We've Played Battlefield 6 And It Feels Like We're So Back

Battlefield 6 is set to be the biggest game in the series to date, but it still has a lot to prove. Ahead of the open beta launching later this month, I went hands-on with the multiplayer live reveal in London. After playing the game for around two hours and speaking with some of the developers, I’m confident about where this title may be headed.

Despite Battlefield 2042 still retaining a small but dedicated audience to this day, it would be fair to say that the game managed to turn off some veterans who felt the series was enduring an identity crisis.

Four years on, and Electronic Arts is keen to fix the public perception of what a Battlefield game is. It’s assembled four different developers under the banner of Battlefield Studios (DICE, Criterion Games, Ripple Effect and Motive Studio) to work on various aspects of the game, and it seems to be ticking all the right boxes so far; we’ve got traditional class loadouts, proper tactical destruction, and a bunch of different game modes and maps that all feel carefully thought-out and versatile, to accommodate all players.

EA has used the entire history of the series to inform the direction Battlefield 6 takes. As someone who’s been playing the games since the mid-2000s, it’s easy to see which titles the latest entry takes cues from. You’ll be playing a map that clearly emulates the open warfare vehicle mayhem of Battlefield 1942, before switching to a map that imbues a more tactical close-quarters feel like Battlefield 4’s most popular maps. But with such a cinematic feel to how battles play out, it’s also obvious that more recent entries like Battlefield 1 and Battlefield V have influenced how Battlefield 6 looks, sounds, and feels.

Battlefield 6 understands that bigger doesn’t always mean better, but there also needs to be depth. Unlike 2042, where most of the maps were sprawling urban areas with limited cover, Battlefield 6’s maps have a lot more diversity to them. Maps are broken down into smaller combat zones to introduce variety. That means one part of the map may be suited to long-range combat with wide open areas, while other sections are ideal for close-quarters combat and feature a lot of choke points. It helps each section feel like they have a connective tissue with the story the map is trying to convey as a whole, and makes them a lot more memorable than the maps that appeared in 2042.

In the two hours I had with the game, I was able to play on three maps—Empire State, Liberation Peak, and Siege of Cairo, and it felt like each map offered something new and unique.

Starting with Empire State, a map set in a destroyed city block in New York City, a lot of tall vertical buildings and narrow alleyways made the map suitable for both long-range and close-quarters. At one point I would be shooting at the enemy team from a vantage point inside an apartment building, and later I’d prowl the alleyways, hiding behind dumpsters with my shotgun ready to fire at anyone who breathed inside my personal space. I didn’t get a chance to see the map in its larger form, as we played the small-scale Team Deathmatch mode. A lot of the additional combat zones were cut off from players, but it feels like it’ll be a great map for Conquest games.

When we moved on to Liberation Peak, it felt more adapted to long-range play and endurance runs. Run-and-gun was less of a viable tactic here, as the map accommodates lots of open space with wide visibility. Being able to see down the mountain is a sniper’s wet dream, but the war-torn buildings and destroyed vehicles also give you lots of ample cover to hide from them and advance. Although we played Conquest on this map, it feels like it’ll be a terrific map for Rush. In some ways, this map feels like it ran the risk of being a repeat of Battlefield 2042’s wide open spaces without anywhere to hide, but it’s reassuring to know that the developer has ensured it plays a lot more cover-friendly.

Meanwhile, Siege of Cairo was the last map we played on—and it might be my favourite of the bunch. It’s set in, well, a siege taking place in Cairo. The map itself is a large-scale city assault on the Breakthrough game mode, where teams either defend or attack two points. If those two points are taken, the defending team retreats to the next two points and the frontline advances through the map. This mode has always been one of my favourites, not just in Battlefield but in multiplayer FPS games as a whole, because it gives every player a chance to play across the entire map, and you can feel a sort-of narrative play out as one team advances through each point of interest.

As for Siege of Cairo itself, it’s a pretty chaotic time. There are long roads and tall buildings, suitable for snipers and long-range assault loadouts, but the number of winding alleys, rooms to cut through, and vehicles gives you a more versatile way of approaching the objectives. It can be unpredictable where your next enemy may pop up, and that really emphasises the need for teamwork with your squad. The Battlefield experience in a nutshell.

The design of these maps all come together when you factor in Battlefield 6’s new destruction mechanics. Building destruction has been such an iconic aspect of the Battlefield series, but you’d be forgiven for thinking it wasn’t in 2042 at all. It was technically there, but the maps didn’t really accommodate it, so it felt like more of a background feature rather than something you can use to a tactical advantage. Even in better games like Battlefield 1 and Battlefield V, it still felt like it took a bit of a backseat.

Battlefield 6’s destruction mechanics feel a lot more “next-gen” in its implementation. Compared to games like Bad Company 2 and Battlefield 4, where the destruction mechanics were probably the peak of the series, buildings have new weak spots and multiple ways they can be destroyed to create tactical advantages for your team. Blow up a floor to ambush the enemies underneath you, or destroy the ceiling to cut off a key vantage point for them. Battlefield 6’s maps are extremely dynamic in this regard, where your approach to defending or attacking key objectives can change depending on how it’s been blown up.

It doesn’t feel too tuned either. In earlier games, there was always this phenomenon that a map would be completely flattened after ten minutes due to the destruction, cutting off all cover and reducing the tactical opportunities. This doesn’t feel like the case here, as EA has done a lot more interesting things with the environment to make each map more than just a series of buildings that can be reduced to rubble. Even if you do go a bit ham with the C4 on a structure, there are permanent props and objects that fill the environment to keep you in cover and being able to advance through the maps without being picked off by snipers. It’s a bit unrealistic, sure, as I bet some players will be disappointed that maps can’t be reduced to a flat wasteland. But that just wouldn’t be fun, in the end, and the increase in random places to take cover is a testament to the power of modern gaming hardware.

Since this will be the first Battlefield game to be exclusive to current-gen hardware (Battlefield 2042 was a cross-gen release), it means EA has been able to take advantage of the platforms to expand the detail in every map. Frankly, these maps look gorgeous and I think Battlefield 6 will go down as one of the best looking games of the year. It’s difficult to appreciate this when the game is so fast-paced, and you’re always moving quickly from Point A to Point B, but stopping to actually drink in the scenery results brought me the realisation that EA has really put all its effort into the map and art design.

I played the PS5 version of the beta in 4K, and while there were some obvious graphical bugs that are sure to be fixed closer to launch, everything just pops out a lot more compared to previous entries. Buildings have more props, vehicles have greater detail, and the world just feels a lot more lived-in and real. Lighting and colour is used in such a way to guide players naturally between the different combat zones, and it’s really obvious just how hard the art design team has gone to get this across to players without it being distractingly-so.

It’s good to see Battlefield 6 will be launching with the four traditional classes too. Assault, Engineer, Recon, and Support are all in the game from release day, and fans will be happy to see that EA isn’t including the Specialists system from Battlefield 2042. While that system was a risky move for the series, it ultimately didn’t pay off and DICE ended up reversing it due to the negative reception. Even when classes returned to 2042, it felt like too little too late, as the game was not originally designed for these classes, and they were a lot more limited compared to previous games. It felt like the game was fighting with itself over its identity.

With only two hours to try the game, I didn’t get a chance to play around with all the classes, but I was able to get quite familiar with Assault and Support. Assault has the option to bring two primary weapons, so I decided to take a scoped assault rifle for longer ranges along with a shotgun for those intimate encounters. It made me feel a lot more versatile as a foot soldier, essentially being able to adapt to any situation I’m thrust into. It felt like the proper way to play this class, and I feel like the rifle/shotgun combination is going to be a popular one.

Meanwhile, Support feels like you’re playing the best teammate role. Healing and revives are crucial here, as they have been in any Battlefield game. When you’re trying to avoid counting down the reinforcement tickets, it’s crucial to keep your team alive and thriving. Being able to drag your teammates into cover while reviving them is a huge change, and avoids the problem of bringing a player back from the brink of death only for them to get shot again as soon as they’re up.

There’s still a lot more of Battlefield 6 we haven’t seen yet, such as the campaign mode and Ripple Effect’s new mode that’s been dubbed a “brand new experience” for the series. Allegedly, this is a Battle Royale-like mode if the leaks are to be believed, but we’ll wait and see just what this entails. A traditional Battle Royale would be a little disappointing, as the genre is already overcrowded and aging as it is. I don’t see how this could compete with the likes of Fortnite or Call of Duty: Warzone, so it’ll be interesting to see how this deviates from that formula.

As for the multiplayer, I’m keen to play more. EA is holding a series of open beta weekends throughout August to get the community playing, and I’ll be tuning in. It’ll be great to see how the general consensus feels. I don't know if it's too soon to say that “we’re back” (but I'm going to anyway), however I do feel confident in saying Battlefield 6 is ticking all the right boxes so far, especially after my interview with Criterion Games’ Design Director, Fasahat Salim, which you’ll be able to read about next week.

Battlefield 6 is launching on 10 October, 2025 for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. The open beta will take place on 9th-10th August and 14th-17th August, with early access for Battlefield Labs members taking place on 7th-8th August.