The honeymoon is over. Is divorce next?
After having played the first 100 hours of the game back in November, I posted this to summarize my experience:
Now after we have received multiple incremental patches and now this week the Season1 release, its a good time to evaluate what we have gotten so far from EA/DICE in this game since launch.
So try and look at my list here below from what appeared to be missing at launch and let me know how you evaluate EA's response to the customer community to keep us interested and playing this game since then?
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...this is what we got and still miss after 3+ years of development by several dev studios:
No single-player story/campaign mode
No standard server browser
Fewer standardized game modes (Can't even play TDM or smaller scale modes without relying on community servers. Really?)
No persistent lobbies (seriously why do I have to matchmake after EVERY round?)
Fewer in-game assignments (none outside of cosmetic unlocks)
No class system
Less character customization options (than BF5)
No profile progress/stats page in the menu
No battle log/stats tracker for other players
No global leader boards
No end of round assignment progress screen
No dog tags (they still sort of exist I guess?)
No custom emblems
Fewer achievements
No medals
No cross-game profile screen (BF4, HL, BF1, and BFV were all linked by an ingame menu if you owned them digitally, which was a neat feature.)
No spectator mode
No permanent community servers (would be useful for clans and events)
- No test range
No 3D spotting
Fewer guns (even including all the portal guns, BF4 still had more at launch)
Fewer infantry gadgets
No manual leaning
No diving while swimming
No high wall vaulting
No crouch sprinting
No backwards prone
No explosion knockback
No rolling after falling from heights
No ammo or health pickup off teammates
No scope zeroing
No tiered reloads/paused reloads
No melee weapon choices
No thermal optics
No indirect fire gadgets
Less anti-tank launchers (Come on man only one?)
No lock-on launchers (The M5 works with the SOFLAM but that requires 2 people)
No AP mines/claymores
No suppression mechanic (This one I don't mind but I'm including everything)
No first person takedown animations (whether this is a downgrade is up for debate, but I think it is)
Fewer vehicle types (and separate vehicle progression per faction even though they are functionally identical... why???)
No naval vehicles (Except I guess the hovercraft technically)
No vehicle gunner direction indicator
No lock on direction indicator
No vehicle enter/exit animations
No tank turret decoupling (This was so great in BF4!)
Less vehicle driver/pilot customization options
No tank zoom customization options
No tank gunner customization options
No heli gunner secondary weapons
No separate heli/fixed-wing controls
No rocket aiming reticle for helictopters
No control input while looking behind/free looking in aircraft (BF1 and V pilots, this one is gonna absolutely suck for you guys)
No joystick/non-generic gamepad support
General consensus seems to be that the helicopter and fixed wing flight models are a step down from BF4.
No behemoths
No squad wipe scoring
No player damage points
No vehicle damage points
No vehicle kill assist points
No headshot bonus
No long-range kill bonus
No assist counts as kill bonus
No multi-kill bonus
No killstreak stopped bonus
No comeback bonus
No squad objective play bonus
Oversimplified teamplay scoring (i.e. healing a teammate always gives you a flat +5xp rather than being based on how much you heal them)
No commander
No special squad call-in abilities
No squad field upgrades
No in-game VOIP (coming soonTM)
Fewer factions (with almost nothing to give the 2 factions any distinction)
No cross-team chat
No team changing
No "create new squad" option
No clans/platoons (coming soonTM)
No view of squadmates while in the spawn screen
No "Medic incoming" indicator in downed state (coming soonTM)
No rank names/icons, just a number.
Lack of persistent servers means poor map rotation (Played now for 100 hours and never saw Kaleidescope or Breakaway)
Fewer base game maps (not including portal maps)
No static weapon emplacements
Few destructible buildings
Very poor balance between vehicle and infantry gameplay
No infantry focused maps
No game changing levolution
Absolutely zero cover between capture zones
Poor spawn points (Constantly spawning in the open/visible to enemies)
No fortification building (given how open all the maps are, this could have been super useful)
Fewer urban areas
No naval maps
Less control customization options
Less UI customization options
No HUD/icon opacity customization
No HUD scaling customization options
No gunsight reticle customization options
No network performance graph
No individual player scoreboard
No ability to zoom in on the spawn map
Less detail in the 'who killed you' screen
Less ultrawide monitor support (hud ratio is locked in at 16:9)
Very poor friend joining system (Lack of server browser makes playing with more than 4 friends completely impossible)
Poor console aim assist. Hopefully this will come with the D1 patch or all console players will be lost...
No in-game crossplay toggle option (you have to change your global console settings)
General consensus seems to be the audio design is bad, especially compared to both BF3 and BF1.
3D soundscape is almost non-existent
Less impactful soundtrack (menu music is very dull and repetitive)
End of round music is dull and uninteresting (compared to BF1 and V this is a big downgrade)
End of round voicelines are just awful. Hate them really by now...
Sorry for this long list. I am just disappointed, Because I want Battlefield to feel like Battlefield. And this one doesn't. COD is COD and if I wanted that, I would buy that. COD launch consistently contents feeling much more polished than this BF2042 and COD at least they stay true to their core. While EA Battlefield appear to have lost it's own soul and identify in BF2042, by EA trying to copy from everybody else.
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Maybe a hypothetical question about the divorce being next, but reality is that the vast majority of all BF2042 customers have already filed for divorce from this game and moved on. With the lackluster Season1 release its really hard to see even the last remaining die-hard fans hanging on to this game for another 9-12 months. Or am I just too pessimistic?
