Battlefield games in the hands of DICE and EA have always had a rocky launch. In fact, I don’t think I recall a Battlefield game having a smooth launch since the 2005 Battlefield 2; when patching games after the fact over the internet – was not on the cards.
It might surprise you to know that server issues are only a minor part of my reasons for refunding Battlefield 2042. Without further ado, here are my reasons for getting a refund.
Global Server Quota Limits
This apparently is a known issue, but the error name is pretty telling. EA doesn’t want to spend money on servers and thus has a quota limit in place on just how many Portal Servers can be operating at any given time.
What really grinds my gears about an issue like this is that the community has been calling on DICE to reinstate Private Server Rentals, which have been absent since Battlefield 4, which was released in 2013.
That said, Portal servers have already been abused for XP farming, as was predicted in the community well before launch. SoliderCactus and I tested out this feature, and you could literally sit in a VTOL and rake XP from AI gunners.
The XP farm has been disabled via hotfix.
Unable To Respawn on Death or Redeply
There’s a gut-wrenchingly annoying bug where when you’re downed, and your death timer gets to zero – but you don’t die, and you can’t respawn.
Friendly players can’t revive you in this state, and you’re forced to leave the game entirely then rejoin or find a new match, as there is no redeploy option in the game menu.
Unable To Select Loadout or Spawn
Imagine you’ve just searched for a game, found it, and now you’ve loaded in. You can see the map, you go to select your loadout – only you can’t. Ok, maybe it’s a minor bug, but then you click Deploy. The game doesn’t respond.
Being unable to select your loadout or spawn into a game is a fundamentally fatal flaw for this game. This bug alone pushed me to refund the game. The only workaround is to leave the game, matchmake again and if it’s not fixed – restart the game again.
Unable to Choose Squad or Change Team
You join a game with friends and get balanced onto the other team – only to find out… You can’t change team. Hell, you can’t even join your friend’s squad through the game menu.
How this fundamental capability from pretty well every Battlefield game ever was overlooked, I will never know.
No Commander Mode
This is not strictly a bug, but it’s a disappointing omission that many in the community have called for. With 128 players on the map, it’s been very telling when zergs form and the game becomes entirely one-sided.
The lack of commander mode means there’s no meaningful way to communicate with your team and mount an offensive. When our community Battlefield 4 server is busy, I typically play commander and the presence of a commander is well received.
No Campaign
This isn’t a bug either, and to be fair, EA never strictly said there was a campaign. But you might, like me, feel just a little then misled when they dropped “Exodus” on YouTube, eluding to a lengthy story featuring Battlefield 4’s Irish.
You would think after DICE’s Star Wars Battlefront no campaign dilemma, resulting in Battlefront 2 getting a campaign.
Server Issues
Whilst not as prevalent as previous battlefield launch day’s, server issues are also rearing their head for 2042.
How To Get A Refund
If you’re on PC using Origin or EA Play, head to the Origin (EA) website and go to your Order History, select Refund. You must do so within 24 hours if you’ve opened the game or 14 days if you’ve not opened the game.
Origin Order History Here: https://myaccount.ea.com/cp-ui/orderhistory/index
Origin refund Policy Here: https://help.ea.com/en/help/account/returns-and-cancellations/
For Steam Players, go through the standard refund process on Steam. Documentation for Steam here: https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/784C-923B-A4A1-C825
For Xbox Players, head to your Microsoft Account, Payments and Billing then select Order History. Quick link here: https://account.microsoft.com/billing/orders
Closing Thoughts
This is a real shame, a complete letdown. I’ve dropped into a few streams, and the message is the same “this is bad” or “this is broken”.
EA and DICE had an opportunity to really hit the nail on the head and bring players back to Battlefield. Portal is excellent, and people are really enjoying the classic maps and battlefield experience.
But beyond that, it’s a broken mess; it’s lacking core features that people were expecting. Frankly, I’m so tired of the game releasing with the “release now, patch later” mentality.
Battlefield 2042 needs at least another year of refinement and player feedback prior to launch.
I’ve refunded this because this is not a complete nor acceptable release. You should refund this game if you think that when you pay $100 for a game, it should work.
