Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. Features

Battlefield 2042 Season 1 is an improvement, but a late one

Tomas Franzese
By
Summer Gaming Marathon Feature Image
This story is part of the Digital Trends Summer Gaming Marathon series

Battlefield 2042’s launch didn’t go quite as planned for EA. While it was poised to be the publisher’s next live service hit, it floundered at launch due to an overwhelming number of bugs, a controversial ability-driven specialist system, maps that felt way too big, and more. While Digital Trends’ reviewer loved the base game, many players didn’t, so EA spent months fixing it. As a result, Season 1: Zero Hour was pushed back all the way to June 9, over six months after the game’s launch. Ahead of its release, I got the opportunity to try out some of Season 1’s new content a see if Battlefield 2042 has really changed for the better. 

This primarily consisted of going hands-on with the new Specialist Ewelina Lis on the new map Exposure. Is Battlefield 2042 in a better state now than it was at launch? Yes. Will it make enough compelling additions and changes to bring you back if you’re not a hardcore Battlefield fan? Not really. 

Battlefield 2042 | Season 1: Zero Hour Gameplay Trailer Premiere

What’s new?

The main additions coming to Battlefield 2042 at the start of Season 1 are a new rocket launcher-wielding specialist named Ewelina Lis, a new map set in the Canadian Rockies called Exposure, new weapons including a crossbow and marksman rifle, and a battle pass containing lots of free and paid unlockables. It’s definitely the meatiest batch of content Battlefield 2042 has received since launch, but it doesn’t revamp or fix every core problem with the game. 

A specialist holds Battlefield 2042's new crossbow weapon.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Starting with the battle pass, don’t expect any wild crossover or crazy outfits, just a lot of new realistic looks for your specialists, vehicles, and weapons. It is challenge-based, which Halo has shown the downsides of, but thankfully 30 tiers of it are free and the only things unlocked by paying up are cosmetic. That means everyone will be able to try the new specialist Ewelina Lis. She is a helpful Engineer Specialist as she always has a rocket launcher at her disposal to help destroy vehicles.

Recommended Videos

While I found the new Ghostmaker R10 Crossbow and BSV-M Marksman Rifle to be too slow and not powerful enough to be very useful in a game with such a quick time to kill, Lis may be a useful specialist that will stick around on most squads. She’s particularly useful on the brand-new map Exposure.

Related

When previewing the new season, I got to try out both Conquest and Breakthrough on Exposure, a map that supports both 128-player and 64-player matches. As it takes place in and around a base built into the side of a mountain, it has one of the most distinctive and vertical layouts of any new Battlefield 2042 map. The tensest firefights took place in a spot nestled on the side of the mountain, as players could flank from within the mountain on foot or from the skies in new stealth helicopters. While I enjoyed those moments and attacking the base in the helicopter, it still felt a bit too big to traverse on foot outside of that base, a common problem with all of Battlefield 2042‘s maps. 

Soldiers run in a room while being shot at by helicopters in Battlefield 2042.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Will it win you back?  

Exposure’s size issue is ultimately indicative of the whole Season 1 experience: It’s got some neat new things to check out, but probably won’t win you back by fixing some of the game’s fundamental problems. Avid players of Battlefield 2042 who’ve stuck around since its rocky launch should be relieved that new seasonal content is finally arriving, but those returning for the first time since launch shouldn’t expect this to be a massive overhaul of the experience, even if the game is in a better place now.

Many other fixes are also MIA at the season’s launch. Map reworks for Kaleidoscope and Renewal are in development, but Kaleidoscope’s changes won’t arrive until August, and Renewal’s fixes won’t come until Season 2. While EA is promising to add player stats pages in the second update for Season 1, their absence at the start of the new season is glaring. More Battlefield Portal tools are promised but don’t have a release date. Specialist post-match voice lines have also been removed in anticipation of a future update that will make their quips better, but that update does not have a set release date, which is worrying. 

Ultimately, players will still have to wait for some big Battlefield 2042 reworks, and even then none of those will fundamentally change the game. And as Season 1’s delay shows, DICE doesn’t exactly have a recent track record of supporting every mode and making sure every update arrives on time.

Season 1 of Battlefield 2042 is decent, but it probably won’t win many players back. There’s fun to be had, but it’s still not doing enough to draw players away from much more consistent live service games like Call of Duty: Warzone or Fortnite, which recently got a much more interesting season update. Battlefield fans can take solace in playing a more polished and focused game, but don’t expect this update to do much else.

Battlefield 2042 Season 1: Zero Hour launches on June 9 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S and will last for 12 weeks.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Tomas Franzese
Tomas Franzese
Gaming Staff Writer
Tomas Franzese is a Staff Writer at Digital Trends, where he reports on and reviews the latest releases and exciting…
MultiVersus Season 1 delayed, pre-season extended until August 15
A character roster of WB characters.

The first season of MultiVersus is delayed to an unknown date, so its pre-season will now run until August 15.

https://twitter.com/multiversus/status/1554998401900486656

Read more
Apex Legends’ newest character is a deadly sniper with an adorable bat pal
Vantage stands with her sniper rifle in Apex Legends.

Ahead of the start of Apex Legends Season 14: Hunted on August 9, EA and Respawn Entertainment went into more detail about the new Legend coming to the game at the start of the season. Her name is Vantage, and she's shaping up to be a deadly sniper with an adorable bat companion.
Vantage's backstory, which we got to see a bit of in July, consists of her growing up alone with her mother on the ice planet of Pagos. Her mother is secretly an escaped prisoner, and when Vantage almost dies exploring an abandoned ship, her mother has to turn herself in so she can get medical help for her daughter. Following this, Vantage enters the Apex Games in order to spread awareness about her mother's capture and eventually free her one day. 
Vantage's passive ability is called Spotter's Lens. With that, she can scan an enemy's Legend name, team size, range, and shield rarity from a distance. Her Tactical Ability is called Echo Relocation, and she can use it to send Echo to a spot on the map before jetpacking to it. Thankfully, Respawn developers confirmed that players can't kill Echo, so players don't have to worry about putting this cute companion in danger.Her Ultimate ability is called Sniper's Mark, and it's one of the most unique ones in the game. Vantage summons her custom sniper rifle with Sniper's Mark. It has five bullets, and if she hits an enemy with it, Vantage will highlight their squad for ten seconds. Damage from her sniper rifle and allies scales up with consecutive hits, and all the shots don't need to be made at once, so Vantage can be quite deadly if a player knows how to use her properly. Apex Legends is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and Nintendo Switch. Season 14: Hunted begins August 9. 

Read more
Apex Legends’ next season increases the level cap and removes self-revive
Relic is a new part of Kings Canyon's rework in Apex Legends Season 14.

Season 14 of Apex Legends is almost upon us, so Respawn Entertainment and EA revealed some of the major reworks coming to the game with when the Hunted season begins. Namely, the developers highlighted the redesigned Kings Canyon, increased level cap, and balance updates like the removal of self-revive.
In 2020, Loba blew up Skull Town in Kings Canyon. Now, the entire map is seeing a rework as part of Season 14 to improve the pacing and balance of matches on the map. Skull Town is now called Relic and is a bit bigger, the Cage was reworked to be a little lower and more vulnerable, Hillside's interiors were removed, and Broken Relay is now called Basin and got new buildings. Those, along with the other visual update Kings Canyon got, should make this old Apex Legends map feel brand new again.

Another big change is coming to account levels. Previously, there were 500 levels for players to work their way through. Starting with Season 14, players can work their way to level 500 three more times, technically increasing the level cap to 2000. This means that players will now be able to earn 544 Apex Packs and an Heirloom by leveling up. The start of Season 14 will also introduce some notable balance changes to Apex Legends, as is to be expected.
Some notable changes are that SMGs and pistols have a new laser sight attachment, the Wingman will now use sniper ammo, the Spitfire will now light ammo, the EVA-8 will see an increased fire rate, handling, and reload speed, and more. Most notably though, self-revive is getting removed. This is complicated by a change to Gold Equipment perks, including a new one for the Backpack called Deep Pockets that increases the number of medical supplies players can carry.Apex Legends is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and Nintendo Switch. Season 14 begins on August 9. 

Read more