Battlefield 2042 Portal Reveal Trailer

One of the more exciting announcements/reveals from today's EA Play stream was what was shown of Battlefield 2042's previously unknown fourth mode. This mode, called Portal, appears to be an anachronistic feature spanning multiple timelines and maps throughout Battlefield's history. It appears to be a community sandbox allowing players to create all sorts of customized matches. Beyond being able to pit WWII airplanes against modern jets or Vietnam soldiers against futuristic robots, the most exciting aspect of Battlefield 2042: Portal has to be the assortment of old Battlefield maps that will be a part of the feature. This includes maps from Battlefield 2 as well as Bad Company 2, game's whose maps are still fondly remembered by fans of the Battlefield franchise.

For those of you following the game, you know that 2042 was billed as having three modes and Portal is the one mode that remained in secrecy. The remaining mode still up in the air is Hazard Mode. While EA has said Hazard Mode will be a "squad-based game type" and will provide a "tense experience that combines edge-of-your-seat gameplay with the best of the Battlefield sandbox," not much else is known about it.

That's cool, but they'd better have maps with actual airfields, damn it!

If they can actually land this shift in direction and make it fun then I will absolutely turn up for it. I too would like to see planes spawning on an airfield for plane campers to jump into and immediately crash...

The three modes of Battlefield 2042.

• All-Out Warfare (with 7 maps)
• Battlefield Portal (with 6 remastered maps)
• Battlefield Hazard Zone (to be revealed closer to launch)

Using a web-based platform, players can build and share custom game modes for Battlefield 2042 Portal of their own design. From RPGs only to health-regen with every kill, the possibilities for new creations are wide open.

Players can make experiences and share with people on different platforms. NOTE: Just like the main game, Portal supports 128 Players on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. 64 players on PS4 and Xbox One.

I can't believe i'm actually super excited for a new Battlefield game, the last one I bought was 3 and the last one I actually really liked was Bad Company 2.

Give me Battlefield Vietnam (even as a DLC).

It's super realistic, because you can go fight in the deserts of Iraq, the deserts of Afghanistan, the deserts of Iraq (again), the deserts of Afghanistan (still)...

Okay, seriously though, as someone who isn't really interested in this game, I legit think this is a pretty cool concept. You have a team that's made shooters spanning 100 years of war, why not let players do their own personal mashups? I bet there's any number of forum posts where people argue what a modern platoon could do to a WWII era company. Now you can find out!

This is the most excited I've been about Battlefield in a very long time, but they better let you add ridiculous modifiers to run speed and jump height or this will all be completely pointless.

Cool, man. Battlefield's been my go-to military shooter since 4 (though I also loved BC 2). So looking forward to them getting more crazy with it.

Not sure why this had to hit the same year as Halo (my overall go-to shooter), but hell, I'll take it all.

The builder looks very interesting. I first thought it was just changing a few settings, but it seems to be a lot more advanced than that. And with bots available there should be ample opportunity to come up with lots of different PvE modes that could be easily implemented, with Terrorist Hunt being an obvious one.

I was REALLY hoping this would be a developed mode, not a sandbox. I don't have time to parse through the garbage to find a cool game mode. I'm sure there will be some decent discovery tools(most likely from 3rd parties) but still. Was hoping this "love letter to fans" would be something they themselves put work into creating other than just building the frame work.

It's cool for people that want this, but I'll be skipping. I'm just waiting for them to say what Hazard Zone is(rumor is it's a Tarkov-like).

Also, I don't know if people noticed, but this sandbox mode allows you to gain xp and level up like you would in the main game. Goodbye to any sense of progression, I give it 2 days before there's a bunch of "max level/all unlocks in 10 minutes" modes. They just put boost lobbies straight in the game.

Oh well, to each their own. Personally, Portal is literally a billion times more interesting than just another boring game mode. Also, I'd love it if we got an unlock in 10 minutes (or less). Beats paying $20 for one, or have you forgotten EA's unlock items? But I am the one who hates progression systems in modern games. Warzone was basically ruined for me because of it. Want to use this new overpowered weapon? Play the crappy Cold War game for 10 hours with it first to unlock all the attachments. No thanks.

@brakara:

I should clarify, I like the idea of portal itself, but wish DICE(and maybe help from content creators) made modes themselves using these tools. I just don't want to spend 3 hours loading and unloading into games just to see if they're well implemented or not.

As for progression/unlocks, warzone is a TERRIBLE example. Their woke business model is releasing broke. Guns to sell blueprints.

Battlefield has always been an unlock driven game, even Battlefield 2 had weapon unlocks. I've never once paid or felt the need to pay for boosts because battlefield games have always been pretty well balanced. Or the broken guns were the starter ones(Sten in Bfv).

I'm not so much worried about boost lobbies making other players better, again BF has always been pretty well balanced. I'm worried that I'll jump into one of these modes, kill a guy, and then suddenly have everything unlocked. Which pretty much kills the game for me, as I'll have nothing to work toward.

Looks so good!

Ideally, any XP/progression points are tied to enemy damage/kills, assists, gadget usage, and playing the objective and are non-modifiable. So, any progression progress should be standardized across the BF2042 experiences.

As for progression boosting, Battlefield 3 had Nosharr Canels TDM which was the equivalent of nu-Modern Warfare's Shipment or Black Ops' Nuketown. Those point-boosting, high KDA servers have existed and will continue, so I think it's a bit of a lost cause to hand wring over it.

The Battlefield Portal gives me delightful Smash Bros. vibes which has be very excited and hopeful. It also has me anxious because I've been hopeful before in past lead ups to a new Battlefield....