Battlefield 6 offers everything you’d want out of a Battlefield game across its multiplayer modes, even if its campaign disappoints.
No multiplayer shooter has more satisfying comeback moments than Battlefield. Modes like Conquest and Breakthrough are tailor-made so that one team can feel down and out before mounting an exhilarating comeback, surviving just long enough to win the match. The series has never lost that spark, but it has shone less brightly over the years.
For the past decade or so, the Battlefield series has felt stuck in a rut, experimenting with different eras and gameplay ideas rather than building on what worked. At launch, Battlefield 6 is making all the right moves to recapture the series’ magic. On the multiplayer front, Battlefield 6 is everything that EA needs it to be, offering both the bombastic, large-scale multiplayer modes Battlefield is known for and the more intimate and intense modes that will appeal to a Call of Duty player.
It’s unfortunately let down by one of the worst campaigns I’ve played in a shooter in recent memory, one that balks at the opportunity to offer that classic Battlefield feel. The campaign is a noticeable blemish in a Battlefield that otherwise gets the series’ groove back, but if what you’re looking for is a new content-rich multiplayer shooter that rivals Call of Duty, Battlefield 6 is the most worthy alternative in years.
Battlefield 6launches for PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5 on October 10. The game can achieve better frame rates at higher resolutions when played on thePS5 Pro.Battlefield 6will be available both digitally and physically, and there are two editions of the game:
Battlefield 6 understands what makes this series great
The massive scale of Battlefield remains unrivaled
In my eyes, three things set Battlefield apart from its genre peers: the classes, the emphasis on destruction, and the massive scale of the battles and maps. Battlefield 6 excels at all of those things. While slower-paced than something like Call of Duty, the game feel of Battlefield 6 is clearly refined and user-tested to maximize enjoyment. The progression treadmill is also lengthy, with plenty of challenges to complete and levels to level up right from the start.
You feel like you’re leaving an impact, no matter what class you’re playing as. While Battlefield 2042 initially didn’t have the class system, it’s back in all its classic glory from the start here. You choose between Assault, Recon, Support, or Engineer, and your loadout and skills in battle are adjusted accordingly. I typically stuck with the Assault class, as I wanted to have the best chance at survival in a fight.
However, if my team were struggling, I would switch to the support role and focus on reviving my teammates. Each class’s unique skill set is useful in some part of larger-scale modes. Battlefield 6’s multiplayer maps are large enough to handle massive player lobbies, but still effectively funnel players into key choke points where the matches get really intense. Players can also patrol the maps with tanks and other powerful vehicles, making matches even more chaotic.
Being able to drag your teammates away and heal them adds another strategic layer to these battles, too, as every life truly feels like it counts in matches where one side has a limited number of them. Matches can also feel dynamic due to the amount of destruction players can leave behind.
Although Battlefield 6’s destruction system isn’t as all-encompassing as a game like The Finals, player actions still have a tangible enough impact on each map to the point where they truly look like war-torn battlefields at the end of a match.
