9 Jun, 2021
0E3 kicks off this weekend and DICE are announcing their arrival by kicking the doors in and going all guns-a-blazing with the frantic, all out action trailer for Battlefield 2042—the newest entrant to the Battlefield series.
The modern combat of Battlefield had taken a back step in its last two iterations as Battlefield 1 and Battlefield V opted for the slower historic settings of WWI and WWII respectively. Now however 2042 is back to thrust Battlefield into a new era of robo-dogs, VTOL planes, rockets, and… an electro-magnetic tornado??!
The last two titles focused in on the more empathic side of war by putting a lens to the men and women lost on the battlefield; the boots on the ground infantry that endured the very worst of the world’s most catastrophic global conflicts. It was empathic and careful about the stories it was telling and the violence endured by its characters—even going as far to feature the story of a Nazi tank crew and dealing with the conflicts of one’s wrong doings in war.
Battlefield 2042, conversely, looks set to be interested in no such nuanced story’s of such kind however. Instead, this trailer was all about epic chaos and all out explosive warfare once again. Violence and death in abundance, vehicular chaos all around—Battlefield is back to no nuance, no thought provoking, frantic action.
The trailer showed wingsuits, robot gun dogs, hovercrafts and tanks on ice, jet action, and, its final set piece, a tornado set to suck every soldier up into the sky. Some criticisms where levied (whether you think rightly or wrongly) at DICE’s last two titles for going too serious and heavy on the historical horror. Whether you might agree with that being a bad change of direction, DICE evidently appear to have listened to the response anyway and have tailored 2042 accordingly.
We’ll learn more this coming weekend with Battlefield 2042’s more extensive gameplay reveal on Sunday 13thJune during E3.
Did the epic trailer do it for you? Or would you rather see Battlefield keep within the historical, more grounded contexts?
