The thing that makes Battlefield feel like Battlefield is the enormous scope of its maps and the many ways you’ll fight your way across them. After Battlefield 6’s open beta test, I got another hands-on chance to play the game—this time, on two of its biggest maps and with the game’s full slate of vehicles strafing through combat.
While my first hands-on experience with Battlefield 6 gave a sense of weapons, the return of character classes, and the variety in map design, this look focused completely on Battlefield at its biggest and most explosive. Here’s everything I saw through the four-hour play session, including the return of Operation Firestorm and the new Escalation mode.
New maps, new mode
This hands-on session featured two of Battlefield 6’s biggest All-Out Warfare maps: Mirak Valley and Operation Firestorm. It also featured the new Escalation mode, which makes excellent use of those huge maps, with players fighting spread-out battles in the beginning of a match, only for the area of operation to become smaller to make for more intense skirmishes.
Mirak Valley — Battlefield 6’s largest map at launch is set in Tajikistan, just like the Liberation Peak map. It combines wide-open spaces with a big, burgeoning construction zone in the center and a small village at the far side, supporting both close-quarters infantry gameplay in and around the structures, and plenty of vehicle combat outside of them. Trenches cut through part of the map to allow infantry to move around while keeping their heads down to avoid snipers, although staying out of the sights of tanks is tougher.
Operation Firestorm — Operation Firestorm turns an oil field and refinery into a huge combined-arms battlefield with a mix of wide-open outdoor areas, high smokestacks that are great sniper nests, and lots of interior spaces. What was most notable was the application of Battlefield 6’s new destruction system to this revived Battlefield 3 map. There are plenty of buildings for infantry to fight in and use for cover, but with tanks, fighter jets, and attack helicopters on the prowl, you can never take the safety of four walls for granted.
Escalation — This mode is new for Battlefield 6, combining elements of Conquest and Breakthrough to offer both a wide-open approach to a battle, but with some more strategic aspects. The game starts with capture points littered across the map. When one team holds the majority of capture points, they start to “capture territory,” with a bar filling up on the screen. If the team manages to hold the majority of capture points until the bar fills completely, they score a point. The first team to score three points this way wins, but each time a team scores, one capture point is removed from the map. That forces players closer together, making them fight harder for fewer capture points.
Class training
Choose your class training — When I went hands-on with Battlefield 6 at its multiplayer reveal, I only got to see half of the class “Training” elements that will launch with the game. These are specializations that let you alter a particular class’s focus and role. Each class has two training options.
Assault: Frontliner and Breacher — The Frontliner training puts focus on damage recovery and a faster capture rate on objectives, while the Breacher training gives you additional grenades and a faster reload for room-clearing weapons like the Incendiary Shotgun and Breaching Launcher.
Support: Combat Medic and Fire Support — Everybody knows Support’s focus on keeping other players alive, but if you don’t like running around with defibrillators to resurrect squaddies as a Combat Medic, you can also go the Fire Support training route. Its focus is on creating defensible positions, providing suppressing fire, and dropping smoke to cover allied movements.
Engineer: Anti-Armor and Combat Engineer — Engineers’ Anti-Armor training gives them an advantage in taking down opposing vehicles, providing extra rockets and dampening the effects of enemy repairs. If you’re not a fan of always carrying a rocket launcher, however, there’s the Combat Engineer training, which can boost the rest of your team’s gear to make it more effective and enhance the repair capabilities of your tools.
Recon: Sniper and Spec Ops — The Sniper training gives Recon players better awareness, spotting targets at a longer range and dropping players with headshots so their teammates can’t revive them. With the Spec Ops training, you’re harder to detect, producing less sound when you move and leaving the In Combat state faster when you’re prone, so your teammates can spawn in on your location more quickly.
Adjustments since the beta
The Battlefield team has taken on a lot of feedback from players since its open beta in August, and we saw some of those adjustments in matches.
Tactical movement with less momentum — In the open beta, players could be pretty quick and pretty bouncy with the new Kinesthetic Combat system. Momentum has been dialed back a bit since then so that players can’t chain so many quick movements together. Moving around maps still feels quick and responsive thanks to lots of options, like sliding, diving, and moving more quickly when you put your weapons away.
A little less sniper dominance — There are some very long sightlines on both Mirak Valley and Operation Firestorm, and snipers were a major force in all the matches I played. That said, both maps have been designed with a wide variety of terrain and structures that provide a lot of cover. Snipers have also been tuned down a bit; they’re still dangerous, but you’re a little less likely to get dropped before you know you’re under fire.
More weapons feel useful — You can also feel the adjustments the Battlefield team has made to some of the weapons. In my first hands-on with the game, some guns didn’t feel especially viable; the light machine gun that’s default for the Support class, for instance, felt like it struggled to secure kills at any range. I’m happy to report that Medics can now secure a few kills as well as lay down covering fire for teammates. And the M87A1 Shotgun that dominated the beta is now a little less terrifying, but still feels great when clearing corners or a trench.
Speedy vehicles — The variety of vehicles in Battlefield 6 makes for some very intense and surprising moments, especially with its destruction system. All ground vehicles now also have a brief boost, which is especially great for dodging fire or getting heavy tanks over treacherous terrain.
Battlefield 6‘s launch is quickly approaching—it hits PS5 on October 10—so you won’t have to wait long to jump into a tank or a helicopter and try some of those new maps, modes, and adjustments for yourself.
