What is Battlefield Portal?

EA has announced a build-a-battlefield multiplayer mash-up… thing. But just what is this Battlefield Portal all about?

battlefield portal
Clear? (Image via EA)

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When EA revealed that Battlefield 2042 would not be packing a cursory single-player campaign, some took it to mean that the series would be going back to basics and fully embracing its multiplayer side. On the basis of what’s been announced since, those assumptions would appear to have been a little rash.

The big news is that as part of the Battlefield 2042 release (set for October 22), there will be a component called the Battlefield Portal. The basis of it is a compilation of existing and updated content from across the Battlefield series (specifically Battlefield 1942, Bad Company 2, Battlefield 3, and BF2042), all available to play either in the traditional way or in a heavily-customised form. Essentially, via some Battlefield Portal tinkering, you can play the classic El Alamein map from BF1942 between the good old Tommies and Germans, or swap out one side for BF3’s US Marines. You’ll be able to take things to extremes by limiting one side to knives and the other to defibrillators, if you so desire. If the trailer is anything to go by, it could be a whole lot of fun.

Battlefield Portal doesn’t appear to be aiming to match the features of Halo’s Forge editor (itself likened to Garry’s Mod). Terrain editing would appear to be beyond its scope, for example. However, the web-based Portal application will allow you to go a lot further than mixing up the sides and limiting loadouts. Customised settings can be shared as Experiences, and those brave enough to master it will be able to tinker with the app’s Logic Editor, so that rules, conditions and events can be messed with. The hope is that the BF Portal community might eventually come up with custom game modes that take the usually mod-averse  Battlefield in all sorts of wild directions – assuming they catch on. Warcraft begat DOTA and Arma led to PUBG. What will Battlefield Portal yield to, we wonder?

EA has yet to announce whether Battlefield Portal will be accessible during September’s planned beta. We do know that Battlefield Portal will be free to use, although a copy of Battlefield 2042 will be required to play any of its creations.