In case you werenât already aware, Battlefield 2042 is a game that was released in the middle of a pandemic without anywhere near enough design work or testing being done for such a flagship release. Our latest reminder of this comes in the form of an update which will kinda undo one of its major selling points at launch.
2042 made a huge deal pre-release about its new âSpecialistsâ, hero-type characters with flexible loadouts who would replace the series tried-and-tested âClassâ system (multiplayer FPS archetypes like âReconâ and âAssaultâ). Those Specialists were wildly unpopular with long-time fans, both for their gameplay implications as well as their design, and while the latter is already being addressed it looks like developers DICE have been convinced to also rework the former.
In a big update posted by the development team, itâs revealed that they have âstarted work on a massive overhaul on the way that youâll play with Specialistsâ, which essentially is going to split the difference between the traditional system and 2042’s use of Specialists. The hero characters are going to remain, but theyâll be assigned into class tiers (see above), with some gadget use restricted between classes to âensure that Class Identity is more pronouncedâ. So only recon players will be able to use a SOFLAM, for example, while medical crates will only be available to support players. As someone who mains Mackay (in the âAssaultâ class) but uses the SOFLAM a lot that sucks, but I guess weâll see how it all shakes out once the changes go live (which wonât be for a while, since DICE say it wonât be until Season 3).
Other changes coming in and around Season 2 will be three new weapons (two mains and a sidearm), as well as refreshes to two of the gameâs launch maps, Renewal and Orbital, which are coming alongside another brand new map. DICE will also start adding some âvaultâ weapons to the main game, which are guns from the time-travelling Portal game mode, as well as continuing the visual refresh of all the Specialists, specifically âVoices, Body Posture, and Facial Expression changesâ.
You can check out the full list of changes and additions coming before and as part of future updates here, or in the video below.
