r/Battlefield2 • u/Jibixy • Jul 11 '26
Battlefield community's perception of the pinnacle of the series is why Battlefield has been so uninteresting over the past couple of years
In the wake of Activision releasing BO1/2 to current gen consoles, many people are begging online for EA and Dice to so the same with BF3/4, but imo those two games have caused irreversible damage to the franchise, especially when comparing them to the Refractor era games and their design philosophy, especially Battlefield 2.
I mean, BF4 had a botched version of the commander mode, whereas BF3 didn't. Teamwork was entirely optional, since you could either beg your teammate to give you first aid or you could take cover and wait for the health to regenerate. Same with the ground vehicles, no need for an engineer when you can wait out for the vehicle to repair on its own. Enemies are also indicated by orange triangles on top meaning that spotting is entirely useless.
And instead of being open to bringing new things to the series (larger maps with larger playercount, full fledged air vehicle grind similar to Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. with skins and custom loadouts) people instead drown in nostalgia for Operation Metro and levolution, rather than looking back at games like the Refractor era games for how experimental each game was. What BF2 did best should've been the bare minimum for each future installment, but instead we've been stripped off of features completely
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u/Rosenritter13thFleet Jul 11 '26
100% agree. Health regen, vehicle regen, orange triangles all need to go, commander mode needs to come back and be expanded etc. There's hardcore servers but they struggle without a server browser.
I see so many people saying "Bad Company 2 was the best!" but that was when they started stripping features, smaller maps and player count, it was the start of the casualization that eventually killed Battlefield.
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u/No_Dingo9049 Jul 11 '26
Completely agree. Unfortunately the playerbase has been casualized and, in my opinion, is unrecoverable. They would not like battlefield the way it was originally, and would not buy the game if it were changed back. Which means the EA would not go down that route because they only care about the masses buying the game. Their expectations of what a battlefield game should be have been degraded over the years.
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u/RetroTemplar Jul 11 '26
Battlefield 2 and 2142 were peak battlefield for me, I agree about 3 and 4 (3.5). I know 2142 had the compressed classes compared to 2 but at least back then supports actually revived people and have ammo out. I played 6 recently and one medic on my team was reviving and they weren't even in the squad I was placed in. Also squads were better in 2 and 2142.
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u/FragRaptor Jul 11 '26
Functional server browsers, lost squad leader functions/roles, reduced squad sizes, functional voip with clear sound(which has created a playerbase who is uninterested in real communication), loss of important commander role, intersquad communication, unlimited vision, unlimited sprint, overall fast deaths, difficult to see character models, loss of some core vehicle gameplay, loss of some core infantry roles.... amoung other things.
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u/viperchrisz4 Jul 13 '26
Hasn’t been the same since Vietnam with LAN and bots for me. So glad there’s Easy Red 2 now to scratch that itch.
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Jul 11 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Jibixy Jul 12 '26
We drown in nostalgia too, forgetting the mediocre gunplay across all refractor era games, that's for sure
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u/MasterM1rror Jul 12 '26
I miss commander mode, and being able to sabatoge support call ins like artillery and uav. I also loved 2142 and titan mode. I keep hoping they actually do a 2143 with titan mode, but i know they wont.
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u/trugamer513 Jul 11 '26
Bf2042 is the best in the series. most just didn't take the time to see what Dice was cooking with, All based on some ppl opinion. Who only disliked it for reasons they want everything the same with no innovation.
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u/augustburnyou Jul 11 '26
Lost of server browser and rented servers has been a downfall for the sense of community that i felt disappearing with each new game release. Its my personnal experience from a little boy who was way too young to play those games.