When Battlefield 2042 was revealed, we learnt of a lot of things, the maps, some of the specialists and more importantly, the modes. But as part of the reveal, the team teased that something new would be announced at EA Play Live and now we know what it is, say hello to Battlefield Portal.

Before you start blending Battlefield with puzzles, there is something you should know, the name has no connect to the Valve series, but is instead a way for you to create your own Battlefield experiences. This isn’t just selecting what game mode to play on what map, no this goes far beyond that, you can choose everything from the balance of players on the team, to the number vehicles and weapons and beyond that as well. Check out the trailer, it will give you an idea of what is going on.

Developed by Ripple Effect Studios, formally known as DICE LA, this is a love letter to classic Battlefield games and I say that, because at launch the game will come with content from Battlefield 1942, Battlefield Bad Company 2 and Battlefield 3. Content is the best way to describe it, because a handful of maps from each game are being included, along with the seven revealed for Battlefield 2042, it gives you 13 maps in which to create your own gaming opus. For those who want to know, these are the maps that are coming to Portal.

Battlefield 1942

Battle of the Bulge
El Alamein

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Battlefield: Bad Company 2

Arica Harbor
Valparaiso

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Battlefield 3

Caspian Border
Noshahr Canals

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These maps are not going to be 100% the same as you remember, for one the maps all support 128 players, something that none of them did before, but beyond that, they are all now built in the latest version of the Frostbite engine. Something to consider, the original Battlefield 1942 maps were great, but today are missing something that all other maps have, destruction, but now thanks to Portal, they have it as well.

Maps are one thing, but those older games also have a range of weapons, gadgets and vehicles that other games have not had access to, which again, thanks to the trailer above, means you can now have defibrillators in World War 2, if that strikes your fancy, check out this handy little infographic, to get an idea at what is coming.

The game is set to offer over 40 weapons from the three games, on top of all the new guns being included in Battlefield 2042, meaning there is going to be a lot of choice for you. Couple that with the 60+ vehicles from all four games, the massive range of gadgets and the number of teams, there is a lot you can do, but the question is, how do you do it?

There are two ways, the first is via the game itself and the second is via a webpage, which means if you are on a bus or train and see something out the window and that strikes inspiration in you, you can log on and start to make a new mode, lay the foundation and then tweak it when you get home. The actual process is a step by step how to basically, you start by choosing your base game mode, then start to mess with things from there, like player count, balance of teams, restrictions on respawns, weapons and so on. This means you can have a team of four soldiers with no respawns, against a team of 124, with three lives each, but to even the odds, you can then give your four-man group all the guns possible, but the massive army gets nothing buy knives.

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It doesn’t just stop there, you can do even more weird and wonderful things, like removing the ability for all players to go prone, but making the only guns sniper rifles, or disable the mini map for both sides, or just one. You can even select which faction is set to appear in your game, so you can take the USA team from Battlefield 2042 and have them fight the Germans from Battlefield 1942, if you so desire. If you want you can even get into the details by removing all attachments from guns, or only allowing short scopes, there really doesn’t appear to be any major restrictions. Before you can launch your gaming masterpiece though, the game will check it, to ensure it is actually playable.

That is all the easy side of things, because those who decide they want to, or have more of an idea of more detail they want to add, can jump into the Logic Editor, which behaves more like your average programming language. It is in here that you can start to make some really detailed changes, for example, if you get a kill, your health is restored, or if you want, you could create a new version of gun game, that starts you out with a knife, but then each kill cycles you up in weapons, leaving you to take out the last enemy with a rocket launcher, or a jeep.

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Discovering modes to play should be a breeze, as the game is going to offer up an official experiences selection, those made by the team at DICE and Ripple Effect. These will rotate around, so checking back should be something you want to do, the other side will be the community experiences, basically the best of the best of the best, of those made by players and given how crazy talented some gamers are, you could discover something really out there.

The promise the team have is that over time, with each new season of Battlefield 2042 content, more maps, weapons and more will be added, but there is also the chance that other classic Battlefield games will show up, so maps from Battlefield 2, Battlefield 2142 and even the recent Battlefield V, heck Vietnam and the often-forgotten Battlefield Heroes could also show up again.

Battlefield Portal is going to be interesting, there are surely going to be folks who don’t care at all about the creation aspect, but it just means there is lots to discover. There will also be folks that will become masters of making modes, that whenever they drop something new, gamers will rush to check it out. I am sitting in the middle, I might take a stab at creating something new, but likely will enjoy more playing, plus as a final cherry on top, any time you play in these modes, your level will still increase.