Christmas will soon arrive in Battlefield 2042 with matching skins and content. But not all players are happy about the festive mode “Team Santa vs Team Elf”.
The mood around Battlefield 2042 remains tense even in the actually contemplative Christmas season. The shooter’s Christmas skins, which appeared in advance, already caused irritation among some players, so that DICE had to affirm that gameplay improvements have the highest priority.
Via a (Xbox-Blogpost) the developers now announced a suitable mode for the festive attire: Attack of the Elves. While some players are looking forward to a bit of festive clambake, others feel that the shooter doesn’t take its futuristic war scenario seriously enough. This also pissed us off with the casual, fluffy sayings of the Specialists.
What is Attack of the Elves?
You can play Attack of the Elves mode in Battlefield Portal from 16 December 2021 to 6 January 2022. It’s a 32-player zombie experience pitting Team Santa against Team Elves, who have apparently been infected with something. It is not yet known exactly how the mode will play out. Possibly both teams have different objectives or the elves can infect the Santas somehow.
This is probably also where the skins come into play and maybe we will see undead holiday gnomes on the other side as well as Father Christmas costumes. The developers promise at least a fitting winter theme around it.
NEWS: Major Nelson has revealed the upcoming featured experience for BattlefieldPortal in the “Season of Xbox” blog.https://t.co/KbLHWkgRRd
🥳 Attack of the Elves.
🎁 Holiday themed experience.
🗓️ Dec 16, 2021 – Jan 6, 2022.
🧟 32p infection mode.
🎅 Team Santa vs Team Elves. pic.twitter.com/duGKg5qFDR– Battlefield Bulletin (@BFBulletin) December 10, 2021
With this, players probably won’t have to worry about the Christmas skins, too silly for some, taking over in All Out Warfare or Hazard Zone either. Nevertheless, some dissatisfied voices mingle with the joy about the Christmas event.
What players think of the Christmas content
For user triggers (on Reddit), the developers are sending the wrong message even when the Christmas mode barely eats up resources and time:
Even if it was already finished, even if the effort is small, it just sends the wrong signals. Many bugs that break the game are still in it, some features are missing and most importantly in my opinion, BF used to be a serious franchise. This confirms to me that they have no idea what their fans want and will continue to push them towards hero shooters and Fortnite wannabes either way.
In fact, the next Battlefield is likely to follow even more closely in the footsteps of the popular Hero Shooter, according to one insider.
DowellTV agrees with him on Reddit. He says it’s a matter of attitude to focus on the promised changes now:
It’s not even about the effort or anything like that. When your game is in such terrible shape, you have to show that you’re determined to fix it – and only that. That’s the only way to keep the players’ confidence and hope alive. You have to show that you care about getting the game back on its feet. Adding new skins and stupid modes like this while the game suffers from umpteen bugs and optimization issues just doesn’t make a good impression. It just takes away my hope as a gamer, no wonder 80 percent of the players have left.
Other players put the brakes on the anger though. They look forward to festive content and remind that the creative portal is also meant for such content. Especially since many rule out that the event really delays the planned improvements.
This is what, for example, user SuitingUncle620 (on Reddit) writes:
These comments … I know a lot of you are pissed at the game, but remember Portal was created for exactly this kind of content, to create fun, unique game modes. Some of you need to stop looking for a reason to be angry. It’s unnecessary and won’t do you any good.
User marinarahhhh adds that the mode pretty much has nothing to do with the currently planned changes to the game and probably won’t delay them. He thinks it’s unfair to chalk it up to DICE on principle.
To me, it feels unfair. The amount of work that goes into Santa-vs-Elf mode should be comparatively small. It’s also not like it’s only been developed in the last four weeks.
Benno14c is also excited about the mode, pointing out that there’s still plenty of other content:
I think it’s okay. I mean, it’s portal. If there’s a place to relax and have a bit of fun, it’s there. You want to have the normal Portal experiences? Then join these rotations, there are plenty of others from DICE and custom ones from the community.
You can also find out what Portal and the other Battlefield 2042 modes have to offer in detail and with gameplay in our release summary video:
What do you think of the Christmas mode? Are you looking forward to fun holiday outings or are you also bothered by Battlefield 2042 striking such cheerful notes? Should the developers rather focus on the improvements?
