Gamers roast Battlefield 2042 beta: "Feels like a Chinese clone of the Battlefield series"

The open beta for Battlefield 2042 has officially started today, at least for those who have either pre-ordered the game or are having an active EA Play subscription, while other interested players will have to wait for two more days for the truly open beta to start.

We are almost half a day into the beta at the time of writing, and while it is expected that beta testing will have a number of issues, the current sentiment of the majority of players seems to be mostly negative, and we are not talking just about bugs, bad performance, and similar problems that are usual during beta testings.

According to preliminary feedback coming from players on the official Battlefield 2042 subreddit, those who have played the beta are not satisfied with a number of core design decisions DICE has implemented in Battlefield 2042.

Players share their negative Battlefield 2042 open beta feedback

Early access for the Battlefield 2042 beta has kicked off this morning and after a few hours of testing, players are sharing their experience and first impressions on Reddit.

There is an official beta feedback thread with almost 5,000 comments at the time of writing, as players are clearly interested in sharing their feedback and they want to see things they don't like removed or changed before it's too late.

The biggest consensus amongst those who have shared their first impressions is that gunplay doesn't feel like a Battlefield game and that it lacks general quality.

"It just doesn’t feel like Battlefield in terms of gunplay. I can’t quite put my finger on it," says Reddit user Centuritons. "I think it’s because the movement feels so static."

Other players report that weapons, in general, are not satisfying to shoot and they lack the feeling of weight when using them, while the sound design is described as "extremely weak" which further adds to the feeling of weightlessness.

Another big issue players are not happy with is the HUD design. Reddit user Toraidoron calls the UI "shocking", explaining that "the flag markers will blend into the scenery and I'll have no clue where I'm going, and it just throws words and numbers around all over the place", while others were more creative with their criticism, like originalgg, who says that "the blue banner feels like a f**king 'click to download' virus button on a pornsite (sic)."

While there are many other complaints about various aspects of the game, including clunky movement and the uninspiring Specialists system, the ultimate problem that players currently have with Battlefield 2042 is that the well-known Battlefield feeling is simply not present.

For a game that wants $60 USD out of your pocket, people are reporting that it feels more like a mobile or F2P game instead of a premium AAA game. A number of players are claiming that it drastically diverges from previous Battlefield games, while one player describes the game as "a Chinese clone of the Battlefield series" and it seems that this is a sentiment shared by many others who have tried the game.

Many Battlefield veterans claim that it feels more like a Call of Duty game, that it's more "arcadey", and lacks the immersion and atmosphere of the Battlefield games, something that is a key component of the Battlefield series.

While these are the opinions shared by a significant number of players that had a chance to play the beta today, it's still far too early to condemn the game, as DICE has stated that even this is not the current build of the game and that they have more to work before the release later this year.

Hopefully, they will read player feedback carefully and make necessary changes in order to bring Battlefield 2042 to a state more desirable for fans of the series.

• Read more: Battlefield 2042: All maps

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Featured image courtesy of DICE / Electronic Arts.