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Last week, I was fortunate enough to fly out to Los Angeles for the multiplayer reveal of Battlefield 6, an experience I won’t soon forget. After being boarded at one of the nicest marina-side hotels I’d ever seen in my life, various other content creators, journalists, and I were shuttled to Nant Studios, where the future of the first-person wartime franchise would unveil its legacy. With screens mounted on every surface of the ceiling and walls, Battlefield Studios, built from studios Dice, Criterion, Ripple Effect, and Motive, revealed the truly chaotic devastation and reactive gameplay that players not only expect from a first-person shooter, but simply won’t get anywhere outside Battlefield 6.
After taking our seats below the digital Cairo sun, the Battlefield team walked us through what multiplayer would look like come the game’s official launch on October 10. Four squad classes will keep player roles in check, though their functions no longer lock players into particular weapon types or routines, meaning that there won’t be a million of the exact same kind of Assault player when you hop online. This focus on class customization gave me much more control over how I approached game modes and made me feel more confident in my abilities as I was able to use weapons I was much more comfortable with alongside the class I preferred. Of course, I stuck with playing Assault for pretty much the entirety of the four hours I had with the multiplayer.
Any Movement on the Target?
Battlefield 6 will have nine maps for players to enjoy, though during my visit, we were able to experience four: Liberation Peak, Siege of Cairo, Iberian Offense, and Empire State. Because every map is compatible with every game mode, we were also able to enjoy them in Breakthrough, Domination, and Conquest. Despite the massive roar of cheers during the reveal of Operation Firestorm, it wasn’t a map we had access to. We also didn’t have access to Portal, though I was completely blown away by what Battlefield Studios managed to cook up concerning map customizations. It almost seems as though the developers decided to just give players every single asset they have and are asking them to go crazy.
Not only are you able to customize maps to share with friends via crossplay and easily find them with a server browser, but you’ll also be able to customize features like the UI and general NPC gameplay. Considering that the native maps can be used for every game mode because of the different combat zones within, it’s unclear if that will be the same for Portal maps. This new take on Portal and approach to gunplay is all part of what the team likes to call the Kinesthetic Combat System, which aims at creating a higher skill ceiling by mimicking real-life movements on the battlefield. Downed enemies can be revived and dragged out of harm’s way for easier recovery, and players can crouch-run and peek around corners for further depth.
Concerning moment-to-moment combat, this new movement system helped sell me on the belief that I was actually on the battlefield. In fact, I would find myself getting scared and jumping whenever I’d be shot down because of how bombastic the sound design was. I was immersed in that moment. Of course, I would also do that thing where I look around to make sure no one saw me jump out of embarrassment. In some of the matches I played, like the smaller-scale 32-player Domination, this live, die, and repeat cycle was frenetic and fast-paced enough that no singular death slowed my momentum down. It helped me get familiarized with the pace of Battlefield 6, as the rapid time to kill in every gunfight and sometimes overwhelming amounts of destructive chaos on any given map kept the action brisk.
I believe that this depth of movement, combined with the sheer audio and video presentation, made me a better player. When I get taken down by an enemy or outflanked in an unfortunate way, I don’t feel stupid. Instead, I quickly jumped back into the battlefield in an instant, or asked for a helping hand and worked more as a team. It feels so lifelike and aggressive, which is precisely what I expect from a Battlefield game.
Do We Have Eyes-On?
Despite being given eight hours over two days to play my fill of Battlefield 6, I can’t help feeling as though I left some unfinished business. The playable maps were all massive and offered unparalleled levels of destruction that gave way to realistic warfare. While it’s not the point of games like this, I very much wanted to spend time exploring my surroundings and venturing into different buildings to see what it was like. The longest gameplay mode, Domination, lasts about 40 minutes per round, and even then, I still felt as though I hadn’t seen everything of the available maps.
I can’t stress enough how necessary the new Kinesthetic Combat System is and how it changes minute details on the battlefield to better the entire play experience. With the Battlefield 6 early access beta beginning tomorrow, August 7 – 8, you’ll be able to experience the tactical warfare for yourself and get a chance to understand what the Kinesthetic Combat System has to offer. Don’t worry if you miss the early access beta, because two more weekends will be available on August 9-10 and August 14-17. Fans of Battlefield 3 and 4 are likely going to feel right at home with the sixth installment.
