Battlefield 6 feels like a battle cry from EA. It’s being developed by the newly dubbed Battlefield Studios, which is made up of DICE, Criterion, Ripple Effect, and MOTIVE, and it’s clear that everything and the kitchen sink is being thrown at this game.
The sequel is everything that fans have been asking for: it’s going for a modern setting, harking back to the Battlefield 4 era of the franchise; its multiplayer will launch with nine maps which span the globe, and even feature the return of a fan favourite from Battlefield 3 ; it’ll have a full campaign, and; it’s even bringing back a vastly improved Battlefield Portal.
Our session with the game pertained to the multiplayer, where we played a variety of modes including Conquest and Squad Deathmatch. The immediate thing that struck us was how much more tactile the whole thing feels. After the somewhat floaty gameplay of Battlefield 2042 , Battlefield 6 has its boots firmly on the ground.
There is a weightiness to movement, and you feel it through every mantle, slide, or dive. How you handle your guns has been revamped too with a Call of Duty -like lean on corners and ledges. It feels incredibly dynamic, and it actually added to the tactical chaos that Battlefield has always done so well.
That heft to the movement system also carries over to the weapons, which feel far more punchy – explosively immersive haptics on the DualSense help with this. Battlefield 6 sees the return of the proper class system, and across the assault rifles, SMGs, marksman rifles, and LMGs that we used, each had their own feel.
We only had access to the default version of each weapon class, but we did fiddle with the game’s loadout customisation. Featuring its own version of the Pick 10 system from Call of Duty, you can mix and match optics, extended mags, barrels, attachments, and all sorts. It’s a shame the on-the-fly customisation from 2042 hasn’t made its way over – we quite liked that feature – but there’s clearly room to make each weapon your own.
You’ll need a variety of loadouts too across the game’s different modes. You have your large scale stuff like Conquest and Breakthrough, which were the all-out warfare experience we were hoping they would be. But we actually really enjoyed some of the smaller scale modes. You have your usuals like King of the Hill, Domination, and Team Deathmatch, but we actually really liked the Squad Deathmatch which tasked four teams of four with reaching 50 kills.
With maps spanning the globe, including a mountainous region of Tirjikistan and even the streets of New York, there's a great visual aesthetic to each. But we really love the design of these maps, which allow for larger sniper valleys and tight bottlenecks. The maps are tuned and adjusted for each mode, so it doesn’t feel like some random bit of a bigger map, but a custom area made for a particular mode.
But the maps take on a whole new layer of enjoyment thanks to what EA is calling Tactical Destruction. It’s not as dynamic as what you’d find in The Finals as there are still walls or buildings that can’t be destroyed. However, when walls and floors come crumbling down it is just bloody cool.
The destruction visuals are incredibly immersive as smoke billows and parts of walls and floors bounce around you. However, from a tactical perspective it allows you to destroy the face of a building to get rid of enemy cover, drop down on unsuspecting enemies by destroying floors, and completely collapsing some structures like bridges and walkways. It really mixes up combat encounters, and we loved how it could create new pathways or layouts too as the rubble settled.
Our only issue with the destruction is that there's no real delineation – that we could tell – between what could or could not be destroyed. There were a few times we thought we were being smart and getting the drop on enemies but walls were seemingly indestructible. We reckon a bit more time with the game would have helped us understand the design language on destruction, but it was likely our biggest issue with the game during our session.
However, when the dust flies and rubble scatters, it all works towards achieving what Battlefield does best: cinematic, action-packed chaos. As you would expect, sound design is unlike any other shooter on the market, as jets and rockets whizz by, buildings fall apart, and bullets ricochet all around you. The amount of awesome little moments we had, even when we were getting our ass handed to us, reminded us of why we love Battlefield so much in the first place.
It also looks and runs great on PS5. We had no noticeable dips in performance during our session, and the fidelity was genuinely impressive. There are so many particles and effects yet we never struggled with visibility on enemies – a problem we’ve had with some large scale shooters, including previous Battlefields. We can’t wait to see what enhancements the PS5 Pro version of the game will bring.
As our time with Battlefield 6 came to a close we felt that itching for a big old session. It reminded us of the glory days of Battlefield 3 and Battlefield 4. We’ve yet to see how the game will deal with post-launch support, and we obviously haven’t seen much of Portal and the campaign. But the multiplayer alone is enough for us to get excited. It’s bombastic, it’s cinematic, it’s invigorating, and most importantly of all, it’s classic Battlefield to a tee. Battlefield 6 may just be the Battlefield game we’ve been hoping for.
Are you a believer in Battlefield 6? Will you be trying out the upcoming Battlefield 6 beta
