The orbital map is only available in beta: an all-new massive battlefield for 128 players. At least, on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and PC. Battlefield 2042 can be played with 64 players on PS4 and Xbox One. We’re playing it on Xbox Series X and it’s a very cool experience.
Expansion makes Battlefield bigger than ever. Flying fighter planes, missiles from combat helicopter strike and everywhere you look you see firefights. It’s an authentic Battlefield, but with more… Well, it’s really everything: players, vehicles, explosions, you name it. All those gunfights have a devastating effect on the map. Walls collapse, sprinkler systems go on, palm trees shoot like matchsticks, and a ball on gas pipes creates gigantic clouds of smoke. Orbital’s crown jewel, of course, is the platform where a massive launcher awaits. In some cases the missile will actually be launched, but it can also happen to explode with a massive explosion.
As if that wasn’t enough, the weather on the map changes as well. Once we play in the rising sun and there is not a speck in the air. During another game, the weather gradually changes. The rain increases, the trees dance more and more violently in the wind and a real tornado slowly develops on the map. Since these weather effects are random, and the outcome of a missile launch is determined by gameplay, what exactly happens is a surprise to each game.
It’s a bit questionable if Battlefield 2042 didn’t go very far. Everything is very messy.
In the beginning, Battlefield 2042 really offers the next generation experience through all these variants. Unfortunately, all this technical violence is putting a huge strain on the hardware. It’s of course not just a beta, but Battlefield 2042 is still in a very rough shape. Graphic glitches, screen-filling screen flickers and weird death animations are common. This close to the release shouldn’t happen that far.
Aside from the technical flaws, it’s also questionable whether Battlefield 2042 didn’t go very far. Everything is very messy. Perhaps this is because of this particular map: in the case of Orbital, the battles are mostly centered around the three central checkpoints, which both teams are trying to capture. Since these three points are located in a triangle, a kind of continuous rondo is created in which the control points are occupied every now and then.
In this rondo, everyone runs like a headless chicken and there is little cooperation to beat or take control of the control points. Nor is cooperation easy. In the beta, teammates and enemies look roughly the same, leaving you late to see if you should pull the trigger or not. In addition, many places are taken by colleagues and opponents controlled by the computer.
You should definitely not expect any support from the participants who control the computer. They offer much less resistance than the real players and act somewhat stupid. So it happened that about four computer-controlled opponents ran one after another, a few meters from each other, to climb the same ladder. The fact that the person in front of them had always been mercilessly sniped at the bottom of the ladder by the undersigned, did absolutely nothing to them. He. She Message It is difficult to tell players and bots from each other, we can refer to the land of fables at the moment.
These bots make it difficult (even) to get a picture of the game’s progress. The fact that you are constantly killing says absolutely nothing about whether you win or not. Anyway, with 128 players, your individual contribution becomes less important. So it’s good if a counter at the bottom of the screen indicates the winning team, because in the midst of this explosive chaos it is almost impossible to get an idea of how well your team is actually doing.
Are 128 players too much of a good thing? Maybe, but again: it could also be the map. Perhaps on other maps, a more organized front line appears, which continues to shift as the control points are occupied. Or is chaos a strong point of Orbital? It depends on the way you look at it. Because of this triangle of checkpoints, the moshpit where “it” happens gets bigger, allowing more players to join the massive battle. The work is huge in scale, but somehow focused. To be fair: This also results in pretty cool scenarios. When we plowed this triangle directly with the tank, the price was exorbitant. No matter which way we looked at it, nearly every bullet was dropping. We felt like royalty. Well, until the enemy got tired of us and, of course, blew us up. This is also Battlefield.
It should be obvious that Battlefield 2042 is bigger in every respect, as we’ve been leaving it open for some time whether bigger is actually better. But with more players, bigger maps, and more dynamic weather conditions, Battlefield 2042 is undoubtedly impressive, if not overwhelming. However, the postponement was certainly not an unnecessary luxury, given the questionable technical state of the beta. Hopefully, developer Dice can iron out those last wrinkles in time. Because once Battlefield 2042 runs stably, it certainly won’t be a punishment to test if the benchmark is working well.
Battlefield 2042 will release on November 19 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, S, Xbox One, and PC. For this preview, the game was played on the Xbox Series X.
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