The streets ahead are troubled by debris, my ammunition is low, and the ruins of the burnt tank are my only cover. In other shooters, that means that all hope is lost. But after a solid 5 hours of play, it’s obvious Battlefield 6 It’s not just another shooter. With slices from the multiplayer suite, it was clear that this was a quick and skilled course fix and Whisper would return it to the exciting form of the beloved FPS series.
Battlefield 2042 was not a bad game. A defect during launch? Yes, absolutely. But beyond the mid-date debut, the overall package has become a solid entry in time with only one with an identity crisis at its heart. However, when Call of Duty has Beavis and Butthead skins, more radical alternatives, like highly underrated, often struggle to find a sustainable level of love. Escape from The Escape, the rise of stiffer, more hardier FPS games like Grey Zone Warfare, and whether they’re ready, prove that players are hungry to return to more grounded, Mill Sim-flavored action. Luckily, Battlefield 6 is trying to provide it in spades.
I flew to LA this week to practice Battlefield 6 and interviewed the key creatives. The build EA shared with me was focused on breakthroughs and conquests. Rush and Newcomer Esclation are more chaotic spins from the conquest, arriving alongside Battlefield 6 release date on October 10th. And if you’re wondering, 64v64 isn’t on the card.
Battlefield 6 is leaning far closer to 3 and 4, with several shades in the mix and buried, so Battlefield 2042’s close-range environment is dead and buried. Chaos reigns beyond the destroyed streets of Brooklyn, the thoroughly bombed mountains of Tajikistan, and the former breeding markets of Cairo. Each map confidently assures Battlefield 6 that you know about this time.
It is adrenaline spikes waiting for it to happen that pushes up the base of abandoned farmers and liberation peaks. It’s a map that seems to have been quickly torn from the history of the battlefield, still providing a fresh experience. The spirit of famous maps like Atacama Desert in Bad Company 2 and St. Quentin Scar in Battlefield 1 feels alive here, offering a massive arena that is Tactician dream. Weaving beaten tracks in a Humvee is just as smirk-inducing as ever, with the series’ perfect sound design selling every moment.
But the look and sound are just a small part of the puzzle. To actually crack the battlefield game and get players to board, you need to play correctly. The elephant in this room? The permutation of the 2042 open class system is returned. For me, I’m on the side of diversity and experimentation. I rely on reliable assault rifles and long-range weapons for most of my sessions, but I stick to my support class and pop incredibly satisfying defibs. I assume the role of a conscientious opponent in the fight, so my journey as a healer could be an article in itself. However, while the equally adaptable class and weapon selection in 2042 made the specified roles get lost in the mix, it doesn’t seem to be the case here as Battlefield 6 actively encourages you to take on and nail the exact roles in your team. The “Old Mantra” series from “Play the Darm Tocvierive” has not been that powerful for years.
There’s a lot to experiment with when you start to get messed up with weapons. Attachment points are the focus when it comes to building guns, with each part taking up a certain number of points totaling 100 points. This makes it impossible to design a very overwhelming death machine that shifts the meta at a disadvantage. At least not yet. Instead, I was worried in the way that really challenged all the attachments and my overall build.
There is no skirmish that is theoretically the same. You will be forced to rethink your build for match types and maps. Certainly, a decent range of heavy-duty assault rifle can work in many scenarios, but it’s not fast enough for a quarter engagement. Can you deny that drawback by sacrificing points in a particular attachment? Yes, but I need to consider how it fits into the rest of my loadout. That’s true, especially since each class of signature weapons are suitable for your free-to-play gadgets. That’s what the battlefield should be. Certainly, I can equip a support loadout using LMG, but I need to be agile to zip on empty lands to revive.
EA says the battle was redesigned from scratch. Recoil patterns, weapon movements, lots. I feel that each subset of guns are snappery when needed, so I feel they are more responsive than in 2042. On the back, heavy weapons are bullish and need to shift these machines step by step by step by step by relaying physical weight. To satisfy this is to spend time to that classic battlefield. Too many snipers in my skull repeatedly tell me that the shot is fatal with splash graphics.
Between bullets and ballistic mayhem, it is not a battlefield without an appetite for destruction. If there is one aspect that is at odds with Battlefield 6, EA focuses on what we call tactical destruction. Given the massacres of this series, my mind shifts to the siege of Shanghai and to the excellent Los Angeles map on the Hardline. Both of these feature iconic Levolution events, but oddly, this feels on the sidelines here – at least on the maps and modes I’ve played. Throughout the preview event, Levolution is barely mentioned from the collective talent from each studio that will make Battlefield 6 a reality.
Battlefield 2042 left there in favor of weather modifiers. The tornadoes and sandstorms are cool, but I’d love to see skyscrapers falling and the maps fundamentally change shape. Tactical destruction has hints for this. Rather than focusing on fully randomized seizures of chaos, it is a bit curated. Whether it’s in front of a Cairo store and an apartment, or a house forgotten during the peak of its release, it can blow away a significant portion of the building. Do you need to create your own gaze? Blow the floor off or use a sledgehammer on these apartment blocks to drop onto the enemy.
It’s very cinematic when the building’s faces are reduced to tiled rubs, especially when they are seeking evacuation from gunfire and artillery ail. But I’m worried that the thrill might disappear soon. With many former Battlefield talent heading into the final, I thought Battlefield 6 might try to meet the incredible level of destruction in that game. I’ve been sinking into the final around 500 hours, but I can confidently say that the match will not be felt repeatedly because of how the map can be dramatically reshapeed. The map itself becomes a weapon. You can play with Destruction to some extent in Battlefield 6, but EA still wants to follow some rules.
With no pieces in the main Revolution Style Set, we are worried that BF6 may not respect this important battlefield doctrine. Maps like the Empire State set in New York City coded in the game’s hardline begs to unfold something spectacular. I want to prove I’m wrong here, but as of now, Battlefield 6 hasn’t hurt that bold itch. But what it does is prove that we need a battlefield more than ever.
It’s already a much better shape performance than 2042, and hopefully it leads to the Battlefield 6 beta that starts on August 7th for those with early access. Other players can dive in from the first official beta weekend on August 9th. Most features include the banging scores pulsating with the bangs of the battlefield that shakes its spine to best-in-class sound design, each gun echoes through the hairs of its neck. The real question is whether the game’s rumoured Battle Royale mode can fix the Firestorm error, but that’s something to tackle at a different time.
For now, there’s already a frightening FPS here with a real chance to rekindle this legendary series and bring it back to the modern archer’s Pantheon, even without Revolution retreating.
