Battlefield 6 Review – Shooter Savior

For all intents and purposes, this year has been somewhat crucial for the future of the big-budget shooter game. After players had become increasingly unhappy with the offerings of genre monopolist Call of Duty, the announcement of Battlefield 6 had a distinct buzz around it unlike any former franchise release. It felt new, and it felt different. Whilst Call of Duty was proudly adding what you might call “AI slop” to their in-game cosmetic stores and ignoring player feedback about matchmaking, Battlefield was actively looking to listen to their players through their Battlefield Labs initiative, and carefully curated Battlefield 6 to be a response to what shooter fans had been asking for.

It’s now in our hands, and after completing the campaign, diving into the multiplayer and exploring the first full seasonal content, we’re ready to share our opinion on the return of Battlefield. After all the anticipation has settled and the game has found its footing, I feel confident in saying that Battlefield 6 is the shooter savior that many of us were hoping it would be.

Perhaps the most important part of a shooter experience in this day and age is the multiplayer. It’s where big-budget shooter games find the most engagement, and the mode people will be playing long into the future that will go through many tweaks and changes through its life. I played both before the first season began and after to take in as much as possible of the online experience before formulating an opinion, and I’m impressed with the results I’ve found.

For transparency, I am one of those Call of Duty exiles that I referenced at the beginning of this review. I’m very unhappy with the direction the series is going; I may like to shoot things for hours on end, but I have my morals. The constant (and openly proud) AI art usage was off-putting, but it didn’t help that the gameplay was getting stagnant. The cosmetics were doing far too much, matchmaking was painful, and it felt like nobody really cared about the user experience, and that’s what makes Battlefield 6 different.

The online experience has been incredible in terms of matchmaking. Gone are the days of feeling like I’m dropped in a lobby that determines my fate before I even begin playing, as Battlefield 6’s matchmaking algorithm seems to actually be quite fair for the ordinary player. A significant number of my games seem to get very close to a tie, suggesting that our teams are composed fairly and never making it feel like I’d better spend my time leaving the match and joining a new one. It’s refreshing to load up a game and feel like I have a chance at winning, and that’s unsurprisingly quite effective at getting me to queue up for another match once the current one ends.

In these matches I’m almost always on foot, as one thing Battlefield 6 doesn’t do anywhere near as well as past entries is how it handles the vehicles. Now, maybe they’re very fun to use, but I wouldn’t know as the game never properly introduces you to any of them. The closest Battlefield 6 gets to telling you how to actually use a vehicle is when you get to drive a tank in the campaign, but it’s never explained in the multiplayer context, and never elaborated on at all how you can use jets and helicopters. My personal favorite past entry Battlefield 1 was far easier at helping players understand how and when to use vehicles, such as including them in the campaign mode for practice, whereas Battlefield 6 just expects you to know how to use them. In all my hours I’ve never even tried calling in a plane or a tank, because it just doesn’t seem important if the game doesn’t feel the need to show me how to do it.

One thing I feel Battlefield 6 does put effort into explaining is its loadouts and customization system, and I’ve been happy with the results here too. Each class of soldier has unique abilities and weapon types that, whilst still being usable in other roles, perform better when paired with the appropriate job. For example, medics are far better equipped for reviving players than a standard assault class soldier. All the roles feel like they have their uses, and I’ve seen a fair distribution of them amongst the fellow soldiers I play with in-game. That being said, I almost always go for medic. Even in shooter games, me and the white mage player style are inseparable.

Speaking of customization, now would also be an appropriate time to discuss the item shop and the cosmetics. The Battlefield team went out of their way in the build up to launch to stress to their players that this is not like Call of Duty. Cosmetics are grounded, tasteful and make sense with the brand. In the words of design director Shashank Uchil, “it has to be grounded […] I don’t think it needs Nicki Minaj.” Thankfully, they stayed true to their word even well into the first season of the game, as Battlefield 6 contains no outlandishly extravagant cosmetics, and unlike my Spotify playlists there is no Nicki Minaj to be seen.

Some players have been taking issue with cosmetics being even slightly colorful, but I disagree with these complaints. I want Battlefield 6 to be grounded and feel real, and the cosmetics still reflect that even if they have shades of blue or orange on them. Sure, it might be less tactically advantageous, but I’m not sure the microtransactions would be particularly profitable for EA if all the cosmetics were only available in different shades of dark green and grey. We might be in the midst of an active warzone, but I’d still like to be able to at least slightly serve some looks.

Let’s take a minute to step away from the multiplayer, as difficult as it may be, and take a closer look at the campaign mode in Battlefield 6. Well… it’s certainly a campaign mode! It’s big, it’s beautiful, and it’s boring. Despite my current status of being a noted Call of Duty naysayer, I actually enjoyed the Black Ops 6 campaign. It’s the first time a shooter game ever convinced me to stick with the story, because it was bombastic and fun. Sometimes it got a little carried away with itself, but the unique, very slight RPG elements and the home base kept me engaged and caring about the characters. I’ve played the entire Battlefield 6 campaign in full, and I couldn’t tell you the name of a single character.

Now, I paid attention to every moment of the campaign in the hopes it got better, but it was just so dull. I loved the concept of a private militia rising to become a nation-like force that requires global cooperation to try and counter, but Battlefield 6 just didn’t make me care for the stakes. The story takes the approach of flashing backwards and forwards through time, showing events that will unfold interjected with backstory missions we play that explain how we got there. Besides from perhaps the very last scene, the story does not deserve this flash-backwards-and-forwards approach whatsoever, and it just made it all feel messy.

The missions were fun to play, but mainly in an arcade-y way. I didn’t care much for what or who I was shooting at or in defense of, but it was fun to press the buttons and see things go boom. Whilst not particularly varied in their gameplay, the core shooter mechanics of Battlefield 6 were fun enough to stick with it until the end, and it’s not a very long campaign anyway. As mentioned previously, the very final scene was actually somewhat interesting, as it has a cliffhanger ‘cut to black’ moment that at least made me gently raise my eyebrows. It’s not the biggest reaction I’ve ever had to a game, I’ve had stronger emotional reactions to the multiplayer mode even, but at least the story isn’t completely irredeemable. Its biggest crime is being boring, but that’s not unforgivable.

One thing that the campaign and the multiplayer have in common is that they’re both absolutely beautiful to look at. When it comes to the craft of designing a video game, the AAA budget is extremely apparent in Battlefield 6. Not only is it absolutely gorgeous visually, it’s also incredibly well optimized on the PC. I’ve not once had any stuttering, graphical bugs or issues with shaders (which have been common with Call of Duty in the past).

The same standard of polish applies to the audio. The guns are incredibly satisfying not only in their action but their sounds, with distinct sound effects adding to the immersion offered by the rest of the game. Briefly touching on the UI too, it’s seamless and effective at communicating everything you need to know. Menus are clearly labelled, in-game UI elements are readable and understandable without text, so as you’d expect with its budget, Battlefield 6 is a very high quality product when it comes to how it’s presented.

While the big-budget shooter seemed to be on its way out of favor with some fans and the general public, Battlefield 6 is the shot in the arm the genre needed. It’s fun, it’s player-friendly and it’s not trying to sell you a crossover at every moment. Whilst this year may have earlier looked like it would’ve been a clash of the shooting game titans, there’s a clear winner and it’s not even close. Battlefield 6 is the best shooter of the year for me, and a lifeline to a genre that urgently needs all the good press it can get.

Bobby reviewed Battlefield 6 on PC with a provided review code. This review is based on the version of the game available at the time of writing and our score will not be changed.