Battlefield Has Only Scratched The Surface on Something Its Competition Has Mastered

Highlights

• Battlefield 2042’s Portal mode, which allowed for custom matches with remastered maps and assets from past titles, had great potential but lacked substantial content updates.
• Battlefield should learn from Call of Duty’s approach and consider adding remastered classic maps alongside original content in future games, as it would satisfy fans’ desire for nostalgia and increase the franchise’s profitability.
• Battlefield also needs to consider investing in full remakes or remasters of its most beloved entries, something it has hardly done so far.

The Battlefield franchise hasn’t had the best five years. Released in November 2018, Battlefield V was a pretty major disappointment for fans, especially coming hot off the heels of the surprisingly great Battlefield 1. While Battlefield V wasn’t all bad, its disappointing reception definitely harmed the Battlefield brand as a whole, something that its successor would exacerbate greatly.

Despite showing some promising pre-release trailers, Battlefield 2042 was an unmitigated disaster upon its initial October 2021 release. A bizarre and underwhelming new Specialist system, a severe lack of modes and maps, and some appalling technical issues all plagued Battlefield 2042 on launch, and though DICE has done a solid job of salvaging the game, it’s undoubtedly damaged the brand, meaning that the next Battlefield is going to have to go above and beyond in terms of features, modes, and maps. And for the latter, Battlefield might want to look to its competition.

Battlefield’s Portal Mode Just Scratched the Surface

One of Battlefield 2042‘s only redeeming qualities on launch was its Portal game mode. An entirely separate mode from Battlefield 2042‘s multiplayer, Portal allowed players to create their own custom matches, with the primary hook being the ability to use maps, assets, and game rules from some of Battlefield‘s most beloved past titles. On launch, Battlefield 1942, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, and Battlefield 3 all received two maps each, along with their unique weapons, classes, and vehicles, all of which had been remastered.

EA and DICE’s original plan for Battlefield 2042‘s Portal mode was to keep updating it over time, but those plans never really came to fruition. Aside from one or two updates following Battlefield 2042‘s first season, Portal never really received any substantial content additions, which was extremely disappointing considering just how much potential this Portal mode had.

While it’s understandable that DICE wanted to prioritize fixing Battlefield 2042 over adding new content to its Portal mode, it’s left a widespread desire among fans to receive more remastered Battlefield content, a desire that the next mainline Battlefield game should deliver on. For years now, the Call of Duty franchise has delivered a handful of remastered classic maps alongside a wealth of original content, and it’s an approach that Battlefield should adopt going forward. The entire roster of past Battlefield maps is just lying dormant right now, and it would be great to see them slowly find their way back to the franchise, with their scenery and layout potentially changing based on the era the game is set in, just like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3‘s upcoming Das Haus map remake.

But while Battlefield should definitely take inspiration from Call of Duty‘s general approach to map remakes, it shouldn’t follow Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3‘s approach to the letter. Where most recent Call of Duty entries have added just a handful of remake maps, that’s all that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 launched with, featuring no original 6v6 maps on release day, and only a collection of remastered 2009 Modern Warfare 2 maps. These remasters were decent in quality, but they aren’t what fans wanted from a new $70 game.

The Battlefield Franchise Could Use Some Remasters

The Call of Duty franchise doesn’t have too many full-game remasters under its belt right now, but it still has more than Battlefield. While some Battlefield fans want the series to continue moving forward, others want to see a return to the series’ heyday, and remasters of the franchise’s most beloved titles are another great way to achieve that. Every month that goes by without a Battlefield: Bad Company or Battlefield 3 remaster increases the amount of money EA is leaving on the table.