Battlefield 6 Review

Following Battlefield 2042’s weak launch back in late 2021 and the ensuing madcap rush to fix as much as possible, the series’ reputation was in the mud and imagining a future in which EA and DICE successfully brought Battlefield back from almost going extinct was hard. Four years later, 2042 has been mostly turned around and Battlefield 6 can already be considered a hit large enough to threaten Call of Duty’s dominance in the military FPS space.

On paper, it all looks like a best-case scenario, and if you strictly focus on the best-in-class multiplayer experience, it definitely is. Battlefield 6 has a long road ahead. It’s hard to ignore all the surrounding noise which makes this launch bittersweet for both EA and conscious gamers though.

For starters, EA is set to be acquired by a number of private entities; even more layoffs are on the horizon with a chance of studio closures to pay off a $20 billion debt. Second, the politics and interests of those same entities raise a number of concerns regarding the creative integrity (or even survivability) of numerous franchises and studios under EA’s massive umbrella. Third, with problems brewing in the US, NATO struggling to make a solid stand against unhinged world leaders, and the Ukraine-Russia and Israel-Palestine conflicts (among others) reminding the entire planet of past horrors, stomaching a vapid jingoistic single-player campaign is much harder.

Only the latter has an actual effect on Battlefield 6’s contents, which consciously make a calculated return to the ‘past glory days’ of the late 2000s and early 2010s by chasing the boots-on-the-ground, gritty modern warfare experience popularized by BF3/4 and the original CoD: Modern Warfare games. Battlefield Studios (DICE, Motive, Criterion, and Ripple Effect), under the leadership of Respawn’s Vince Zampella (a CoD veteran), clearly have the required combined expertise to make the complete package weighty and convincing where it matters most, yet all those resources and talent haven’t been able to crack a show-stopping story mode worth anyone’s time.

It turns out Battlefield’s answer to the difficult geopolitical climate we’ve been enduring since early 2022 was to go extremely soft with BF6’s writing and very premise: As the NATO briefly falters, a private military company with seemingly bottomless funds, the Pax Armata, starts invading a number of European and Near East countries, threatening the authority of the United States and its NATO allies. By and large, Pax Armata serves the same purpose as the fictionalized Russian and Chinese factions that we faced in the old BF entries. In practice, this cowardly creative direction (past eras of global upheaval didn’t make artists this afraid of using whoever as bad guys) doesn’t change a lot. Most of the eyebrow-raising narrative beats in past Battlefield and CoD campaigns have come from the America/NATO side of things, actually, with the glorifying of interventionism at the center of all the normalized ickiness.

Battlefield 6’s campaign still has plenty of that. It just seems more subsided due to the faceless, flag-less goons of Pax Armata being the ones relentlessly mowed down over the course of the 5-to-6-hour rollercoaster ride. It’s only towards the end that BF6 goes and raises a couple of surprisingly okay points which some could even consider radical by military FPS standards. Last year’s CoD: Black Ops 6 also tried a similar move, yet both series don’t have the creative freedom (or bite) required to actually commit to the proposed discourse. The bigger problem – since (let’s not forget) we’re talking about a piece of big-budget entertainment here – is that BF6’s campaign largely feels one-note and even forgets about the series’ signature sandbox approach to chaos.

It’s not until the final stretch that we get a somewhat flexible and non-linear scenario where Battlefield’s strengths start to shine, and even that mission comes across as super restrained and dated when compared to some of Call of Duty’s genuine efforts to move into that zone with sections of its campaigns. It’s baffling stuff. Instead, the designers insist on making BF6 a string of references to far superior Battlefield and Call of Duty campaigns, all while only focusing on the more on-rails and small-scale action you’re not really looking for in BF. Even the obligatory ‘tank level’ feels like a watered-down version of missions we saw almost a decade ago; it’s rigid and by-the-numbers, which may or may not suggest a bumpy development process.

At least, the whole thing looks and sounds fantastic, which comes as no surprise given the quality DICE and its partner studios have consistently brought to each Battlefield entry. Henry Jackman and Limp Bizkit working on the music also gives the familiar soundscape a slightly modernized touch that manages to elevate some late-game bits which exhibit a semblance of the spark FPS veterans were wishing for.

But of course, no one’s jumping into Battlefield 6 for the campaign. The main dish is the multiplayer offering. Same as always. Looking at what Respawn Entertainment has achieved over the years, this is where Zampella’s guiding hand could really help, so it comes as no surprise BF6 is the most robust Battlefield has ever felt at launch. From a return to traditional classes with clear-cut roles to gunplay and movement that just feel great and extremely refined, the package is a resounding win that establishes a terrific bedrock for all the post-launch content set to arrive each month if EA and Battlefield Studios’ plans stick.

Almost every gun has a distinct kick and feeling to it. Vehicles can easily be countered but don’t feel made out of cardboard and, in the right hands, can break a siege or be the push attackers need to pour into a well-defended point. A subtle perk and class-specific gadget system brings flavor to the moment-to-moment action while boosting the amount of “only in Battlefield” moments that play out in every match. Even the map selection is excellent and lacks real stinkers. I think it leans a bit too heavily on the infantry-oriented side though; a temporal sacrifice (most of the upcoming maps will target the large scale the series is known for) to ease the CoD crowd in, no doubt. The ‘fragments’ of larger maps for the small-scale modes are well thought-out, however.

Old-fashioned destruction tech has also been at the center of the marketing after a few too many entries which toned things down not to disrupt the design and flow of maps too much. Mind you, rubble, dirt, and wood splinters flying in every direction never really left Battlefield, but EA and DICE chose to partially move away from reactive level design for a few years. After spending hours fighting through every BF6 map, it becomes clear the controlled chaos that Bad Company 2 and BF3 popularized 15 years ago never was an issue as long as the overarching design worked. In fact, it remains one of Battlefield’s greatest advantages over CoD; instead of restrictive, BF6’s busier maps encourage experimentation and thinking outside the box to win impossible battles.

That renewed focus on player expression and the unpredictability of war (especially when you’ve got drones and all kinds of deadly tools plaguing the frontlines) informs the Portal portion of BF6 too. After a timid approach to the idea in 2042, this iteration brings back the sort of custom content tools barely any big developers outside of Valve and Bethesda release anymore. It’s impressively deep stuff, and with easy-to-access and cross-platform browsers implemented Fortnite-style, I’m excited to see where users can take this side of the game. Early creations include CoD’s infamous Shipment map and GTA Online-style plane races. Sky might be the limit here.

Unsurprisingly, Frostbite once again impresses with rock-solid performance across the board. On PC, only the aptly named Overkill preset takes a sledgehammer to mid-range GPUs with hefty VRAM requirements, especially while targeting high resolutions. I’d recommend using the Ultra preset instead, which looks almost indistinguishable, frees up lots of VRAM, and also uses GTAO over SSGI for lighting and ambient occlusion; GTAO is substantially lighter on the GPU and adds better depth to the geometry’s dark spots. The only other hiccup worth pointing out is that Frame Generation (at least on its DLSS version) is currently acting up and causing odd frame drops and visual artifacts in certain scenarios. Chances are this will be fixed sooner rather than later, but going with image reconstruction sans FG still results in high playable framerates since the game is so well optimized.

Audio, control, and accessibility options also get tons of much-needed love. Battlefield 6 is one of the most customizable AAA releases I’ve seen in recent years no doubt, yet its plethora of menus and submenus are kind of a nightmare to navigate quickly and in the middle of a multiplayer match. As profoundly tested and polished as the rest of the game feels, I’m inclined to say not much thought went into the arrangement of all the settings. Thankfully, it’s all fairly well set up out of the box, and sound in particular delivers a sharp and booming experience (as expected) regardless of how much you tinker with the configuration.

Despite the (admittedly predictable) disappointment its single-player campaign is, the multiplayer experience is a remarkably confident one, and with almost every big-name competitor in the traditional competitive multiplayer arena either taking a nap or inertly riding its current popularity, Battlefield 6’s openly conventional pseudo-reboot manages to hit hard and feel refreshing… as long as you’re still into big-budget military shooters. The casual crowd has reason to celebrate, and veterans who have endured BF’s highs and lows are just delighted there are no big ‘buts’ about this one as it enters a post-launch with no critical issues to solve and only more (free) playable content to add. Let’s just hope its visual identity doesn’t quickly fall off a cliff with wacky cosmetics.

Battlefield 6 is now available on PC (Steam, EA App, Epic Games Store), PS5, and Xbox Series X/S for $69,99 (Standard Edition). It also dropped day-one on the EA Play Pro premium subscription service.