Battlefield 6 releases on October 10th with the unenviable task of being both a quality combined arms FPS, and a successful apology letter to those burned by the series’ previous missteps. To try out its multiplayer ahead of yesterday’s big reveal event, I had to pass through two separate metal detectors at the venue’s doors, which I can only assume were there to prevent infiltration by disgruntled Battlefield 2042 players armed with tins of orange paint.
Still, try it out I did, with most signs pointing towards BF6 being genuine about its promised return to Battlefield staples. The classic four classes instead of specialists. Destruction that has a point beyond spectacle. And most importantly, large-scale multivehicular warfare that isn’t nearly as organised and cinematic as the choreographed trailer.
Indeed, DICE may be jonesin’ for their fix of that Limp Bizkit mix, but BF6’s more spacious maps and modes still conjure the game flow equivalent of freestyle jazz. Could a team pull together to roll their tank into an enemy hardpoint, covered from the air by jet strafing runs and C4-laced UAV drones, while sharpshooters pick off anti-armour launchers and medics dive in to save the wounded vanguard? Maybe, the tools are all there. More likely, it’ll be chaos, with assault classes running off alone, medics ignoring freshly splattered teammates, and engineers chasing after smoking tanks that have accelerated well outside blowtorch range. In other words, good news: it’s just like Battlefield.
Not that there aren’t some refreshing touches, and probably enough that BF6 can dodge most accusations of being a stealth Battlefield 3 remaster. The option for open, class-agnostic weapon selection is proving controversial, but in practice that freedom seems to be both offered and used sensibly. I saw no ridiculous Frankenclasses where, say, a support was hanging back with a sniper rifle – most folk stick with the defaults because, quelle surprise, they’re the weapons that fit their class the best. The only time I switched, anyway, was during a tiny game of Squad Deathmatch, where I wanted a nimble SMG to fit the surroundings better than my medic’s hulking machine gun. Sue me.
Another change is the ability to drag allies backwards as you’re reviving them. I love this, disproportionately to how useful it actually is. Previous Battlefields have always enjoyed one of the more dramatic, inarguably life-saving heal systems in all of FPSdom, and even an imagined sense of pulling a partner out of danger only vivifies that “Don’t you die on me!” fantasy even further.
Meanwhile, environmental destruction has been re-rethought, encouraging more “tactical” applications of explosive wrecking (or sledgehammering) to open up new routes and ambush nearby foes. So far, the results never reach Bad Company 2 levels of ruination, and I’d say The Finals does a better job of empowering small-scale arena reshaping. Still, it’s fun when it works, and since it doesn’t technically come at the cost of being able to demolish bigger structures as well, it might better please those who were dissatisfied by 2042’s unusually resilient maps.
Naturally, destruction’s advantages explode both ways. My most interesting death of the session came during a round of the attackers-vs-defenders Breakthrough mode, when a tank, having charged the opening capture point faster than my unmechanised legs, spotted me behind a wall and began blasting speculative shells into it. After repeated misses that shaved my cover down to a few tattered pillars, a fresh hole finally lined up with my terrified body, allowing the mounted machine gunner to cut me down through it. Later that same match, I took revenge in classic Battlefield fashion by pelting their team’s favourite sniping spot – a previously quaint townhouse – with RPGs until it was nothing but bricks and shredded velour.
Breakthrough generally seems to offer the best canvas for BF6’s more creative violence. It’s big enough to get vehicles in the mix but focused enough to form distinct frontlines, giving shape and flow to the gunfights. I know Conquest is supposed to be the standard bearer for Battlefield’s combination of infantry, armour, and aerial clashes, but I’ve always found it too disjointed, too directionless, too much like a game is being played around me rather than me playing a game. I only had time for two Conquest matches in BF6, on the rocky, hilly Liberation Peak map, but I saw little in them that would change my mind.
On a micro level, however, it was terribly good fun to barrel around in trucks and tanks, all of which are imposingly weighty yet agile enough feel dynamic and powerful. It’s cute how allies can now cling to the sides too, hastily improvising over a lack of unfilled seats. On-foot gunplay is decent as well, the vast majority of shooters having a ferocious metallic bark, though the tactility of actually connecting a shot could be more distinct.
Also, while I’m not one for Battlefield’s widest wars, I’m still not buying continued attempts to have it moonlight as a close-quarters Call of Duty clone either. Even if its highly compacted Team Deathmatch and Squad Deathmatch modes did match COD’s snappiness, they just don’t let all four classes shine like the bigger ones do. Engineers must shed silent tears over the lack of vehicles to blow up or repair, and given the faster pace and tightness of the maps, it almost always seems too dangerous to stop for a revive even when playing as medic.
There is a worry, then, that BF6 risks spreading itself too thin, potentially in pursuit of those 100 million players EA are reportedly fantasising about. Simultaneously, mind, there are also reasons to be optimistic that this is a series getting itself back on track, from its renewed emphasis on breaking shit to the replacement of show-off specialists with that old unspoken rule of “Stick with your squad or perish.”
Tentatively – tentatively! – it even looks like it might ship in decent technical state. I played at 1440p with an RTX 5080-based PC, and pretty much anything will run quickly on that setup, but performance was slick and stutter-free on Ultra settings throughout. Bugs-wise, there was no falling through the floor, no floating doors left behind by destroyed frames, and – TENTATIVELY! – no elongated necks. Though, I did see a couple of corpses flop upwards in the air before collapsing back down in a limby heap, which was funny enough that I kinda hope they leave it in.