The teams behind crafting Battlefield 6 leaned heavily on the community to build it from the ground up, and its sturdier than the foundations the prior games were built on. This is a game that’s serious in tone but isn’t afraid to have fun. I sure hope you like explosions, because during any given match there’s at least one going off every five seconds that’s sure to rattle your headset or speaker setup. It’s beautiful bedlam on display without compromise. Battlefield 6 hits all the right notes with its wanton destruction, hallmark chaos, and above all is a game built by fans, for fans.
Campaign
War! A conflict has been brewing and has now spilt over between the hesitating NATO and the newly formed baddies through the Pax Armata in the year 2028. The story revolves around this conflict, the moving pieces around it, and the threat that the world faces as the doomsday clock reaches closer to midnight. On the NATO side of things is Dagger 13, a squad of Marine Raiders saddled with the toughest job, to stop the clock from ticking closer to destruction. Told via medias res, we bounce between the past and present as the story catches up to the present while we play through nine missions of bombast and incredibly cool set pieces and action.
For the first time, Battlefield 6 is where the conflict comes home, and it’s the most invested I’ve been in a Battlefield campaign since Bad Company 2. The first mission, “Always Faithful” is the igniting event that kicks things into motion, and it serves as a tutorial and sets the stakes for what’s to come. Each mission is memorable in its own right, but it isn’t until “Night Ops” that you get a feeling of déjà vu like that one level in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare as you wear nods going through a narrow townhouse looking for soldiers. There’s a twist here so it doesn’t copy that level beat for beat. You’ll fight across deserts, mountaintops, in subways, and more for a globe-trotting adventure. To preserve spoilers of when and where this happens, just know that the game has an obligatory tank level that is an aural and visual splendor. I also can’t help but mention the fact that one mission that takes place in Tajikistan feels like a level straight out of Bad Company 2 with multiple objectives and a wide-open playground to complete them how you like, and it’s all varied and interesting from start to finish.
Campaign (cont’d)
Your squad is a well-oiled machine, diverse and extremely capable. The five members of Dagger 13 are like more serious versions of the Bad Company crew. Learning how they behave in these extremely tense situations allows you to see each of their personalities on true display during cutscenes. You form a kind of bond, and care for their well-being throughout. The campaign of Battlefield 6 is not without its tropes and cliches. Often times your transport will be blown up before you can get on it, or there’s a false escape, or characters will be in mortal danger more times than you can count; but it’s all exhilarating watching it all play out.
A squad wheel will let you enact squad tactics that operate on a cooldown where you can direct squad members to engage all enemies in the vicinity, or even throw smoke grenades for cover,. It’s not a sophisticated system, but lets you feel like the team leader, taking control the battlefield as you work to complete your objectives. In the event that you are downed, the game shows mercy but allowing squad mates revive you with defibrillators, though these are limited in quantity but can’t be restocked during certain points of a level. There are four difficulties to play the game (recruit, regular, veteran, and hardcore), and I rolled credits just under six hours on the regular setting. While I prefer games to be on the shorter side of things, I actually wanted more to see and do with Dagger 13.
The campaign has many emergent moments. There was a time where a vehicle transport rolled up, and I threw a grenade at it, I got shot and was down-but-not-out, I got revived by a squad mate, and then shot an RPG underneath another vehicle to blow up the enemy transport and the enemies nearby. And this was during a story mission, allowing to make your own “Battlefield moments” even in single player. There’s also some little details to appreciate. For instance, during the tank mission, the game starts you in the third-person perspective. The person briefing you sounds over the radio. Switch to first-person, and now you’re able to hear him clearly as he’s talking in your ear from inside the tank with you.
Campaign (concl.)
I did encounter a few bugs during the campaign, things like squad stacking up on doors and running in place, or the voice over being out of sync with facial animations. Perhaps the worst of it was the enemy AI. At times they would be going about their scripting, not reacting to me or the goings on around them, disconnecting me from the experience. None of these were major issues, and restarting the checkpoint would fix it. The campaign is not something I would consider unfinished, but it does lack polish in some areas if it was given just a little more time.
There’s not much in the way of extras to see and do, but there are collectibles in the form of dog-tags you can pick-up during each mission for a total of thirty in all. The game helps track these for you, and doing so nets you rewards and unlocks to be used for multiplayer. So there’s a worthwhile incentive to play through the campaign, and thoroughly, even if you’re someone who traditionally doesn’t play story missions.
There’s several hints at prior games to be a subtle “greatest hits” throughout your time in the campaign. The story comes to a spectacular crescendo to be one of my favorite shooter campaigns, and certainly Battlefield‘s best. I’m now eager for more stories around this crew and in this setting to be told.
Multiplayer
This is what you’re here for, and there’s plenty to see and do whether you’re a veteran of the series or a recruit just finding their footing in multiplayer. While I enjoyed Battlefield 2042, it was too big and bold for its own good, and not something I stuck with long-term. With Battlefield 6, the maximum number of players for a given map or mode is back to 64-players, feeling just right right for the chaos that ensues. Specialists, or “operators” are out, meaning that teamplay is back at the forefront of the experience, and it’s what makes Battlefield, Battlefield.
There are four classes: Assault, Support, Engineer, Recon. The aforementioned teamplay is paramount because Assault can’t fight alone, as they will run out of ammo quickly and needs Support within reach. Every soldier that is killed drops their kit, and if you find yourself alive without ammo, you’re only a button press away from picking someone else’s kit and continuing to fight. Support is great at helping others to serve as a combat medic and provide ammo, all while laying suppressive fire with LMGs, but has no way to deal with vehicles. Engineers are great to get rid of vehicles, but are vulnerable to prolonged gunfights and needs the Support class to replenish their explosives. Lastly, Recon is great for spotting, lasing targets, and picking off players that are nearing the objective. But Recon are susceptible to being snuck up on if they aren’t careful. I’m just so glad each class compliments at least one other, allowing you to work together with a complete stranger.
Multiplayer (cont’d)
The weapon selection is plentiful for Battlefield 6, offering assault rifles, carbines, SMGs, LMGs, DMRs, sniper rifles, and shotguns as primary selections. For secondaries, that selection is a bit pared down, but there are a good number of pistols to switch to that can be leveled up. And with many seasons ahead of this game, this roster of weapons are sure to grow in no time. Weapons can be fully customized for their attachments that introduce stat changes to things like mobility, stability, and recoil. Then you can apply camouflage you’ve unlocked or skins you’ve acquired. Lastly charms and stickers can be placed for added personal flair. There are also packages which offer pre-built guns that may have attachments available that you haven’t otherwise unlocked yourself. Lastly, you can favorite your go-to weapons for easy access when customizing a loadout for ease-of-use later. Each character class has a selection of gadgets to choose from, but most are locked from the start and must be unlocked either through challenges or leveling up the class. It’s cool to see returning favorites like the Engineer’s EOD bot and the Recon’s motion sensor.
There’s a wide range of vehicles, from transport to combat. You’ll ride ATVs to get you from flag to flag, or larger transports have a mounted gun that can plow the road. Then tanks and anti-air vehicles become available to swat the flies in the sky. Helicopters offer transports with miniguns attached and little birds with rocket pods for devastating flyovers. And the game wouldn’t be complete if there weren’t jets for that allow for some truly hair-raising dogfights. Jets also allow you to perform the difficult “rendezook”, the maneuvering which you eject from your jet, shoot a rocket launcher at an enemy vehicle, and then get back in your jet for one of those most stylish things you can do.
Multiplayer (cont’d)
Battlefield 6 sees the return of all its modes you’d expect: Conquest, Rush, Breakthrough, Domination, Squad Deathmatch, and Team Deathmatch. Conquest is the tried-and-true mode of battle over a number of points to whittle down the enemy’s tickets to zero. Rush is a hotly contested attack and defend mode of arming (or disarming) M-COM stations to blow until they’ve all been destroyed or the attacking force has been depleted of forces. New to the game is Escalation, where teams fight over capture points, and as territory is taken, capture points start being removed from the map. This begins to funnel players and increase the tension until a winner is decided. It’s a fun twist on other modes that utilize everything a team to their fullest, requiring utmost teamwork. There’s a search to filter which maps and modes you want to play, but in the event they aren’t available, the game will find something for you to play even if it doesn’t fit that criteria that you had set. The lauded server browser is present so that you find exactly what game and map you want to play without any matchmaking or guessing.
There are nine maps available at launch, and on the whole all the maps are good, with some great ones in the mix. Most maps lack the verticality compared to their predecessors. So you won’t be taking elevators to run along the rooftops of skyscrapers, but I do that comes in time. There’s also no water combat or one side launching off a carrier. Empire State and Manhattan Bridge have you running through famous New York locales through city streets, destroyed coffee shops, back alleys, and more. New Sobek City is so new it never got finished, and playing through half-built buildings and construction equipment leads to some tense firefights. Saints Quarter is a small, but lavish map that loses its color as the battle rages. Siege of Cairo is a beta map, but its accordion effect design of channeling you through open to closed and back to open areas to each objective. Operation Firestorm returns, this remake of the Battlefield 3 map is still great and gorgeous as ever, re-cementing itself as a classic in 2025.
One of the standout new features with multiplayer, regardless of class is that you can now drag and revive teammates. When reviving a squadmate or teammate, you can now drag them out of the line of fire to help not only them, but you as well, avoiding an unnecessary death. There’s no “levelution” or scripted events, only emergent destruction where one C4 explosive could take out the floor beneath your enemy allowing you to shotgun them in face, topple rubble onto an unsuspecting player, or outright level a building completely. The multiplayer is visceral, and just a cacophony of explosions. Everything you do in the game earns experience. You’ll be progressing challenges, levels, and mastery tiers. You’ll earn badges for your efforts, from Bronze to Silver to Gold to Platinum to Elite. While I would say the treadmill of all of Battlefield 6‘s progression is slow, it’s steady.
Multiplayer (cont’d)
During this review period, the new version of Portal was unavailable to utilize it’s creation tools. I was able to play modes created by Battlefield Studios with it, like ‘Hardcore Rush’, but no one was able to actually get hands-on with it. The team notes that it will still be coming at launch. Utilizing the Godot engine, you can have a whole new way to create modes, maps, and script the specific experience you envision. It’s seemingly a limitless creation suite as you’ll have a whole development tool.
New this time around is that you can now have one persistent server running with or without you playing, showcasing your favorite experience at all times. Additionally, by default everything in Portal earns experience and continues progression on anything you might be working on in the traditional multiplayer modes. I think there’s something to be said about playing “your favorite game” the way you want.
From what I can tell, this new version of Portal seems less focused on recreating experiences based on prior Battlefield games like we saw with Battlefield 2042.
Multiplayer (concl.)
The development team has opted for open weapons for most of the playlists and modes, meaning all weapons can be used with any class. Now, weapons are signified as “signature” weapons for each class. Now, there are some playlists dedicated to closed weapons that restricts weapons to the class that they are intended, and while I maintain it’s my personal preference to have it that way. I think you’ll find a much more balanced game as a result. Aside from that odd design decision, it’s well worth the price of admission to be your new favorite multiplayer game.
One of my least favorite things about this game is its menu. The overall user experience is confusing, cluttered, and offset with this Netflix design that I can’t get behind. It doesn’t use space wisely, and there’s lots of useless scrolling just to find something, it’s in a serious need of a rework. Now once you’re in the game, a lot of this falls by the wayside and becomes less problematic, but I wish it were better.
Negatives aside, I absolutely love the multiplayer component here. It has freedom of choice, and a plethora of modes for you and your squad to find, play, and rotate through. With the series essentially returning to a modern combat setting, means I can finally uninstall Battlefield 4 after 12 years of service. Battlefield 6 rightfully takes the throne to be the new king, and it rules.
My settings for the game were set to the highest (High, Ultra, or Overkill depending), and I used DLSS with DLAA selected alongside Frame Generation enabled. For the single player, I was getting 160-170fps on average. Everything about the campaign is gorgeous, and most of the time the characters look good, until they don’t. And usually this was the lighting that would dictate that. In multiplayer, this could range depending on a lot of factors, so I was seeing everything from 90-170fps when playing. My time with the game was played with the latest NVIDIA drivers available: version 581.42. While this game uses technologies that assist in increasing performance, it still manages to look as good as it plays. It’s clear the team was focused on striking a balance on both quality and performance, and they succeeded in that.
My PC Specs:
– Microsoft Windows 11 Pro
– Intel Core i9 13900K @ 5.8GHz
– ASUS ROG RYUJIN II 360 ARGB AIO Liquid CPU Cooler
– G.SKILL TRIDENT Z5 6000MHZ 64GB (32×2) DDR5 RAM
– ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4080 16GB GDDR6X
– WD_BLACK SN850X M.2 (8 TB)
– LG UltraGear 34GP950B-G (21:9 Ultrawide @ 3440×1440)
Unlike many of the games in the series that have come before, Battlefield 6 is ready. While there’s a few bugs, none of it was impactful or detracts from the overall experience. This features one of the best Battlefield campaigns I’ve played. Multiplayer is focused, fun, and full of all the elements it is well-known for. Maybe I’m just an old, but Battlefield 6 has filled me with both joy and nostalgia of series’ past, though it doesn’t rest on either to be compelling. This is a new game that respects its past and embraces its future. Battlefield is back. Battlefield 6 is the sequel to Battlefield 4 that you’ve been waiting for since 2013.
A Steam code for the Phantom Edition was provided in advance by the EA for review purposes
