Battlefield 2042 Has A Serious Bot Problem

"Battlefield 2042" differs from its predecessors, so much so that it isn't exactly what fans expected from a sequel. One of its selling points is its 128 player matches, which players can dive into with one of three game modes. Unfortunately, open beta players discovered a few issues with the game, especially in regards to its bots. 

In the "Battlefield" subreddit, early players brought up how the number of bots often outnumber real players and were more powerful than they should be. One player posted the leaderboard from one of their games, which listed only 8 players out of 128. "Only 8 real players and rest BOTS. Houston I think we might have a problem here," they wrote in the post.

One of the commenters suggested that the number of bots could be because of a fresh server just "spinning up." However, the original poster added that they played almost 15 matches that day and only three of those matches included a lobby full of human players. They claimed that "there's only 8-12 real players" for most matches. However, that's not the only issue to pop up in this beta.

It's just not the number of bots that's bothering players, either. JGOD, a content creator who typically plays "Call of Duty," posted a clip where a bot gunned him down in a couple of shots. 

"Battlefield 2042 has bots in the Beta and they are Very Toxic," JGOD captioned his clip on Twitter. Another player added that the bots are also apparently "very smart," attaching a video of their own bot-related death. Others complained about not even getting that far because they encountered an annoying "Unknown Error" code. The bots can unfortunately nearly instakill both average players and professionals alike — if those players can even get into the game in the first place.

"Battlefield 2042" isn't officially released yet. It's in open beta, which means that developers have some time to tweak the matchmaking process. Anyone, even those who don't plan on buying the game, can download the beta version for supported platforms. It's unclear how this will ultimately affect lobbies, considering you need to buy the official "Battlefield 2042" game to play it after the beta. 

"Battlefield 2042" launches on November 19, 2021 for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. EA delivered the bad news earlier this year about the original launch date being pushed back for pandemic-related reasons. Hopefully, developers can use the extra time to improve bots before the game's official release.