Battlefield 2042 reveals next major priority: giving specialists beards

Battlefield 2042 specialist Mackay — Are we sure this guy didn’t walk off from Modern Warfare 2? (pic: EA)

One of the fixes coming to Battlefield 2042 is a visual redesign for its Specialists, who already look less cheerful than they did before.

Reports of EA abandoning Battlefield 2042 were easy to believe considering how rough its launch and the ensuing months were. However, EA has denied this and promised at least four seasons of content.

The first season, dubbed Zero Hour, is already on the way and now the development team has shared plans for how it’s going to change its Specialists.

Although it seems, so far, that the answer is to give them beards, meaning you could now easily mistake them for characters out of Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Specifically, the team has shared new ‘makeovers’ for four of its playable specialists – Boris, Angel, Mackay, and Falck – and aside from them all looking noticeably grimmer and sterner, Angel and Mackay now sport facial hair as opposed to their original clean-cut looks.

Boris already had a beard to begin with, although it looks to be thicker now, while Falck lacks any major adjustments to her appearance.

Giving these characters redesigns feels like a misplaced priority considering they’re the least of Battlefield 2042’s problems. Plus, a lot of fans’ complaints with the specialists stem from how they actually play rather than how they look.

There are some fans that appreciate the new design direction, but most are more interested in the gameplay adjustments, which DICE has yet to elaborate on.

beautiful
— Gabriel Nieri (@__gAbrielnieri) July 19, 2022

Good stuff

— King Julius (@lmVeryAwesome) July 19, 2022

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Good visual improvements 👍🏼 but the community is waiting for the specialist gameplay rework

— RG3T Company (@RG3TCompany) July 19, 2022

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Even though it’s very simple changes like adding beards or adding dirt to their faces or they look ALOT better

— PilotWarden (@PilotWarden) July 19, 2022

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It remains to be seen if the characters will also be less quippy. Another issue fans had with them was that their light-hearted one-liners during gameplay didn’t fit with the grim and gritty aesthetic the rest of the game was pushing.

The new designs are expected to arrive in early August as part of the next update, which still lacks an exact date at the moment.

Although Battlefield 2042 is still trucking along, development is believed to have already started on the next entry at new studio Battlefield Seattle instead of DICE.

Most of what we’ve heard so far comes from rumours, but job listings confirm that it will include a single-player campaign, something Battlefield 2042 lacks.

Battlefield 2042 is available for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC.