Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

EA ending Hazard Zone support in Battlefield 2042

EA announced that development is winding down on one of the new modes introduced in Battlefield 2042. Hazard Zone is getting taken off of life support, with future development being brought to an end as active player numbers wind down.

Battlefield 2042 | Battlefield Briefing - Development Update May 2022

The end of development for Hazard Zone doesn’t mean that the game mode will meet its end. EA confirms that the playlist will remain active within 2042 and will even have possible future critical errors addressed. However, things like future maps, content, and experiences won’t have any presence in Hazard Zone at all.

Battlefield 2042 | Hazard Zone Official Trailer

Hazard Zone features several four-player teams on one battlefield, tasking them with beating other squads to gather objectives called “Data Drives.” Since last year, many players have complained about the mode feeling dead. This is just one of many issues that Battlefield 2042 faced following its launch, and EA has clearly determined that Hazard Zone is no longer a mode worth supporting.

Recommended Videos

“All of us on the team had great ambition and high hopes for this new Battlefield experience throughout our development,” EA’s blog states. “But we’re the first to hold our hands up and acknowledge that it hasn’t found the right home in Battlefield 2042 and that we’ll benefit greatly from letting our focus and energy stay on the modes we see you engaging most with.”

Please enable Javascript to view this content

While Hazard Zone is meeting an early developmental end, EA still plans to keep content coming to 2042. The blog confirms that more content, maps, modes, and core gameplay updates are the main focus of the development team going forward.

DeAngelo Epps
Former Digital Trends Contributor
De'Angelo Epps is a gaming writer passionate about the culture, communities, and industry surrounding gaming. His work ranges…
Battlefield 2042 Season 2 deepens progression with Assignments
Crawford shoots enemies with a turret he place in Battlefield 2042.

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.

Read more
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. 

Read more
Battlefield 2042 is finally getting in-game voice chat
An operator uses a headset microphone in Battlefield 2042.

Just five months after it was initially released, Battlefield 2042 is finally getting a basic -- and often demanded -- feature: In-game voice chat. The ability to talk to squadmates in the massive, team-based first-person shooter will be added in the game's 4.0 update, which is set to roll out on April 19.

https://twitter.com/BattlefieldComm/status/1516068203922919428

Read more