There’s bullets flying past my ear, puncturing the smoke and sandbags around me. A tank explodes and its turret springs into the air, tearing apart a building as it crashes to the ground. Jets are careering through the sky somewhere to my left. A squad mate is begging me to revive them to my right. I’m scared and I’m lying in the dirt, rethinking my tactic of a direct assault. It’s a familiar feeling in Battlefield 6.

I’m pinging shots just past an enemy’s ear as they huddle behind a pile of sandbags. My squad mate just demo’d a tank with an RPG, and the explosion levelled the surrounding cover, leaving a spawning squad exposed to my LMG fire. Quad Kill. The rest of the building gets blown to bits by a strafe from a jet that’s spiraling through the air. My squad mate just spawned on me and pings us to move to protect the objective. I’m smiling and having the time of my life. It’s an equally familiar feeling in Battlefield 6.

I think it’s fair to say that for the past decade, the Battlefield series has been having an identity crisis. The staple of the series – chaotic battles on massive, ever-evolving battle fronts – has always been there, sure. It has however felt like the setting of each game has arrived just a little too late to really capture the cultural zeitgeist. From the ‘war on crime’ of Hardline, the historic battles of V & 1, to the futuristic warfare of 2042, the games haven’t quite fully realised their potential. Results have varied. Quality has been inconsistent. The narratives have stopped short of igniting the imagination. I imagine equal parts luck and judgement have been involved in the making of Battlefield 6 then; a game that arrives exactly when it needs to.

“Boots on the Ground”

Battlefield 6 feels like the foil to the other big budget shooters of recent times, and those of the near future. With other FPS titles opting for sci-fi, futuristic combat or fantasy elements, this game has gone for the modern-day, ‘boots on the ground’ approach. Set in the near future (2027 and 2028, to be exact), the settings, weaponry, vehicles and equipment are modern, but not futuristic. You’ll be fighting in places you recognise, how you recognise them, using weapons that look similar to those you can buy from an aisle of Walmart (I’m guessing, I’m from the UK).

This all lends itself to the emersion that Battlefield 6 painstakingly builds around the player via deceptively impressive tech and an art style that’s inspired by reality. No matter what part of the game you’re playing, single or multiplayer, this title gives you the tools to do the job, and makes you feel like you’re grinding out a victory in a frenzied warzone. It’s not realistic, despite the modern military dressing, but that doesn’t matter. It’s a ‘hoo-rah’ marine power trip simulator that’ll put a glint in your eye, ‘Oscar Mike’ on your lips, and sweat on your thumb sticks.

Battlefield 6 – The Campaign

The single player campaign for Battlefield 6 puts you in the mud-covered-shoes of the members of Dagger 1-3, a US marine squad attached to NATO. A private military company, Pax Armata (which means ‘peace through force’), has upset the global political status quo by attacking NATO. Suddenly armed to the teeth with cutting edge weaponry, Pax have expanded globally and old allies are suddenly questioning their safety. The Dagger 1-3 squad, through some blind luck and some pulling of strings from the shadows, get stationed on the front line to fight back against Pax Armata, wherever they are needed.

Much of the campaign is played out retrospectively; as the team piece together a conspiracy, they recount missions they’ve been on over the past year. Each mission adds another piece to the jigsaw of the overarching story that’s a nice diversion from the usual tale of ‘terrorist is bad, attacks America’ that you get in military shooters. By replaying these missions as memories, the game also avoids the dissonance of the time travelling protagonist that manages to jet around the world in a matter of hours.

You will be travelling the globe in Battlefield 6’s campaign, and the developers have chosen some iconic and unique places to do battle. The campaign starts in a military base in Georgia (the country, not the state), which is admittedly the blandest location in the game. From here however, everything improves. Battling along Egyptian highways, fire fights in Brooklyn subways, skirmishes across the rock of Gibraltar and hoofing it across the foothills of Tajikistan are all highlights of this game.

Fields of Battle

One of the most impressive elements of Battlefield 6’s campaign is how the action is tailored to the unique elements of each location. An example; the sections of the game set in Brooklyn initially have you fighting through the tight 4 story limestone houses of Stuyvesant Heights that eventually devolve into a block battle as you fire across the street and the homes opposite. Tajikistan, known for its picturesque rolling hills and mountain ranges, is home to the most open mission, backed by some stunning scenery that looks exactly like what you’ll find if you Google the country. It’s as though the developers picked the locations they wanted to fight through and then designed encounters around making the most of the architecture and properties of the area, leading to a wide variety of combat types.

Each mission is curated to encourage a different type of game play experience. A waypoint points you where to go, and an on screen objective tells you what to do, and if you follow these directions, the game will hand hold you through its explosive, adrenaline pumping set pieces. There’s not a lot of freedom to do anything other than what the game is demanding you do, but there are options. For example, a character might be shouting “Get on that MG!”, indicating the very obvious machine gun conveniently set up to mow down the waves on Pax heading your way. The game wants you to do the fun thing. You don’t need to use the MG however. You can just hang back and snipe the enemies from a far if that’s what you would prefer. So long as the result is the same, Battlefield 6’s campaign allows for a little bit of experimentation.

Dagger 1-3, Oscar Mike

Despite a concerted effort to give its characters depth and impetus to fight, Battlefield 6 still has a plot driven narrative rather than a character driven one. The protagonists are likeable, and have a modicum of development as the game progresses, but they still could be classed as military jargon-spouting caricatures of US Marines. Similarly, the antagonists Pax Armata are faceless villains with unclear motivations for much of the game. While the game will have you witnessing some pretty harrowing stuff, these act as motivation for the player rather than the characters of the game, as the Marines just keep fighting for the most part. If you’re playing Battlefield 6 for nuanced characters, you’ll leave the campaign disappointed.

I’d also go as far as to say that the plot and characters of Battlefield 6 are ‘safe’ choices. There’s no equivalent to ‘No Russian’ here. The game doesn’t have any biting social commentary on the military complex, on world politics, or… anything really. The villains do violent, evil things, but their motivations don’t feel rooted in anything ‘real’.

And, honestly, none of those narrative shortcomings matters to the overall enjoyment that can be had with Battlefield 6’s campaign. They all blend into a joyous blur of explosions and bullets, putting the player in the centre of it. As your tank is taking yet another shell from the enemy armour, when you’re pinned down behind a mound of dirt fighting for your life, when you’re dropping bombs from a drone onto foes that are reloading their RPG, the narrative is the last thing you’re thinking about. When the action is as exciting and as consistent as it is in this campaign, paper thin characters can be forgiven.

Always Forward

If you’re playing the Battlefield 6 campaign on its easiest setting, you’ll probably get through it in around 5 hours. That’s because it becomes little more than a shooting gallery. It’s on the higher settings where things really get exciting however. The challenge awaiting in the harder modes (especially the most difficult, which removes the ability to be revived) really brings the action to life. There’s stakes and danger in these modes, and while the AI of the enemies could never be described as ‘smart’, they will put you in the ground if you don’t cover your angles. It took me 8 hours to complete the campaign on the normal difficulty. I’ve yet to finish it on the hardest difficulty, but I’m still coming back for more.

To summarise then, the Battlefield 6 campaign isn’t perfect, but it does what it sets out to do incredibly well. Propelling you across iconic locations, it’s an immersive experience that has you move from skirmish to skirmish with such high production values that’s it’s hard to care about why you’re doing it in the first place. If you’re in the market for a shooter that just wants you to shoot things, this campaign does that with finesse.

Battlefield 6 – The Multiplayer

If Battlefield 6’s campaign is the carefully curated art gallery that guides you through an experience, the multiplayer is the blank canvas sat next to a stockpile of paints and brushes just begging for you to paint. It’s a game play mode that says ‘Here are your objectives. Complete them however you see fit’.

With a smorgasbord of modes designed to cater to all types of player (and time available), it’s a very meaty offering. If you’ve played the campaign before jumping into the multiplayer, you may recognise some maps and locations in the game. The tight streets that make way to grass filled courtyards are the stars of ‘Iberian Offensive’, set in Gibraltar. ‘The Siege of Cairo’ has wide streets catering for tanks and snipers surrounded by a maze of gullies for those that like to get up close and personal. The largest map is ‘Mirak Valley’, with war torn houses and trenches dug either side of a main carriageway that runs the length of the map. There are 9 maps in total as of writing, which are often chunked up for the game play modes tailored to more close quarters combat.

Depending on how you like to play, and what type of role you prefer to play as, you’ll likely gravitate towards particular maps as your favourites. I usually have a hard time when playing on Mirak Valley as I tend to play as a support player. Clad with a LMG, I struggle to pick up long range kills without getting my melon popped by a sniper. On the other hand, I always have a good time on Liberation Peak, which puts waves of enemies right in my range. It certainly feels like the developers have designed these maps to try and cater to every type of player, but some of them will benefit certain types of player during certain sections.

I Need A Medic!

I’ll be honest, having most recently played a lot of other shooters, it took me a few hours to readjust to the Battlefield formula. The game play is slower than most other shooters released in the past few years. More ponderous and deliberate. It’s not as snappy from hip fire to ADS. The recoil and bloom on weapons takes a lot of getting used too, especially using the stock weapons you start with before unlocking customisations. It’s a more deliberate and strategic game compared to the likes of Call of Duty or FragPunk. It won’t be for everyone, but give it time, and it’ll grow on you.

One aspect that Battlefield 6 does better than anything else on the market is to make you feel like part of a squad with a common goal. Going out into the front lines alone and racking up dozens of kills won’t win you the day in the vast majority of game play modes. It’s more about capturing and controlling areas than having a positive K/D ratio. Try as you might, doing that alone is near impossible.

Thankfully, you have a squad around you. Each squad member can choose between 4 different roles, each with their own set of aesthetic advantages, weapon specialisation, gadgets and perks. Assault are your rush-type characters – using their gadgets to alter the battlefield, like putting up a ladder to avoid a pinch point or simply blowing through a wall, they’re there to force the issue. Engineers are designed to support your own vehicles and undermine the enemy armour. With a handy blow torch, they can repair damaged tanks, and when foes approach, they can level them with an array of explosives. Support squad members are here to increase your teams longevity. With pop up cover, a defib that’ll instantly revive downed allies and supply packs to rearm those holding the line, they keep you fighting for objectives for longer. Finally, there’s Recon. Designed to give you a strategic advantage, they can highlight enemies to their allies while hiding from afar.

There’s no hard restrictions on these roles. If one of your other squad mates is playing as Assault, there’s nothing stopping you from choosing Assault too, for example. In fact, squads work better when they flex to the situation. When a tank roles up to the objective and sits on it, everyone staying as Recon or Assault won’t win you the match. Switching to Engineer when you next die and then raining down missiles upon the tank is a better move.

You’re also rewarded with more experience when helping your squad to achieve goals. Revive or restock your squad as a Support, for example, and you’ll get bonus experience. When you’re not engaged in combat, your squad mates can spawn in on your location, giving them something of a forward operating base. When a squad works in harmony, even when you’re not on microphones, it’s a truly glorious thing to be involved in. Slapping down some pop-up cover to revive a team mate whom immediately starts to fire off at the foe that downed them just feels fantastic. There’s also something truly beautiful in ‘painting’ helicopter targets with the Recon, only to watch as your squad mate who’s flying a Jet blow them out of the sky.

The squad based gameplay is ingrained into everything that Battlefield 6 does, and encourages teamwork with every facet. Even the round up screen at the end of each match portrays how squads have performed, rather than individuals. You can see individual match scores, but they’re an additional button press and not shown as standard.

Operation: Oh My Lawd! Did You See That?

Battlefield 6’s multiplayer is a playground that is designed to provide minute to minute experiences that might be entirely unique to that game. As the pressure on objectives ebb and flow, you’ll have to constantly adjust to the changing conditions. Buildings will get flattened. Walls that were decent cover a few moments ago will lie on the ground, leaving you open to fire. Roads you previously sped down might be covered in mines the next time you attempt it. High spots might have been safe havens a moment ago, but now the enemies hold it, and your team is getting picked apart by a top class sniper. The helicopter you crashed into an objective could be used as cover the next time you approach.

All of this is held together with some incredible tech under the hood. Firstly, the game is an absolute beauty to look at. Screenshots don’t really do it justice, because in motion, Battlefield 6 looks incredibly realistic. The game has a level of detail that’s rare in multiplayer shooters these days. Mud will splatter up from the floor as bullets land – while that’s not particularly impressive in itself, if your face is close enough to these splatters, it’ll stick to the screen. Troops leave foot prints in obviously soggy ground, leaving trails for you to follow. Explosions look like they do in the movies; Not realistic per se, but impressive nonetheless.

Then there’s the physics being utilised, and how the world interacts to other objects. This is a forgiving engine, and a lot of smart decisions have been made on what should and shouldn’t stop bullets, tanks and vehicles from progressing. The game strikes a remarkable balance between reality and what is fun.

Finally, there’s the audio. This game is an absolute masterclass in first person shooter sound design. Sniper shots that whistle past your ear change based on their proximity to you. You’ll hear the crack of the sniper rifle going off, and if it’s really close to your ears, you’ll know it by the tone. If you land a headshot however, there’s this really satisfying crunch sound effect that’ll I’ll never tire of. Get shellshocked and that high pitch squeal that has been made iconic by the movies chimes in, pushing all the gun fire and commotion around you out of earshot. One surprising element is the music; the vast majority of every fight is played without a soundtrack, but towards the end of each battle, a rousing tune starts to play. It starts to frame the game play like a crescendo. I’d be lying if I hadn’t found myself feeling just that little bit more tense when the music starts.

All of this impressive tech works incredibly well. Most of the time. With so much going on at any one time, I have seen some peculiar things happening during my 25 hours on the Multiplayer. For example, when I joined one battle that was already in progress, all of the vehicles, both destroyed and new, were floating off the map. In another battle, I managed to clip out of the map and fell into a blank nothingness below. These glitches are rare, but I still think they’re worth mentioning.

Big Battle, Small Battle, Cardboard Box

In terms of content, it’s clear that Battlefield 6 is here for the long haul. The 9 maps in the game can be played in different modes, each presenting a different challenge. The FPS staple Team Deathmatch is present and correct, played on smaller portions of the larger maps. This is joined my squad deathmatch, which has you compete against over groups of 4 to try and hit a score target. The Attack and Defend modes split the players down the middle, and have each team protect of assault objectives. The twist here is that the attackers have a limited number of respawns for each objective, while the defenders can respawn as many times as they need to. There’s also the returning Domination mode, that has you capture areas across the full map, with full access to an array of vehicles. The longer you can capture and hold objective zones for, combined with how well the rest of your team is performing across the map, the quicker you can score points. However you want to play, Battlefield 6 has something here to keep you busy.

And if you want to unlock everything that Battlefield 6 has to offer, you’re going to be playing for a long time. That’s because the progression system is brutal. Character and weapon skins are locked behind staged challenges with individual goals for each step. These are objectives such as “Heal X number of teammates while on unfriendly objectives” or “Do Y amount of damage with Sniper Rifle Y”. These steps unlock sequentially, so even if you hit the unlock conditions for step 2 of a challenge, you won’t contribute to it until you’ve completed step 1. These challenges are clearly designed for the core player group that’ll be playing Battlefield 6 for months, maybe years from now.

Battlefield 6’s multiplayer certainly feels like the solid foundation for a game that might last that long. Even when you’re losing, this is still a game you can have fun with because of how chaotic and cinematic it feels. Dying repeatedly, or falling foul to the few glitches in the game is frustrating, but when you next respawn and you manage to flank the enemy and pull off something audacious, all is forgiven.

Battlefield 6 – The Verdict

It’s a bold statement but I’m going to say it anyway – Battlefield 6 is the best this series has been since Battlefield Bad Company 2. The campaign isn’t going to win any awards for narrative excellence, it’s a little rough around the edges and its multiplayer progression system might grate on casual players. In the grand scheme of things, these are tiny blemishes on what is otherwise a very impressive, enjoyable and fun game. Most of these blemishes are things that will likely get fixed in time too. This is a game that knows what it is, and does that one thing incredibly well.

It’s beautiful. It’s gloriously fun. It sounds superb. Battlefield is back.

Battlefield 6 is out now on PS5 (review platform), Xbox and PC via Steam.

Developer: Battlefield Studios / EA
Publisher: EA

Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.

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