What makes a Battlefield game special isn’t just chaos on a large scale—it’s when all the moving parts come together to create something that can be enjoyed by shooter fans of all ages and skill levels. It’s when striking visuals and top-notch sound design meet attention to detail. It’s when you and your squad can spend an entire match holding a single objective, then walk away with a sense of satisfaction knowing that you did your part.
It’s all the moments and stories that are born from a single match that, from a distance, looks like nothing more than mayhem. It’s Battlefield 6.
## Buffet of Choices
Battlefield 6 offers a plethora of ways for players to engage with it, but most of those options fall within multiplayer—the main reason the average person plays. Multiplayer offers game modes in every shape and size, including series staples like **Conquest** and **Rush**, as well as returning modes like **Breakthrough**, **Domination**, **Squad Deathmatch**, **King of the Hill**, and **Team Deathmatch**.
**Escalation** is the new kid on the block. Escalation plays a lot like Conquest, but you’re fighting for permanent territory control. In the first round, take and hold more objectives than your opponent and you’ll score a point, removing an objective from the map and gaining territory. You then enter the next round where you fight over the remaining objectives. Take and hold more than your opponent and you’ll score another point and remove another objective from the map. The first team to three points (or to take three territories) wins.
While most shooters try to inject new modes, many fail to land in the long run. Escalation hits the spot and immediately feels like a core mode for Battlefield.
## Battlefield Portal Returns
The next big attraction is **Portal**, which existed in Battlefield 2042 and returns for Battlefield 6. Battlefield Portal allows creators to make their own custom Battlefield experiences that players can then enjoy. This could mean a new mode or a scenario where players can practice their flying. The possibilities are endless.
For example, a creator named Battlefield Dad managed to make a **BF Invaders** game mode within Battlefield—yes, he made Space Invaders in Battlefield. Not much else needs to be said about that.
Portal reminds me of the modding scene for **DayZ**, in that the game’s life can be extended by players creating unique experiences. The number of modes on offer by Battlefield will swell as the community creates new and interesting things to play. Just when you’re tired of Conquest and Rush, someone is going to come up with a mode that reinvigorates the community and gives them something fresh to play.
Space Invaders in Battlefield, folks.
## Single Player Campaign
Finally, Battlefield 6 offers a single player campaign. Campaigns for shooters face an uphill battle—it’s difficult to surpass the adrenaline rush multiplayer gives you. The story being told in an FPS campaign must stand out. It has to provide memorable moments that the player will hold onto long after it’s done.
I’m not going to spend a lot of time breaking down the campaign, but for me, it didn’t get off to a great start. The early moments felt forced and characters were killed off in a way that I was supposed to care about but with zero development that would lead me to actually feel anything.
Things improved as missions passed, and there were cool moments, but it’s the kind of campaign I’ll only play again to grab all the collectibles—not because it was a banger that I need to revisit.
## Progression, But at What Cost?
Battlefield 6 comes with a great deal of customization and player agency over their class and loadout. Yes, the four classes are back, and each retains the core of what makes it unique. However, you can take any weapon you’d like with any class, although each class has at least one weapon archetype that it specializes in, giving it bonuses when you use its native archetype.
As you play matches, you earn experience (XP) for everything you do, leveling up your weapons and vehicles while also gaining ranks in your career, leading to more unlocks. There are also daily challenges, weekly challenges, class challenges—challenges to the left of them, challenges to the right of them, challenges in front of them. All give XP progression or specific unlocks. It’s a lot of challenges, and none of it is particularly well displayed or conveyed.
The one thing I’m becoming addicted to is **weapon customization**. I love unlocking new attachments for my favorite gun and trying to improve it. It’s a wildly satisfying level of customization complemented by the inclusion of a firing range for testing.
If there’s one knock on weapons, though, it’s the progression. Weapon progression moves at a snail’s pace, and casual players will find it exceptionally difficult to reach the later unlocks that can put your favorite gun over the top. Truthfully, **Delta Force** does weapon progression better, allowing players to invest tokens earned through gameplay to level up their guns. At the very least, Battlefield needs to increase weapon XP dramatically.
Thankfully, vehicle unlocks and general XP progression don’t seem nearly as grindy. Vehicles, as you’d expect, are very powerful in the right hands, and you can level up any vehicle significantly—even if you’re in the gunner position for a good run.
Good runs in vehicles can be hard to come by due to the powerful tools infantry have to keep vehicles in check. Mines, in particular, are too powerful and too plentiful.
Some unlocks you get will be for appearance customization. You can change the outfit that your soldier wears, the skin that your vehicle sports, or even a player card. I’m a bit beyond caring too much about that, but occasionally I spend a couple of minutes choosing new camo for my vehicles.
Unfortunately, the menus and user experience in those menus are bad—but more on that later. The point is, you can customize your butt off in Battlefield 6.
## The Game Within the Game
As I sit firmly in my mid-forties, I’m forced to come to terms with the fact that those 50/50 gun battles in FPS games are more like 60/40 in favor of my typically younger opponents. I’m sure before long that number will become 70/30.
A couple of years ago this was a tough realization. I became increasingly frustrated that I couldn’t run into the middle of the fight and take out four or five opponents, relying on skill alone. I couldn’t be successful and have fun playing the way I’d spent my entire life playing. I had to come to terms with the fact that my video game youth was gone.
Make no mistake, it’s coming for you too.
What makes Battlefield 6 special is the “game within the game.” Every round—especially large-scale modes—is made up of dozens of players and even more moving parts. Tanks rolling through the streets, choppers raining death from above, jets dogfighting in the skies, and infantry battling for every street, building, and room.
While most players will charge toward the objective and the hail of bullets that await them, Battlefield 6 lets you carve out your own niche—no matter what you enjoy or what your capabilities are.
Have you heard of Grndpagaming? Check him out on YouTube to see what I mean.
If you’re an ace pilot who only wants to fly jets, you can mostly do that. If you’re a sniper who doesn’t care if you ever win a round and only wants to hit those long-distance headshots—go for it. If your squad fancies itself a tank crew and you just want to keep a tank alive and rolling all match, you can try to do that. Maybe you’re a pacifist and never want to fire your weapon, spending all your matches only reviving your teammates. Good luck to you, but you can do that too.
In my case, I generally want to remain useful to my team while also winning more gun battles than I lose. Instead of charging face-first into the wall of bullets, I’ll go prone on my back when I hear an enemy and ambush them as they enter the room. I’ll crawl up near the front lines with a supply bag and huck smoke grenades on the objectives we’re trying to take. Sometimes, I’ll spend an entire match sitting on a mountain painting and spotting targets for our crack pilots to eliminate.
No matter what you want to do or what you’re good at, you can find a way to have fun in the sandbox that is a Battlefield 6 multiplayer match while also being useful.
But if you’re getting older like me, you probably can’t keep running directly into those gun battles and going 1v5. Yeah, those days are gone. Time to evolve.
## Not All Battles Are Won
Despite possibly being one of the best Battlefield games ever released, Battlefield 6 isn’t perfect.
The weapon progression system is a real grind. I don’t mind it, but casual players who just want to play a match with a weapon like a suppressor will find it frustrating.
There are plenty of balance issues to deal with—like grenades universally being underwhelming and anti-vehicle mines being way, way too powerful and plentiful.
Perhaps the worst aspect of Battlefield 6 is the user interface and experience. Right from the first screen, things are messy and navigation isn’t intuitive. Try figuring out how to change your soldier profile or enable an XP boost. Have fun sorting through the mess that is the game’s challenges.
If you leave a match, your squad doesn’t go with you—or even have the option to go with you. More often than not, I’m tossed back into matchmaking so quickly that I’m forced to leave a live game when I want to call it a night.
The menus are by far the weakest part of Battlefield 6, but hopefully, this is something that can be improved in the weeks and months to come.
## The Art of War
Battlefield 6 is a triumph in almost every way. It has problems that need ironing out, but nothing that can’t be addressed over time.
The good news is that the core of the game—the soul of what makes a great Battlefield experience—is there. The visuals, the sound effects, the destruction raining down on you while you lie prone in the rubble, exhausting the last of your rifle’s ammunition.
The tools and details required to give every player, no matter their interest or skill level, the opportunity to create memorable moments.
Battlefield is back, baby.
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*This Battlefield 6 review was completed using a Steam key provided by Electronic Arts. The review environment included closed testing and live servers full of humans.*
https://www.shacknews.com/article/146365/battlefield-6-review-score
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