This troubled 2021 it has almost come to an end and the two opposing series par excellence have finally lined up in their own positions to compete for the title of best FPS of the year; we obviously speak of Call of Duty Vanguard and of Battlefield 2042. However, the amazing hype train which was infused to the public by Activision and Electronic Arts unfortunately it partially crashed into a wall of reality much less pleasant than initially predicted, with all due respect to all those who dreamed of being able to touch unique, unrepeatable and truly unforgettable experiences. Let’s be clear, we’re not talking about complete disasters or terrible products, but defining the two games as masterpieces is just as exaggerated.
The situation has therefore turned into a sort of Mexican stalemate between the two titles, extremely interesting on paper but characterized by a practical application to be reviewed. Online, however, especially on forums and subreddits, it almost seems that this blessed 2021 has already been decreed by some gamers as the year of disaster for multiplayer shooters, with the two blockbusters suffering from various difficulties in multiple fields. But will it really be like this?
In this GL Originals we want to offer you a different way of looking at the issue, trying to understand the reasons behind the failures of the two productions and interconnecting them with the concept of great expectations of the public, often fueled by crazy marketing strategies. The latter have paradoxically contributed to building some very unstable house of cards that seemed to push on important revolutions for both franchises, only to prove themselves as imperfect games, but unjustly believed to be total failures. Before continuing, however, we recommend that you read our reviews of Call of duty Vanguard at this link and of Battlefield 2042 to this other directly on our site to deepen more accurately the titles taken in reference.
Vanguard: high expectations, but few innovations
Call of Duty Vanguard presented himself to the challenge for the best shooter of the year by trying again the path of Second World War after World War II, however, this time using a decidedly non-canonical approach and taking a cue from the new ones Modern Warfare And Cold War. Surely the system was much more in step with the times, but unfortunately there is still a very strong sense of more of the same. The single-player campaign takes in fact potentially memorable elements and scenarios, such as the battle of Stalingrad, but then fails to concretize them in the right way, probably also due to an extremely narrow duration of the adventure and an all too linear level design, which tells an interesting story on paper but managed in an all too hasty way.
Also, as we discussed in the preview for multiplayer, not all competitive modes have proved to be excellent. Blitz above all it is an authentic meat grinder where a large number of players face each other in maps of fairly contained dimensions, and especially in the more restricted ones the pace of the action can be almost exhausting at times. Despite these and other shortcomings, the product has nevertheless shown itself to the public with multiple strengths which at least guaranteed the title to retain some degree of critical acclaim. This is thanks to the revival of a visceral and well-conceived gunplay, which guarantees frenetic and adrenaline-filled clashes, as indeed it has always been for the saga.
Of course, the weapon customization system has sometimes been regarded as excessively permissive in the use of accessories “Futuristic” for the time, and the question caused some stomach ache among the purists of a historiographical realization of the title, yet the work done by the developers was not on the whole as bad as declared by several shores. In this case, however, the many expectations of the players corresponded to a product too similar to its predecessors, despite the changed setting, and consequently unable in this way to aspire to that excellence that trailers and declarations had hinted at.
Battlefield 2042: Huge expectation, but many technical problems
Battlefield 2042 it is perhaps the game of our examination that most of all has been loaded with almost unattainable expectations. The product, in fact, was not satisfied with presenting the usual heated soup, but significantly changed many of the in-game mechanics, such as the class system through the inclusion of Specialists and 128 players to battle simultaneously on the field. In addition to this, the scenarios presented are among the largest ever seen in the entire franchise, with battles never so epic and grandiose. Yet, despite the many and excellent changes, the game code has come to fans with countless technical problems and bugs. Some of these are also quite funny, such as the hovercraft capable of climbing skyscrapers at 90 degrees, while others have proved particularly problematic, such as the numerous reports that have shown the impossibility of choosing your equipment at the beginning of the matches.
Furthermore, the technical performance on PC is definitely subdued compared to the premises, thanks above all to a particularly problematic optimization, even with extremely performing configurations. To all the aforementioned problems are then added one amount of content for the standard game, which is really negligible, with very few weapons and a very low number of maps, without forgetting the absence of any single-player campaign. Fortunately, Portal mode took care of literally reviving some of the best multiplayer in the series, such as: Battlefield 3, Bad Company 2 And Battlefield 1942.
In fact, the powerful editor has already given proof on more than his own incredible ductility, with fans who have already created the most varied possible and imaginable game modes and situations, from training to use the wingsuit for the game’s characters to various zombie modes, battle-royale, weapon game and much more . The developers have also announced that they are working hard to solve the problems highlighted so far and it is in fact very recent news the release of an impressive patch with over 150 fixes and new modes such as the historic Race. In short, once again the expectations were very high, but in this specific case the promises were not fulfilled due to a bad optimization of the product by the developers. A real shame, given the enormous potential behind it.
In conclusion, we would like to reiterate it once again, we do not believe it is right to consider the couple of games covered in this article as disasters to be avoided, quite the contrary! They are products from undoubtedly interesting ideas and with great potential! What we mean in this comparison between expectations and results obtained by Call of Duty: Vanguard And Battlefield 2042 is that sometimes the great dreams that are instilled in communities can not keep up with the facts, amazing fireworks that sometimes can even explode in the face of those who create them. Basically, trying to push the accelerator of hype by companies, where there are serious problems upstream that could compromise the final result, does nothing but create in retrospect a tide of fire and digital hatred, which goes to sink the potential for good quality productions, albeit that can be improved in many respects, is also quite unfair.
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