Battlefield 2042 drops popular rush mode and fans are not happy

By Otto Kratky Published January 6, 2022

Rush, a staple of the Battlefield franchise, is now almost completely absent from Battlefield 2042. After being added in as part of a limited-time event, developer Dice has all but removed the game mode.

Rush hasn't been removed and will remain in some form/theme in #BattlefieldPortal for a few weeks/months yet. Rush of Ages was extended based on community reception and will return in the future. This week it's Bad Company 2 Rush. pic.twitter.com/1i80e0i9UU

— Kevin Johnson (@T0TALfps) January 6, 2022

The game mode, which Dice never intended to keep in the game permanently, is currently only playable through a Bad Company 2 Battlefield Portal playlist. Before being removed, players had said that Rush should become a permanent addition to the game. However, Rush is set to return to Battlefield 2042‘s other custom games in Battlefield Portal eventually. According to Dice community manager Kevin Johnson, “Rush of Ages was extended based on community reception and will return in the future.”

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Battlefield 2042‘s lack of legacy features and game modes, including Rush, scoreboard, and in-game voice chat, has been a point of focus for the franchise’s fans since the game launched. In response to fans’ frustrations, EA’s director of integrated communications for shooters and Star Wars, Andy McNamara, tweeted that fans’ “expectations are brutal.” McNamara went on to say that “the things you want take time to scope, design, and execute,” before deleting the tweets and apologizing and saying his message “wasn’t clear.”

After a series of patches that adjusted the game and fixed bugs following Battlefield 2042 launched this past November, it’s not clear what DICE’s plan is for the game going forward. The game’s main Twitter account hasn’t provided any hints toward more content for the live-service game recently, and has instead given fans a post fleshing out its lore and world on January 5. Battlefield 2042 is a multiplayer-only title that has no single-player campaign or story mode.

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Otto Kratky is a freelance writer with many homes. You can find his work at Digital Trends, GameSpot, and Gamepur. If he's…

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Single-player Battlefield content is coming from a new EA studio

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Electronic Arts announced a new studio dedicated to developing single-player narrative campaigns for the Battlefield franchise. Located in Kirkland, Washington, the studio is called Ridgeline Games and is led by game director and Halo-co-creator Marcus Lehto.

"It is a great honor to have the opportunity to collaborate with DICE and Ripple Effect and lead the charge on expanding the narrative, storytelling, and character development opportunities in the Battlefield series," says Lehto in a statement.

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Battlefield 2042 Season 2 deepens progression with Assignments

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EA unveiled Battlefield 2042 Season 2: Master of Arms today, detailing the new content players can expect when it drops on August 30. Master of Arms features the new map, weapon, gadget, and Specialist content that players desire from a significant update like this, but this next season of Battlefield 2042 also deepens progression with a brand new feature called Assignments.

Battlefield 2042 is a multiplayer-only game, so having an interesting progression system is key to ensuring players stick around. Currently, players can increase their Player Level as they also make their way through a battle pass. The Assignments feature will now allow players to seamlessly work toward unlocking Vault Weapons, which are guns that were previously only available in Battlefield Portal or previous seasons.

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Battlefield 2042 Season 1 is an improvement, but a late one

A specialist holds Battlefield 2042's new crossbow weapon.

Battlefield 2042's launch didn't go quite as planned for EA. While it was poised to be the publisher's next live service hit, it floundered at launch due to an overwhelming number of bugs, a controversial ability-driven specialist system, maps that felt way too big, and more. While Digital Trends' reviewer loved the base game, many players didn't, so EA spent months fixing it. As a result, Season 1: Zero Hour was pushed back all the way to June 9, over six months after the game's launch. Ahead of its release, I got the opportunity to try out some of Season 1's new content a see if Battlefield 2042 has really changed for the better.
This primarily consisted of going hands-on with the new Specialist Ewelina Lis on the new map Exposure. Is Battlefield 2042 in a better state now than it was at launch? Yes. Will it make enough compelling additions and changes to bring you back if you're not a hardcore Battlefield fan? Not really.
Battlefield 2042 | Season 1: Zero Hour Gameplay Trailer Premiere
What's new?
The main additions coming to Battlefield 2042 at the start of Season 1 are a new rocket launcher-wielding specialist named Ewelina Lis, a new map set in the Canadian Rockies called Exposure, new weapons including a crossbow and marksman rifle, and a battle pass containing lots of free and paid unlockables. It's definitely the meatiest batch of content Battlefield 2042 has received since launch, but it doesn't revamp or fix every core problem with the game.

Starting with the battle pass, don't expect any wild crossover or crazy outfits, just a lot of new realistic looks for your specialists, vehicles, and weapons. It is challenge-based, which Halo has shown the downsides of, but thankfully 30 tiers of it are free and the only things unlocked by paying up are cosmetic. That means everyone will be able to try the new specialist Ewelina Lis. She is a helpful Engineer Specialist as she always has a rocket launcher at her disposal to help destroy vehicles.
While I found the new Ghostmaker R10 Crossbow and BSV-M Marksman Rifle to be too slow and not powerful enough to be very useful in a game with such a quick time to kill, Lis may be a useful specialist that will stick around on most squads. She's particularly useful on the brand-new map Exposure.
When previewing the new season, I got to try out both Conquest and Breakthrough on Exposure, a map that supports both 128-player and 64-player matches. As it takes place in and around a base built into the side of a mountain, it has one of the most distinctive and vertical layouts of any new Battlefield 2042 map. The tensest firefights took place in a spot nestled on the side of the mountain, as players could flank from within the mountain on foot or from the skies in new stealth helicopters. While I enjoyed those moments and attacking the base in the helicopter, it still felt a bit too big to traverse on foot outside of that base, a common problem with all of Battlefield 2042's maps.