Battlefield 2042 Won’t Feature Two Major Gameplay Modes
Looks like Battlefield 2042 won't have these two game modes.
This article is more than 2 years old
The official Battlefield 2042 game reveal event confirmed the game’s release title, which leaked only several hours before the event. It also brought some insight into the official release date and newly added class system and map mechanics while just briefly discussing the recently omitted features present in the previous games. As it turns out, Battlefield 2042 won’t feature two major gameplay modes, as confirmed by the game’s designer.
According to IGN, the new Battlefield 2042 video game won’t feature a Campaign Mode (single-player) and Battle Royale Mode (multiplayer/deathmatch), as confirmed by the game’s designer director Daniel Berlin. This is a significant shift in the franchise, given that the majority of Battlefield games feature a story mode. Instead, the game will focus heavily on its multiplayer segment, which supports up to 128 players on PC and next-gen consoles. In comparison, previous-gen consoles support only 64 players during a single match.
Berlin disclosed that the game’s developing studio, EA DICE, purposefully left out both features without any intentions of releasing them later. He stated that this move allows the studio to lean into what they’re best at and that they didn’t want to offer a traditional single-player campaign to the players from the very start. That doesn’t mean that Battlefield 2042 has no narrative, quite the contrary. The narrative is woven throughout its multiplayer world, featuring stories told through the eyes of the newly added Specialist characters, allowing the narrative to expand with each new Specialist and season released.
This type of storytelling will give Battlefield 2042 a narrative-driven world set against a humanitarian crisis brought about by climate change, resource deficiency, and political discord. The story is driven by nomadic refugees taking up arms as the U.S. and Russia engage in an all-out war, which brings about the introduction of Specialists – specific hero characters with unique specialties and traits that are designed to complement the existing class system in Battlefield.
Leaving out Battle Royale Mode from Battlefield 2042 doesn’t come as a surprise, given the poor performance on Battlefield 5’s battle royale mode, called Firestorm. Though exceptionally popular in other games, Battlefield 5’s battle royale mode showed great promise but lacked any real ongoing support within to studio to make it a success, which only brought about its abortion. The lack of this mode is supplemented with a newly announced Hazard Zone mode, a squad-based high-risk-high-reward mode for the franchise’s faithful fans. EA DICE announced another mode, developed by DICE LA,set to reveal on next month’s EA Play Event.
With a traditional single-player out of the way, EA DICE can focus on making incredibly good, narrative-driven multiplayer, which only a handful of game developers ever managed to accomplish. The story of Battlefield 2042 will be free-to-play for all players, with additional Battle Pass content available for purchase. The game is set to release on October 22, for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, with additional mystery modes to complement the massive-scale battles fought in Battlefield.
