Battlefield 6 Review

Playing Battlefield 6 is like sifting through the contents of a time capsule from 2015. That year, or at least the first half of the 2010s, were a defining period for video games. Developers and players alike tried to figure out what exactly they wanted the industry to become. Sometimes, their attempts were misguided, like when players decided they wanted ultra-fast paced gameplay in mainstream shooters. Other times, like when Call of Duty’s developers created a decent baseline for FPS campaigns, had a more positive impact. For better, and occasionally worse, Battlefield 6 is a product not of its time. Instead, it’s one that could've been released during the series’ golden years. The title’s multiplayer is solid, its single-player is forgettable, it looks great, and it isn’t burdened with microtransactions or stupid skins. The game isn’t perfect. It is, however, better than almost every one of its current competitors.

The Battlefield series lost its way after Battlefield 4, so it’s for the best that Battlefield 6 doesn’t try to imitate its four most recent entries. The core elements of its gameplay — shooting, moving, piloting vehicles and environmental destruction — feel more like the (subjectively) best title in the franchise than they do in Battlefield 1, Hardline, V or 2042. And that’s a good thing; all of Battlefield 6’s weapons are incredibly satisfying to use, it's enjoyable to move around its maps, and its vehicles are overpowered in a good way. Guns in the game kill enemies in just the right amount of time, have plenty of recoil, and the audiovisual feedback you get when shooting them is great. Jumping, dodging and running around maps is equally fun, because it’s a mix of the stiff mechanics that originally set Battlefield apart from its competitors with a bit of the fluidity of Call of Duty’s “omnimovement” mixed in. Using planes, tanks, helicopters and personnel transport vehicles is the best way to rack up XP, and even though they all quash infantry soldiers with ease, the fact that they’re constantly respawning means you always have the ability to jump into one and take revenge on your enemies. And when you try to blow one up that’s being driven by a member of the opposing team with a rocket launcher or grenade and miss, the building next to it will crumble like it’s made of crappy paper. That’s what makes Battlefield, well, Battlefield. Battlefield 6’s matches, and single-player missions, offer constant moments that are only possible in a game that isn’t trying to ape Call of Duty. The title feels exactly what you’d expect a modernised version of Battlefield 4 to play like.

The fact that Battlefield 6 looks and sounds amazing helps that feeling, too. It has a great soundtrack, including a couple of licensed tunes, and is absolutely stunning even on lower settings. The game doesn’t have any major bugs to speak of, either, and its servers function almost flawlessly. Every map and single-player environment is filled with beautiful vistas for you to eliminate your opponents in. The background noise of gunfire and the series’ signature track is always a treat to listen to, too, as is whatever weapon you’re using. Everything about the title, at least from an audiovisual perspective, is polished to both figurative and occasionally literal mirror shine. The way vehicles explode into satisfying fireballs, how hand grenades leave craters in the environment, and even how buildings blow apart all look, for lack of a better word, great.

All that isn’t to say that Battlefield 6 is perfect. The multiplayer portion plays well, and has a solid progression system consisting of 50 base levels to get through and a functionally infinite number of quasi-prestiege ones after that. There’s a ton of equipment to unlock, vehicles to use, and realistic skins to earn. The game makes a few changes to its series’ formula, too, almost all of which simply revert the changes the last four Battlefield  instalments made. There aren’t any named operators in the title, just the standard class system, all four of which have their own unique gadgets. There’s also a Call of Duty-esque gunsmithing system, no more pointless “levelolution” mechanics, and the ability to stay grouped with your squad after the end of a round. All of this means Battlefield 6’s multiplayer is essentially an updated version of Battlefield 3 or 4.

However, Battlefield 6’s maps in particular aren’t very good. They’re all too small, a few of them are virtually indistinguishable from one another, and there are only nine of them available at launch. None of them feature any water combat, and there also aren’t any maps from previous Battlefield games like there were in Battlefield 2042’s Portal mode, save for one of the more mediocre environments from Battlefield 3. The game does have a map editor, as well as the ability for players to modify the rulesets on existing maps, both of which can be played through community servers. Whether or not anyone will bother to use those servers for something besides XP point farms is anyone’s guess, though. The current map selection is the worst aspect of Battlefield 6, and the one thing it shouldn’t have copied from games made in the mid-2010s.

Well, that and its campaign. If you’re one of the four people in the world who cares about Battlefield campaigns, you’ll probably be disappointed with Battlefield 6’s. It’s technically competent, but as generic as can be. It has an interesting premise: in the modern day, a rogue private military company has taken over the world, leaving only the United States, Great Britain, and a few small countries to fend for themselves. You play as various members of an elite group of operatives who are tasked with taking down the PMC. You do so on a disjointed set of nine missions that all play out predictably over the course of four hours. There are a couple interesting set-pieces, like one where you have to defend the president of the United States, but for the most part it’s an on-rails experience that’s functionally identical to the campaigns in Call of Duty or any other Battlefield game. There aren’t any unique characters to root for, any plot twists you won’t see coming, and only one cool vehicle-based mission. It’s worth playing to unlock a couple of cosmetics for the multiplayer mode, and thankfully can be uninstalled to free up disk space once you’re done.

And even though you’ll probably want to delete Battlefield 6's campaign, you will want to perpetually play its multiplayer. The game isn’t groundbreaking, and is surprisingly devoid of innovation for a series that was once all about pushing the technical boundaries of the medium. Battlefield 6 has amazing visuals, but that aside, it’s functionally identical to the very best entries into the series. All of the game’s guns feel good to use, its vehicles function well, and its streamlined progression system will keep you playing for hundreds of hours. Although its single-player campaign isn’t great, and its maps could use some work, the game as a whole is better than its competitors and similarly more enjoyable than the recent Battlefield Hardline and 2042. It plays like how you remember Battlefield 4 or Bad Company 2 playing. It’s devoid of stupid skins or microtransactions, and filled with buildings to blow up. And that’s the highest praise anyone can give a mass-market military shooter in 2025.