The long-awaited class system update is coming soon to Battlefield 2042, and it will be making some key changes without actually doing away with the controversial specialist system introduced when the multiplayer game launched in 2021.
In a new blog post, developer EA/DICE has explained some of its reasoning for the way it’s approached the changes, and the kinds of feedback it has used to shape this version of the class system. The developers explain that players wanted readability – to be able to quickly identify the other players in an encounter and to be able to tell who should be performing which role. Testers also wanted an “increased sense of role,” or to be able to tell what they should be doing and how their chosen class made that possible.
Past Battlefield games have tried this in different ways: some entries have restricted specific weapon types to certain roles, such as sniper rifles only being available to recon players. That’s not going to happen this time out: EA/DICE says it would be too disruptive to the established progression system to lock down the best Battlefield guns to specific classes.
Instead, gadgets will only be available to appropriate classes, and the breakdown of which gadgets go with which classes has shifted a bit since the system was first announced. Going forward, for example, only specialists in the engineer class will be able to bring rocket launchers in their gadget slots.
While weapon use is unrestricted, each class is getting a weapon proficiency that synergises with a certain kind of weapon. Assault class specialists have three extra magazines when using assault rifles, for instance, and supports get quicker draw time for SMGs.
It’s worth noting that specialists will all retain their individual specialist skills, a decision that’s proven controversial in the Battlefield community. Some Battlefield 2042 specialists have powerful special abilities – Paik’s EMG-X scanner that lets her see enemy outlines through level geometry being a good example.
Couple that up with wingsuits and grappling guns that let anyone zip behind enemy lines, and players are grousing that these changes to the class system aren’t going to feel as significant as they look on paper.
The new class system will arrive with Battlefield 2042 update 3.2 later in January.