Battlefield 2142 Revive brings back EA's cult-classic online shooter

The ten-year-old sci-fi shooter Battlefield 2142 is back, sort of, thanks to Battlefield 2142 Revive, a fan-made project that went into release just ahead of the weekend. It's free to download and play, and even though it isn't officially sanctioned, Electronic Arts so far seems content to let it slide. 

As PCGamesN suggests, at least part of the reason for EA's good nature toward the project may be the fact that the original Battlefield 2142 is no longer playable. It fell victim to the Great Gamespy Shutdown of '14, and while EA originally said it was “working on transitioning [affected] games after the shutdown so you'll still be able to play them,” it changed its mind about a month later, owing to the “significant technical hurdles” involved in keeping them up.   

So it's a win for EA in just about every possible way: The Battlefield franchise gets a little extra attention in the lead-up to Battlefield 1, someone else does all the heavy lifting, and EA gets credit for not stomping it out like a grass fire. And the revival is seeing some action, with server stats indicating a Monday afternoon concurrent player count in the high-300s. For the purposes of comparison, that wouldn't be enough to crack the top 100 on Steam, but it's pretty good for a fan revival of a dead FPS that—sorry, fans—was never what you'd call a runaway success in the first place. 

Full details on Battlefield 2142 Revive, and the relevant download links, may be had at bl2142.co.
 

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.