'Battlefield 2042's' New Specialists Have Gotten Fans Even More Worried

The five remaining Specialists for “Battlefield 2042” have finally been revealed, but fans aren’t exactly excited to see them in action.

DICE has released a short trailer featuring all of the upcoming characters in gameplay snippets that showcase their signature abilities. Much like the first batch of Specialists, the new ones have their own unique gadgets that give them distinct identities on the battlefield.

The new Specialists failed to spark interest in a number of players, however. Over 10K people disliked the reveal trailer because of the seemingly overpowered abilities that some of the new characters have.

One specialist in particular, the South Korean recon expert Ji-Soo Paik, caused a stir within the fanbase. Paik is equipped with an EMG-X Scanner gadget that reveals the positions of nearby enemy players who are hiding behind cover. Additionally, she can automatically spot any enemy who manages to damage her.

Fans were quick to react to this built-in wallhack, with many calling DICE out for making this cheat-like gadget legal in “Battlefield 2042.”

Ji-Soo Paik is one of Battlefield 2042's new Recon specialists who has the ability to see through walls Photo: DICE

Another character, assault specialist Emma “Sundance” Rosier, got a somewhat mixed reception from players. Some praised her Wingsuit’s utility while others were worried about her Smart Explosives — thrown grenades that can be configured to deal with infantry, vehicles and even aircraft.

The trailer showed Sundance throwing a grenade that locked onto and chased after a moving helicopter, igniting some concern among the “Battlefield” community’s pilots. Having just a few Emma clones armed with these tracking grenades and anti-air missiles may possibly make piloting aircraft in “Battlefield 2042” a nightmare.

Specialists in general were heavily criticized when they were first announced and more “Battlefield” fans voiced their concern about the new character system when the “Battlefield 2042” open beta went live earlier this month.

Players felt that Specialists did not belong in the large-scale conquest mode, with many fans preferring the old 4-class system of Assault, Engineer, Support and Recon from “Battlefield 4.” Comments under the Hazard Zone trailer called for Specialists to be exclusive to that game mode instead.

However, “Battlefield 2042” will ship with Portal mode, which will allow players to host games that run on custom rules. The mixed feedback on the Specialist system might lead to a rise in “vanilla Battlefield” servers in Portal mode to cater to those who crave for the game’s traditional class-based experience.