Battlefield 6 Campaign Developer Interview: Storytelling And Destruction

The launch of Battlefield 6 has finally arrived, and it’s felt like an age since the series was at the top of the proverbial military shooter mountain, especially following the very underwhelming Battlefield 2042 in 2021.

Battlefield 6’s multiplayer delivers high-octane action, well-thought-out maps and plenty of modes to keep us entertained for months on end,” as explained in our review from Olly.

However, for many fans of the series, the real fun is to be had with its Hollywood blockbuster-esque single-player campaign, a mode that we last saw in 2018’s Battlefield V.

In celebration of Battlefield 6’s highly anticipated return of the single-player campaign, I had a chance to chat with a couple of its developers, Emily Buck, the narrative design director at DICE, and Danny Isaac, the senior producer at Criterion.

Fans were not shy about letting their feelings be known with the single-player campaign being ditched, and one would assume that feedback played a role in its return with Battlefield 6.

Screenshot of Battlefield 6

“Creating a story campaign for Battlefield 6 was less about 2042 and more about Battlefield 3 and 4,” begins Danny. “Internally, our goal was simply to build the best Battlefield experience for our players that we've ever done. Collectively, as Battlefield Studios, we’ve got multiple teams working on this from ourselves at Criterion, Motive out of Montreal, Ripple effect out of Los Angeles, and of course, very importantly, DICE, which has that Battlefield DNA.

“As much value as the multiplayer has with all of its modes and maps, we also wanted to ensure that we had a really strong single-player experience. Sometimes, our players want to step away from the multiplayer experience of running around and getting headshot, and relax with the campaign, and it’s something that they will have a lot more control over.”

One of the best features of the series is its destructive environments, and we’re not just talking about exterior damage that has little impact on the gameplay; we’re talking about bringing down buildings with an RPG. For example, I’ve been playing the Battlefield 6 campaign, and I couldn't quite get an enemy sniper in my sights. So, with a rocket launcher in my inventory, I blew up the building. Hey, it was a tad overboard, but it got the job done.

“When we went into early development of the destruction, it was always important to Battlefield 6. Not only with the multiplayer but also with the single-player. It’s one of the pillars of the series,” Danny explains.

“Without giving too much away, in terms of map design, we even created some temptations in the environment that will make you want to destroy buildings, and not just conveniently placed red barrels. We may have placed a rocket launcher just before you have an encounter with a helicopter. I think destruction is almost another character, right? It really brings spirit to the missions.”

Screenshot of Battlefield 6

“When it comes to Battlefield storytelling and working on the narrative for this game, there's the high-level geopolitics and why people are at war,” Emily adds. “Sure, characters have back stories, but Battlefield has always been a boots-on-the-ground experience, where you, as the player, can make things happen in a variety of different ways.

“One of the most impactful ways you've been able to make things happen in the past and now in Battlefield 6 is by controlling the environment through destruction. We want you to be able to set up those Battlefield moments because to me, that's even more of the story than anything we could directly script.

“It's magic when you decide how you want to play that level, how you want to attack that encounter, whether you want to take down a building with a rocket launcher or try to leave everything pristine and go for the sniper approach. That's the true battlefield experience for me.”

As fun as it is blowing everything up, there’s more than just destruction in the Battlefield series. For any well-told story, it has to have good pacing; otherwise, players might feel gassed about long before its conclusion, not to mention enjoy its stunning locations, and Battlefield 6 is no exception.

“It's also about the realism of the military fantasy. There are some scenarios where it's appropriate to blow all of that **** up, and then encounters where that would be a horrible idea and would completely jeopardise your mission and not lead to achieving what it is that you need to achieve,” Emily explains. “So it's about finding that balance throughout the campaign.”

Battlefield 6 is the first game in the series to leave the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One behind, an unfortunate but necessary step in its evolution.

Screenshot of Battlefield 6

“There’s a reason why other games don't do it at our level. Because it’s expensive to get that framerate to run at 60fps and have that much destruction going on,” says Danny. “Not to mention the NPC squadmates, enemies, weapons, vehicles and more on the screen. That’s only possible on next-gen machines for our vision not to be compromised.”

“Then we have the cinematics and the visual fidelity of in-game action,” Emily chimes in. “We're very proud of the Frostbite engine and what it allows us to do. To build that true next-generation Battlefield experience.”

No matter the form of storytelling, inspiration comes from everywhere, whether it’s movies, novels, comics or video games. One major influence on the story of Battlefield 6 is very close to home.

“We did a lot of research for Battlefield 6. I would say first of all that the biggest influences for us were previous games in the series,” reveals Emily. “We looked at Battlefield 3 and Battlefield 4 extensively, not to copy them, but to really understand how they captured the contemporary world of the time when they were released.

“The types of themes that they were looking at, the way the characters spoke to one another, the things that you were doing in the missions. Then, obviously, time has moved on past Battlefield 3 and Battlefield 4, and we're setting this in 2027. The world looks a lot different than it did 15 years ago.

“The movie, Civil War, was also an inspiration to us, as well as the TV series, Lioness. Beyond that, we have watched so many documentaries and spoken to so many current and former service members to really understand how to create a completely fictional but grounded and realistic war story for our time.”

Screenshot of Battlefield 6

With so many aspects of the campaign that Danny and Emily have worked on, they shared what they’re looking forward to the players experiencing the most.

“There’s a mission played in Tajikistan. I like that one because the map opens up, allowing the player to approach the missions as they choose. Each mission has its own character, such as the more intense linear experiences in Gibraltar and Brooklyn,” Danny explains. “But I especially love the freedom that you have in Tajikistan, and its stunning vistas.”

“It’s the story framing that I am most proud of,” says Emily. “Through most of the campaign, you have someone from the CIA in your ear. One of those characters is Lucas Hemlock. He helps to guide you through missions, give orders and support.

“Then, later in the campaign, he joins you on a mission, after you’ve already established a relationship with him. In the story, you grow and develop alongside these characters. Lucas was a character in your ear; now he’s fighting alongside you. It feels good to get to that point because, as a player, you’ll feel like you’ve earned those moments.”

Battlefield 6 is out now on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.