Battlefield 6 PC Review
Summary: Battlefield 6 is a return to form for the series, delivering explosive, multiplayer action despite a lacklustre single-player campaign.
4.5
Explosive!
Four years after the less-than-amazing Battlefield 2042 released, EA has returned, along with Battlefield Studios, a collaboration between DICE, Ripple Effect, Criterion, and Motive, all led by Vince Zampella, one of the minds behind Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Titanfall, and Apex Legends.
This time around, there’s somewhat of a ‘back to basics’ feel to everything. It was stated early on that the focus would be on creating something similar to Battlefield 3 and 4, the last entries in the franchise that were centred around the present day, with contemporary weapons, locations, and vehicles.
The disappointing omission of a campaign from Battlefield 2042 has thankfully been rectified this time around. The story follows Dagger 13 and their fight against Pax Armata, a powerful, private military contractor that has thrown the world into conflict amidst the collapse of NATO. It’s a plot filled with conspiracies, betrayal, and intrigue. In theory, anyway.
Despite having the beginnings of what could be an interesting story, it’s painfully generic. This in itself wouldn’t be much of a problem if the levels themselves were interesting, but for the most part, they’re much like the story, generic. This isn’t to say that it’s bad, per se. I enjoyed the four or five hours that it lasted for the most part, but beyond a few specific moments, I can’t remember anything about it. As far as AAA, first-person shooter campaigns go, it’s incredibly understated.
One thing that Battlefield has always done exceptionally well is sprawling maps, ripe with opportunity for interesting encounters and storytelling. Aside from a mission towards the end, it’s mostly a linear series of corridors and set pieces. Again, none of this is bad by any means; it just felt like a bit of a missed opportunity.
Multiplayer is where Battlefield has always come alive, and this newest instalment is no exception. The player base was understandably low during the review period, as you might expect, so each match didn’t quite reach its full, chaotic potential, but everything you’d expect to be here is here, and it’s done, so, so well.
Each of the four classes: Assault, Engineer, Support, & Recon all fulfil a specific role. Engineers are specialists in destroying (and repairing) heavy armour. Supports are combat medics wielding light machine guns. Recon players can mark targets and snipe adversaries from distance, and assault is a jack of all trades that doesn’t really specialise in anything. There’s an impressive level of synergy between the four roles. Engineers backed up by support can be incredibly effective at holding objectives, for example.
For me, Bad Company 2 was the gold standard of Battlefield multiplayer. It had large, open maps that simultaneously felt expansive, with an impressive sense of scale, while still being small enough to not feel barren and lifeless. This is something that Battlefield 6 gets right. Maps are large, while still feeling compact; there’s never a huge commute between objectives, even when on foot. Some are better than others, which is to be expected, and some balance issues need attention in some of the smaller game modes, but otherwise, it’s incredibly polished.
Destruction is back to being dynamic, meaning that if a building is in the way, you can, for the most part, remove the building almost entirely if you have enough firepower at your disposal. This was one area where Bad Company 2 excelled, and consequently, Battlefield 6 does too. Knowing that buildings don’t offer any real protection creates a sense of unease when hiding inside, knowing that at any moment, a tank or well-throw grenade could topple the entire thing.
The online experience has been tweaked somewhat since the beta earlier this year. Progression is more balanced, thanks to a huge number of challenges, and the fact that almost every aspect of a class can be levelled up means that players are constantly being drip-fed new equipment to play with. It always feels like you’re making progress towards something while playing.
Battlefield, and by extension the Battlefront series, have always excelled from a visual standpoint; this latest instalment is no different in that regard. Battlefield 6 is a stunning game when it’s all in motion. Every landscape is extremely detailed and reacts wonderfully to the constant damage that it takes over the course of a game.
Buildings collapse, filling streets with rubble, trees, and other greenery are flattened, and it always looks as though it was designed that way in any given moment. It’s impressive how the lighting manages to stay consistent when you consider that there’s no ray tracing present.
As with the visuals, the audio stands out. Weapons especially sound fantastic with what can only be described as ‘big’ sound effects and impacts. Maps with aircraft available are a real joy. The scream of fighter jets reverberating through the mountains and helicopters menacing overhead excel at enhancing immersion, and when one goes down nearby, you really know about it. Voice acting in the campaign is fine, good even. Each of the actors is believable and sells their role, even if the story doesn’t sell itself.
Running on an RTX 5090 and 9950X3D performance was, as you might expect, flawless, even with everything cranked at 4K. It seems to scale reasonably well, too, running well on more reasonably powered machines, albeit on lower settings.
Steam Deck
Unfortunately, Battlefield 6 is unsupported on the Steam Deck and doesn’t work in any capacity. A shame, for sure, but not unexpected as the beta was in the exact same position. Running Windows is an option to get it running, though I was unable to test this to check out its performance.
Final Thoughts?
Battlefield 6 is a perfect example of why I’m not the biggest fan of review scores as a concept. A middling at best campaign and some of the most fun multiplayer I’ve played in years make coming up with a suitable score challenging.
Slightly anaemic campaign aside, Battlefield 6 is great. The multiplayer improves over 2042 in every way, and after 30 hours or so, I feel like I’ve only just scratched its surface. Portal, Battlefield’s custom mode creation tool set to be available from launch, should add further life to the game, meaning that there’s going to be plenty to do for years to come.
Battlefield is most definitely back.
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