Battlefield 6 review – EA call a medic

EA’s answer to Call Of Duty returns with tighter, large-scale warfare and destruction, but is it enough to put the series back on the map?

Few games carry as much pressure as Battlefield 6. After 2021’s Battlefield 2042, and its predecessor Battlefield 5, both buckled at launch and failed to hit sales expectations, EA has thrown multi-studio manpower behind this next instalment – with Criterion, Motive, and Ripple Effect joining original developer DICE under the newly formed Battlefield Studios umbrella.

At a time when the games industry is synonymous with layoffs, it’s an anxiety-inducing move, amplified even more so after EA’s recent buyout. Over the past few months, however, the tide has been turning in the game’s favour, thanks to the positive reaction to the beta and a refreshing back to basics approach far removed from Call Of Duty’s Beavis and Butt-Head skins.

Battlefield 6 has enough steam behind it to create a breakthrough moment, and while its overall success will likely be determined in its staying power after launch, this shooter delivers a return to the core tenets of what makes Battlefield tick – for better and worse.

While Battlefield and Call Of Duty are often pitched against each other, they are notably different games, even if they are both first person shooters. Activision’s franchise is a hyper slick stop-and-pop arcade game, mostly hinged around grounded, close-quarter encounters, whereas Battlefield leans into looser, open-ended warfare at a large scale.

If Call Of Duty is about racking up killstreaks, Battlefield is defined by spectacle – whether parachuting from a burning helicopter, watching the destructible walls crumble around a sniper’s den, or hearing rockets screech overhead as you dive away from a tank.

Design-wise, it also rewards players beyond just running and gunning. In classic series fashion, you have four classes to choose from. Assault is the most traditional class, built for frontline charges; whereas Engineer is suited to taking down enemy vehicles and repairing ally tanks. Recon is the sniper class, with deployable drones to scout out enemies; while Support is the one you wish everyone else would pick, with the ability to quickly revive teammates.

All these classes can be customised with different weapons (if you’re not playing the closed weapon playlist), gadgets and traits, and you’re encouraged to experiment through tailored XP challenges to bump up your rank in multiplayer. Like other class-based shooters, Battlefield does a good job of rewarding multiple playstyles, so even if you’re not a skilled marksman, you can contribute by blowing up vehicles, reviving teammates, or securing objectives on the sly.

Battlefield 6 doesn’t tamper with these fundamentals, but it is leaner than what’s come before. There are still a few massive maps, such as the Mirak Valley and the sandy outskirts of Cairo’s New Sobek City, but the bulk of the nine maps available at launch feel designed to funnel you into conflict at a more regular clip. Whether this is a positive change will depend on if you’re a Battlefield purist, but there is still enough breathing room, and tactical options, where the faster pace doesn’t come at the detriment of Battlefield’s identity.

Occasionally, the accelerated pace and relatively smaller maps throw up frustrations (we found the spawn points to be egregious at times), but when you’re in sync with your squad, Battlefield 6 can be exhilarating. The sound design especially is stunning, with every screaming rocket and wall-shattering explosion rattling your speakers with a real seismic weight. It helps heighten the immersion despite some of the visual shortcomings, with the environments – spanning New York to Gibraltar – possessing little personality beyond the surface level layout.

Battlefield 6 is refreshingly devoid of gimmicks overall, but this means it’s also very familiar. Beyond the maps (one of which, Operation Firestorm, is recycled from Battlefield 3), the only new mode is Escalation, a different take on Conquest where the map’s control points disappear as the match progresses. You’re channelled into more chaotic tussles for diminishing zones, to be the first team to secure three points, which can be very tense, but it doesn’t feel unique enough to become anything other than a lesser riff on its inspiration.

The other modes are all what you’ve come to expect from Battlefield and shooters in general. There’s the usual mix of smaller scale options, including Team Deathmatch, Squad Deathmatch, Domination, and King Of The Hill, along with the middle ground of 12v12 mode Rush, which is a downsized version of the Attacker-Defender dynamic in Breakthrough.

While these smaller modes work as a palette cleanser, Battlefield’s operatics sing in the 64-player modes, Breakthrough and Conquest, with the bold 128-player offerings seen in Battlefield 2042 now removed from the equation.

Battlefield 6 single-player campaign review

The familiarity carries over to the lacklustre campaign. Battlefield is known for missing the mark in its single-player, to the point where the last instalment Battlefield 2042 ditched it altogether, but it returns here in an uneven, dated shape. There are nine missions in total, where you take on various perspectives, through flashbacks, to unravel the conflict between a group of specialist US marines and a private military company named Pax Armata.

Like other war shooters, it’s a narrative device to ping you around levels based on the various multiplayer map locales. It starts on a rough note, with an Xbox 360 style attempt at the kind of action set piece Call Of Duty games have traditionally opened with – and perfected – over the years. The majority of the campaign aspires to be a polished blockbuster in the same vein, but it doesn’t have the surprise, finesse, or bombastic qualities to carry it off.

In the second half, there are flashes of what could have been. Without spoiling too much, the penultimate mission leans into the strengths of Battlefield’s large scale design, as you’re tasked with destroying various targets in an area, using the surrounding tools and vehicles, untethered to the usual linear corridor run. The positioning of the objectives does encourage a certain route through, but it’s one of the few moments in the campaign where you’re handed some creative freedom – a style more in step with Battlefield 6’s overall ethos.

There are other moments like this – an ascent up a New York apartment building utilises the wall destruction to pleasing effect – but too often you’re trapped in rote mission design you’d expect from Call Of Duty games of three generations ago. Sniper level? Check. An escort and defend the tank mission? You bet. A dalliance with night vision? That was cool in 2007.

The campaign’s narrative concludes just as it threatens to become interesting, setting up a story which will presumably continue in DLC or Battlefield 7. Whether most players will care is another matter, but it’s another aspect of Battlefield 6 where it comes off as a safe reversion, devoid of risks which might otherwise have pushed the franchise forward.

However, the future of Battlefield 6 will not hinge on its campaign (an uninstall prompt pops up to save hard drive space once it’s completed, admitting to its disposability), but the longevity and stability of its multiplayer suite.

We won’t know how it will fare under the weight of millions until it launches (multiple Battlefield games of the past have endured horribly broken launches) but EA has assembled all the components to keep the fires burning – between the community-led portal for customised matches, a promising roadmap of new additions, and a battle royale mode expected to launch in the coming months.

There’s so much on the line for Battlefield 6, it’s disturbing to imagine what could happen if it doesn’t reach EA’s lofty expectations. It’s perhaps unsurprising then, with everything at stake, how safe and familiar this franchise reset feels.

As a shooter, this is a well-tuned recalibration to Battlefield’s former glories, with enough initial momentum to appeal to the masses. It might be devoid of surprises, and possess an uninspired campaign, but for a series which has stumbled into obscurity over the past decade, this crowd-pleasing rewind just about hits the mark.

Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Xbox Series X/S, and PC
Price: £69.99
Publisher: EA
Developer: Battlefield Studios (DICE, Ripple Effect Studios, Criterion Games, and Motive Studio)
Release Date: 10th October 2025
Age Rating: 16

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