I wasn’t sure whether or not Battlefield 2042’s randomly-appearing tornadoes could pick up vehicles until my squad’s ATV was inhaled by one. As we tumbled skyward, I had to make a choice: ride it out in the gunner’s seat or eject? I bailed. Our driver remained at the wheel, trusting that ‘all-terrain’ included the sky. Two seconds later the vehicle fell into a field like a bomb and incinerated him.
Even after two decades of sanding and streamlining, Battlefield can still surprise. The modern FPS scene is now stacked with big maps and whimsical vehicle physics, but Battlefield remains distinct from the milsims and battle royale games that have encircled it. With Battlefield 2042, DICE stands its ground as the king of military shenanigans more convincingly than it did with Battlefield V, ditching the single player campaign to focus on the two pillars of the series: objective-based multiplayer and scale.
What was a 64-player game for 20 years is now a
