Hands-on capture for Battlefield 2042 Season 6: Dark Creations

Electronic Arts announced yesterday that Battlefield 2042 Season 6: Dark Creations will debut on October 10 on the PC and consoles. And I managed to gets some hands-on gameplay with the game.

I played on the map called Redacted, which is a long map as far as Battlefield goes. It’s all indoors, but the map has both main pathways and narrow side corridors that you can use to outflank your enemies. You can see gameplay from one of my matches embedded in this story.

The latest update for Battlefield 2042 — from developers Dice and Ripple Effect Studios — will pit two sides against each other in a hidden laboratory in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland.

Players have to find missing soldiers and uncover other secrets in the darkness while keeping their sanity, EA said. They find, as you can see in the trailer, a bunch of captured soldiers have been experimented upon and turned into zombie-like warriors.

I played the map in a demo event. The fighting was mostly indoors, though there is a faux outdoor area under a clear dome with the sky above. It focuses on close-quarters combat where both sides are investigating an “incident,” which has revealed the hidden tech-research facility performing classified experiments.

There are trees and some outdoor-like parts of the facility, but the dome means it qualifies as the first map in the Battlefield franchise that offers no outdoor environment. I started out using a sniper rifle. It was nice to get some kills lying on the top of the stairs, staring out into the open area.

But I quickly switched to an assault rifle while running through the tight corridors, as it’s no fun trying to shoot players with assault rifles and shotguns with your pistol or sniper rifle. What I liked about this map is that you could charge, die, respawn and get back into the action very quickly. It’s kind of a big death trap cycle for a player like me, but it was satisfying to dish it out as much as I got hit.

The devs said Redacted was inspired by fan-favorite maps from Battlefield’s past like Operation Locker (Battlefield 4) and Operation Metro (Battlefield 3). It’s all infantry.

I agreed with one player who noted that players get concentrated in one area. And when that happens, there are so many icons that appear before you that it’s hard to tell which icon is the one you’re supposed to watch and target.

New weapons and gear

The new update has weapons like the VHX D3, a futuristic assault rifle optimized for portability and performance, making it a valuable asset for close and medium-range combat.

Then there is the L9CZ, a semi-automatic, highly accurate sidearm. And there’s a G428, a new DMR offering accuracy and substantial penetration power.

As for gameplay improvements dubbed “quality of life” enhancements, EA said it has aim assist improvements for console players to improve cross-play fairness. (That’s good for people like me who play on the PC with game controllers).

There are vehicle handling improvements, such as tweaked tank turning and vehicle speed; gravity adjustments for land vehicles in-air; and jet handling improvements.

There is also some recon balancing, so Rao’s hacking tool will no longer block firing on vehicles. It will now trigger all damage states on targeted vehicle. And a minor tweak for Rao’s hacking ability means that when a hacked enemy has been killed, information on all the soldiers nearby will be briefly revealed.

Is it fun? Yes, it is, in a Battlefield sort of way. But I don’t think it’s going to be enough to overcome the upcoming juggernaut of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III. The best thing Battlefield can do is stay out of the way.