Rush is back in Battlefield 2042, thanks to Battlefield Portal, a new match creation tool created by Ripple Effect (previously known as Dice LA). Six maps from across the series’ history are included, as well as all seven maps that launch with the base Battlefield 2042. The tagline is: your war, your rules.
While you won’t be able to make your own maps, you can tweak the rulesets, loadouts, and other variables to create custom game modes before sharing them online and letting loose. Want to do a rockets-only match on a remastered version of Bad Company 2’s Arica Harbor? Go for it. Want to pit 2042’s Specialists against Nazis, but only allow the former to use knives? You can do that. The tools are ridiculously robust, allowing you to tweak everything from the weapons and vehicles you’re allowed to use, right down to health pools and HUD elements. If you’ve always dreamed of a hardcore, immersive playlist in Battlefield, I guarantee you that someone will have created one by launch day.
Related: Rush Is Available In All Battlefield 2042 Maps At Launch
All of this will be accessible to anyone via a web browser, though obviously, you’ll need to buy Battlefield 2042 if you want to actually test your creations. For creators, there’s also the option to backfill games with bots, ensuring you’re never stuck with an empty lobby – and, of course, you can tweak AI difficulty and behaviours, too. For people who just want to play, the game will track progression across these modes and still earn you EXP as if you were playing the core playlists.
Ripple Effect wouldn’t outright confirm whether more classic maps will come post-launch, but any updates and new maps that appear in Battlefield 2042 will be added to Battlefield Portal as soon as they land in the main game. The classic maps included are: 1942’s Battle of the Bulge and El Alamein, Battlefield 3’s Caspian Border and Noshahr Canals, and Bad Company 2’s Arica Harbor and Valparaiso. Each of the maps has been updated to take advantage of hardware advancements. The most striking upgrades are for 1942’s maps.
Originally, 1942’s maps were restricted by the tech – it’s a 2002 game, after all. Limited draw distance meant long sightlines weren’t an issue, and the maps were built to be pretty flat as a result. Now that snipers have a clear sightline, Ripple Effect has added extra cover so infantrymen can move more than a couple of steps without having their heads blown off. The developer also added Battlefield’s signature destructible environments.
As a creator, you can completely alter the feel of these maps by bending the rules. There’s nothing to stop you from bringing modern hardware into WW2, and you can even crank the player count up to 128 players on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. The maps weren’t built to support that many players, but who cares? I’m here for a good time, not a long time.
Once a creator has set up a game mode, they’re free to choose the map rotation from the six legacy maps and the seven 2042 maps. There are also maps within maps, because I heard you like maps. Maps! Anyway, yes, you can choose from a selection of developer-approved deathmatch arenas, too. You can even fill those with 128 players if you want complete bedlam. Speaking of bedlam, if you want to make lopsided teams, you can. How about a single, superpowered player against 127 squishy idiots with pistols? There’s going to be some wildly creative stuff once people get their hands on these tools. One example we were given during the presentation showed 25 sniper players against 15 shotgun players, and the sniper players weren’t allowed to go prone, Bad Company 2-style. You can even go as far as removing certain weapons and attachments if you get annoyed with C4 morons.
This is about simple sandbox fun and endless variety. One attendee asked how Ripple Effect plans to balance all of this, and the team gave the best answer possible: they don’t. That’s the entire point. This is a mode built for fun and experimentation. It’s off-balance by design, though there’s nothing stopping creators from making the most boring, balanced game mode ever conceptualised. Or you could just make someone a vampire who leeches health by doing damage and turns killed players into more vampires. I know which one I’d rather play.
Once you’ve created your masterpiece or abomination, you simply pop in some searchable tags and release it to the world. Since it’s in a web browser, it will then be playable across all platforms. Being web-based also means Ripple Effect and Dice don’t need to update the entire game whenever they want to make changes to Battlefield Portal. The team plans to release Wikipedia-style tutorials and video blogs to help the community get to grips with the breadth of the tools.
Honestly, Battlefield Portal could have been a game in and of itself. When EA announced that Ripple Effect was working on a fan-pleasing mode for Battlefield 2042, I assumed that meant Rush was back. I was kind of right – it is, but it’s so much more than that.
Where most of the big boys are out chasing Overwatch and Fortnite money, Dice is over here carving its own path, and allowing you to carve yours. It’s listened to the feedback – it won’t be releasing another Firestorm, there’s no single-player campaign, but there are 13 maps of endlessly creative modes to play through. All Out Warfare and Battlefield Portal alone would make for a generous package, and I can’t wait to see what Dice has up its sleeve for its final surprise, Hazard Zone. We’ll find out what that is in the next few months, but Battlefield 2042 is already shaping up to be an FPS fan’s dream game.
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