Battlefield 2042, the next instalment of the Battlefield franchise, was officially announced earlier today. While much of the game’s features are still under wraps, DICE has confirmed that there will be seven multiplayer maps available at launch. Set all across the globe, the Battlefield 2042 maps run the gamut from dense urban city centres to Antarctic ice floes and more.
Battlefield 2042: The Seven Launch Maps
All told, there will be seven maps available at launch in Battlefield 2042. No doubt more will arrive post-launch, of course. DICE has confirmed that the game will be a live-service title, in much the same way as Battlefield V. The seven launch maps are as follows.
- Breakaway: The first map on the list is also possibly the game’s most unique. Breakaway takes place in Queen Maud Land in Antarctica, featuring both frozen ice fields and oil extraction silos. One of the map’s features will apparently be permanent fires and fields of debris caused by the destruction of certain fuel tanks.
- Discarded: Set in Alang, a town on the west coast of India, Discarded takes place in a huge shipbreaking yard. Massive cargo vessels are beached here, providing an environment with a great deal of verticality, as well as both claustrophobic internal passageways and wide open spaces between the hulks.
- Hourglass: The first truly urban map, Hourglass takes place in the city of Doha in Qatar. A huge sand storm has engulfed the city, casting a red mist across the skyscrapers. According to DICE, players will be battling to control a convoy which has come to a halt in the sand-strewn city.
- Kaleidoscope: This city map is bright and blue where Hourglass is red and hazy. However, the metropolis of Songdo in South Korea is dealing with its own problems, as columns of smoke rise across the city from ongoing fires. Players will be able to use a network of ziplines to cross between the skyscrapers here.
- Manifest: The map Manifest takes place on Brani Island in Singapore. The map features an expansive dockyard full of shipping containers and cranes for loading and unloading. Not only is the map a maze of passageways between the stacked containers, but tropical tornadoes are apparently a major threat here.
- Orbital: Orbital consists of a rocket launch site in Kourou, French Guiana. As the rocket prepares to launch, players will be fighting around the site itself. DICE warns that storms will be a danger here. Indeed, it remains unknown what damage the rocket’s launch itself will cause.
- Renewal: The final map in Battlefield 2042 is Renewal, which takes place in the eastern deserts of Egypt. The focus of the map is a huge wall which separates arid dunes from lush fields. Both sides feature small clusters of buildings, with fighting focusing on the gates which provide access through the wall.