When Battlefield 3 launched just over ten years ago it was a buggy mess. Similar issues plagued its sequel, Battlefield 4, and when Battlefield 2042 opened fire in mid-November, well … plus ça change. But it's had some time (and a couple of significant patches) to settle down and it now looks a lot more polished, if a little threadbare.

In contrast to its most recent forebears, Battlefield 2042 is entirely multiplayer focused. Gone are the entertaining single-player War Stories from the most recent versions and instead there are three game modes on offer: All-Out Warfare featuring the game's signature battles of Conquest (capture the flag) and Breakthrough (similar to the old Rush mode), Hazard Zone which pits small teams against each other in a race to secure intel, and Portal which is a programmable platform used to create bespoke adventures featuring maps, vehicles and soldiers from Battlefield past and present.

The series is most famous for its vast battles, and on PC as well as the latest consoles you'll join matches of up to 128 players, double the previous cap (PS4 and Xbox One players are stuck with smaller 64-player skirmishes). To accommodate the expanded roster, the seven new maps are enormous, featuring the frozen wilds of Antarctica, the scorching Egyptian desert, and the intense vertical threats of South Korean and Qatari skyscrapers. Occasionally, a tornado can strike during a battle, tossing players and vehicles up in the air. It's a daft but fun bit of chaos, similar to the 'levolution' system from previous entries which also make a (much) smaller return here. In order to stay in the fight there are vehicles scattered around the maps and it's possible to call in transportation; these are as fun to control as ever, particularly a hovercraft that is, at present, wildly overpowered.

Another big (and controversial) change is the introduction of specialists: idiosyncratic soldiers with unique skills and gadgets such as grapple guns, sentry bots, wingsuits and ballistic shields. These are similar to the sorts of characters you might find in a hero shooter such as Overwatch, Apex Legends or Rainbow Six Siege, with individual animations and voice lines that feel slightly out of place in a series which, with the exception of the outré Bad Company sub-series, has always steered a relatively straight course. To further complicate matters, specialists can also choose from the traditional set of classes: recon, assault, support and engineer. Some specialists work much better with certain classes than others but at least it should ensure that most matches contain a broad mixture of skillsets.

Although it only shipped with two traditional multiplayer modes, there's been a lot of hype about Battlefield Portal which allows players to create custom matches using all sorts of variables across the standard maps plus another six popular entries from Battlefield 1942, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Battlefield 3. As well as the various community creations, there's a selection of curated experiences which currently offer a trip down memory lane for veterans of those games. It will take some time before players properly get to grips with the tools on offer through Portal (there are currently plenty of extreme offerings and some maps built simply to farm XP) but some interesting new modes are beginning to poke through. Hazard Zone, however, feels flimsy compared to regular Battlefield, and its smaller fights feel right out of place.

Battlefield's USP has always been its large-scale battles, and 2042 delivers these bigger than ever before. After some serious teething problems it's now in a much better place. The (slightly) futuristic arsenal is punchy, there are many more gadgets than we're used to, and its vehicles will always be a great test of teamwork and patience. It does feel a little sparse at present but much more is promised, and based on the support given to previous entries in the series, its future is in safe hands.

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