Is Battlefield 2042 fun? Not really, not for a new player in 2026. Battlefield 2042 scores 4/10 for fun. The big vehicle battles still work, but Secure Boot setup and half-empty, bot-filled lobbies get in the way first.
Where this score comes from: Steam player reviews, last checked against 302 recent and most-helpful English reviews in October 2026. Battlefield 2042 on Steam
Battlefield 2042 is DICE’s 2021 multiplayer shooter: no campaign, huge maps and 128-player Conquest on PC. It launched rough and has been patched for years. Deep sales have sent a new wave of players to try it.
Battlefield 2042 scores 4/10 on immediate fun. About six in ten players under 20 hours recommend it, but many of those are one-line thumbs up. Longer reviews from new players hit the same walls: the game won’t start until you change PC security settings, matches take minutes to fill, and the lobbies that fill are often half bots. A full match is fun. Getting one is the hard part.
When it comes together, it still feels like Battlefield. Players describe the moments the series is known for: a jet crashing into a building, a tornado rolling across the map mid-match, spawning into a helicopter that was already going down. Several say the gunplay and movement feel smooth, and swapping attachments mid-fight gets a lot of praise.
Portal is the other bright spot. One regular skips quick play entirely because the community servers are livelier, and a surprising number of players who own Battlefield 6 say they enjoy this one more.
The front door. On PC the anti-cheat needs Secure Boot switched on, which means a trip into the BIOS before your first match. New players refund over it. One owned the game for a year before working out how, and others report the anti-cheat crashing AMD drivers.
Then the population. Reviews at every playtime describe 8 to 10 minute waits off-peak, Conquest that can’t gather enough people to start, and lobbies that are half bots. One new player refunded after two hours, mostly from waiting: to reach the menu, to load a match, again between matches. Bots get dull fast, and some find the maps so big and empty that much of a match is running.
Solo: Better than you’d expect offline. Solo and co-op modes against bots on full-size maps are a favorite for players who want big battles without sweaty PvP, and one player in his mid-thirties says that is exactly why he plays. Online alone, it depends on the lobby.
With friends: The best way to play. Several players say it’s a bit dull alone but a lot of fun with a squad, and you can set up co-op matches against bots together without much hassle.
Only if the setup doesn’t bother you and you like bots. With Secure Boot already on and a taste for AI battles or Portal servers, it’s cheap fun on sale. If you want packed 128-player matches with real people, expect more waiting than playing. Its successor Battlefield 6 also lands at 4/10 on our scale.
For comparison, we rated Call of Duty 3/10 and Overwatch 2 3/10 on the same fun-only scale.
See where it lands in our list of games not worth playing.
Battlefield 2042 scores 4/10 on immediate fun. Big vehicle chaos still lands. Getting there means BIOS tweaks, long waits and lobbies half full of bots.
BIOS hoops. Bot-filled lobbies.
One question: did it deliver immediate fun? Graphics, story depth, difficulty and critical acclaim are ignored. Pick-up-and-play accessibility is rewarded; anything that makes you wait for the fun to start is penalized.
How we score: We don't care about graphics, story depth, or critical acclaim. One question — did it deliver immediate fun? We reward pick-up-and-play accessibility and penalize anything that makes you wait for the fun to start.