. Or something. Seriously. Or you get idiots who think it's fun to simply ride around mowing everyone down while invincible.
Rao
The hacking. What is the point? You are supposed to be able to hack as a sniper? No. You really can't. All the stuff about other side of the map is just nuts and untrue. Hack then kill in a short space of time? Make hacking people take less time and increase range. And what does the flashing do? Also - no XP for hacking. So put yourself out there and risk getting your head blown off for nothing.
Levolution
Where is it? There's more destructibility and more spectacular events in BF4. That's almost a decade old.
Various (sound and graphics)
Graphic glitches, with players hovering or frozen after death, vehicles juddering out. Unable to leave transport helicopters after spawning without button-mashing. Appalling sound design on footsteps (we thought Warzone was bad, but this is a whole new level of awful).
Conclusion
These are just the bugs that come to mind. It's got huge potential as a game, but at the moment it feels like a bad alpha for a game that has less about it than its predecessors. Surely it should have hit the pre-launch stage in at least as decent a shape as pre-launch BF4? It's missing content and playability. Having been waiting for this as a COD-beater, to get back to the franchise I really prefer, this is hugely disappointing so far. It feels a long way from finished and either Friday is going to bring the mother of all patches and a huge content drop or this game is in quite a lot of trouble. We've waited a long time and paid a lot of money - it would be good if Dice actually responded to the concerns being raised, rather than simply told us that the feedback has all been very positive. There's a lot of concern out here.
Update
There's more. Bugged in death, unable to redeploy or be revived.
Weapons - can't choose loadout in the wait screen. Really? This is basic.
Hazard Zone - often can't change operator prior to game, even if not already in squad.
THIS STUFF IS BASIC.
