Battlefield 2042's day-one patch isn't enough to stop tanking Steam reviews
Battlefield 2042 has officially launched after a turbulent early access period. Alongside the full game, DICE has shipped a day-one patch, but unfortunately, the update is minor and doesn't appear to fix many issues players are having. While DICE promises that more updates are coming in the future, it seems the day-one patch hasn't been enough to save Battlefield 2042 from fan blowback.
Battlefield 2042 day-one patch fixes
DICE detailed the contents of the day-one patch over on the Battlefield website. Even though it's small, it still fixes some major issues, starting with the rubberbanding problems that many players have reported.
Rubberbanding is an issue where enemy players will seemingly teleport from one position to another, which obviously makes it hard to fight them in a competitive game like Battlefield. DICE says that it has "Implemented Server Side upgrades" intended to reduce the issue, so hopefully, players will encounter the problem less often – or not at all – in their multiplayer matches.
The update should also reduce stuttering on the Breakaway map, but DICE says that for the moment, it's still exploring reports of stuttering on other maps. Those seem to be the two biggest fixes contained in the patch, but there are other changes too. For instance, the patch fixes several issues associated with Hazard Zone, including one that revealed players' location on the map even when they weren't supposed to be visible or hadn't been spotted by other players.
While this update is small, DICE says it's just the beginning for Battlefield 2042 updates. "Over the next 30 days, we're presently scheduled to release two further updates, with our next update delivering more fixes and improvements that we've identified during this first week of Early Access, and a larger and more substantial update following that," DICE wrote alongside the patch notes.
Battlefield 2042 getting massacred on Steam
If you needed any indication that the day-one update was not enough for players, you need only look at Steam. With the official launch of Battlefield 2042 comes the opportunity for players to review the game on Steam, and so far, disgruntled players are making their voices heard. At the time of this writing, Battlefield 2042 has received "Mostly Negative" feedback from players on Steam, with more than 13,000 reviews.
That, as you can imagine, is not good, and it suggests that Battlefield 2042 has a ton of problems that need to be fixed by DICE. Unfortunately, judging from those Steam reviews alone, it seems that Battlefield 2042 has a long way to go before the larger player base will think it's in an acceptable state.
While the reviews mention an array of issues with the game, one consistent complaint we've seen is that Battlefield 2042 is poorly optimized. A number of players are also reporting issues with things like broken hit registration and bullet drop-off. Many also take issue with Battlefield 2042's Specialists, which replace more traditional classes from previous games and have been a contentious issue since they were first introduced.
This day-one patch could be a good first step toward that goal of getting Battlefield 2042 to a better place, but we'll need to see the fixes that are included in these upcoming patches before we can know if the game is on the right path. When DICE shares more details about these upcoming patches, we'll fill you in.