Electronic Arts finally showed off its long-awaited Battlefield 6 game, with spectacular multiplayer combat, in a title that is coming with a single player campaign on October 10 on the consoles and the PC.
I’ve played hours of the multiplayer game at an EA event in Los Angeles, and it’s pretty spectacular with an unbelievable amount of destruction. EA’s top Battlefield leaders Vince Zampella and Byron Beede described the anticipation they felt on stage at a press event.
“It’s awesome to be here with you all today. Today’s the day we’ve been waiting for for a long, long time. So we’re here in LA with hundreds of creators and fans with simultaneous events in London, Paris and Berlin, and we got another one in Hong Kong, unfolding this weekend, and all of this is to celebrate the Battlefield 6 multiplayer reveal,” Beede said.
Zampella said, “We’re here representing the four studios, amazing studio, to put their heart and soul into this next Battlefield. Like watching these guys work is fucking magic. Working with Battlefield Labs, with you guys all too, we’re focused on getting the fundamentals right, because we know we have to do that for our fans. It’s so important for us to have the fans along for this journey.”
He added, “So we know we have to nail classes, gun play and vehicles, the all out warfare. This series is known for Conquest, Breakthrough and Rush. They cannot be compromised. And of course, Battlefield isn’t Battlefield without destruction.”
They started with a description of the Siege of Cairo, a map in the midst of the city where destruction can be massive. They went on to show another map, Empire State, which showed a heavily damaged Brooklyn Bridge. The trailer for the game is pretty incredible too and it’s memorable for all of the dirt and bricks kicked up in the explosions and collapses.
The game will sell for $70 (for standard edition) and $100 for the Phantom edition on the PC, Xbox Series X/S and the PlayStation 5.
It’s the work of years of effort (the last Battlefield 2042 debuted in 2021) from four major studios in the EA orbit: Criterion, Dice, Motive and Ripple Effect. Sadly, a lot of details on the game leaked, partly because of its long beta testing efforts. But the whole package is certainly impressive.
Big features
The title features new innovations like the Kinesthetic Combat System. This system brings enhancements to movement and gunplay. This gives players a level of mobility, offering new tactical options such as Drag and Revive to pull teammates out of danger and back from the brink, and mounting weapons on walls to reduce recoil.
The, uh, classic class system returns with Assault, Recon, Support, and Engineer, empowering players to define their role on the battlefield. The four roles have been enhanced, designed to empower players to push their team towards victory, each with class-specific gadgets, signature weapons and dedicated training.
Jeremy Chubb and Alexia Christofi of Dice took the stage to talk about the modern military setting and how it brings back the atmosphere of games like Battlefield 3 and Battlefield 4. They noted that vehicles are powerful and can change the tide of a battle.
They noted that they had heard loud and clear that players wanted the class system back with Assault, Engineer, Recon and Support classes. The game will also have four-player squads, where you can spawn on your teammates after dying in multiplayer.
For those who want to combine weapons from different classes with their own preferred loadout — there’s a complex answer. In Call of Duty, you can do this if you reach a certain level in multiplayer stats. I, for one, love carrying an assault rifle with a sniper rifle.
In this case, it depends on whether weapons are open or closed in a given mission. If they are open, the Assault player can play with two primary weapons given right conditions like earning your way to the privilege. If you play as another class, you can switch out primary weapons, but you don’t get the perks you have earned for those weapons if they belong to another class.
Engineers are the only ones with a gadget that can repair a vehicle in the field. The support class can intercept enemy grenades, revive teammates and resupply ammo.
One example of the new movement system is a medic can drag a wounded soldier and heal them at the same time that they move them to safety. There is a distinction of subclasses where you can really specialize as a combat medic, or something else.
Recon is a tactical mastermind, providing vital info from drones to the squad and stalking the battlefield as a sniper. They can call in strikes from missiles with a laser designator.
Squads can stay together more easily with vehicles that have more seats in them.
Sheer destruction
The game also has a massive amount of destruction. Destruction returns, but enhanced to offer an unparalleled level of freedom, letting players transform the combat zone, to create new paths, flank enemies and dominate the battle.
The amount of physical destruction in the game is stunning. You see entire buildings fall, or stories collapse on each other, and the ground itself reaction to massive explosions. What’s even more stunning is that the destruction still allows the game to run at 60 frames a second.
In an interview, I asked Chubb whether this amount of destruction was so computationally expensive that it means the game might sacrifice something else like movement.
“That’s a great question. And you know, you’re absolutely right, Chubb said. “It’s possible, with like, a big, physical, destructive experience, that the level can end up feeling, you know, hard to navigate, snaggy, janky. We work really, really hard to establish metrics within the fractures of the destruction.”
This means that it’s not random destruction purely based on physics. The physics serves gameplay. A building will not blow up in a different way every time. Rather, it will blow up in the way that a player expects it to blow up. Maybe you can reduce a building to rubble, but there will still be places to hide or fire so you aren’t just randomly exposed.
“So, as you you know, destroy a building, for example, you’ll see cover break to conveniently metrics based like shoulder height or prone cover height or crouch cover height. Somehow you would never know this as a player. But it means that it plays very naturally throughout,” Chubb said.
He added, “And then the other thing we were really careful to ensure was that throughout, we wanted to begin almost with the destroyed state of the level in order for it to play great in any state, we kind of started there, and then we’d work back to a pristine state for the level. And we knew that in every state that it would work. In previous Battlefield games, sometimes we’ve gone a little too far with the destruction. You end up in a situation there’s no cover, there are no props. It’s very difficult for players to navigate without being killed.”
I noted that I thought I would be invulnerable in a tank. But then I found that navigating the streets full of debris from vehicles and buildings was harder, slowing me down and making me vulnerable to anti-tank fire.
“It can slow you down. And that’s a tactic. We bring down entire building facades, and also we bring up rubble piles, so that everything that kind of collapses, it can form new cover, and that can make it easier or harder for players to hold a position, or for tanks to advance or retreat down the street. So, yeah, that’s definitely a part of it,” Chubb said.
Single-player campaign tease
EA didn’t show off the single-player campaign. But they said it will allow you to step into the boots of Dagger 1-3, a squad of Marine Raiders waging war against private militaries in destinations across the world to prevent global collapse in this adrenaline-fueled, cinematic single player campaign. This blockbuster single-player campaign is packed with jaw-dropping set pieces and explosive action, on an unparalleled scale, EA said.
The game takes place in the year 2027. The world is on the edge of chaos. After a high-profile assassination shocks the world, major European countries have left NATO, while the U.S. and its allies grapple with the fallout. A massive private military corporation unafraid to cross lines, with deep pockets and the latest tech, looks to fill the power vacuum. This army is Pax Armata. What’s left of NATO is in tatters, wounded and battered. This is the world of Battlefield 6.
There isn’t so much revealed about Pax Armata yet. But it’s made of the unwanted, a new breed of enemy, sophisticated and unafraid of consequences.
Chubb said in an interview that the team wanted to return to a modern era setting, rather than go further into the science fiction future beyond Battlefield 2042.
“So 2027 is not a specific date for us, but we wanted it to feel like it could be modern, gritty, grounded, something feel very relatable to players. And so setting it a couple of years in the future gives you the opportunity to be flexible with how you deliver the experience. But also, it sets it very clearly in modern setting,” he said.
Multiplayer maps and modes
Here’s the meat of the reveal.
Battlefield 6 will launch with a robust package of multiplayer modes and maps, taking the fight around the world from Egypt, to Gibraltar and the streets of New York. Other maps include Tajikistan and a remake of the classic Firestorm from Battlefield 3.
Each map features multiple combat zones, hand-crafted and tailored to suit specific modes, ensuring each fight is designed to compliment the player experience and provide a variety of play options.
And fan favorite multiplayer modes are returning in Battlefield 6, with classic staples making an appearance, including Conquest, Breakthrough, and Rush. Players will also experience a host of fast-paced and intense first-person shooter staples, including Team Deathmatch, Squad Deathmatch, Domination and King of the Hill.
There’s a new mode called Escalation. It plays a little like Conquest but it starts bigger. It starts with up to seven capture strategic points. And as you progress the experience, it wiggles down to just a few. So we increase the sense of like, tension, excitement. It becomes like this high intensity finishing part.
I was able to play Conquest, Breakthrough, Squad Deathmatch and Domination. They’re all excellent, but very hard to stay alive with weapons that aren’t leveled up. Asked if EA has a battle royale mode, EA would only say it isn’t commenting on that and stay tuned for a considerable amount of content, including after launch.
The game will have crossplay, where players on the PC can join with friends on the consoles if they wish. But matchmaking will likely separate console players from PC players due to the different complexities of play on those platforms.
As for anti-cheat systems, the studios are aware of the problem and they plan to counter it. EA has a suite of technologies dubbed Javelin and it has been testing them for a long time now.
Return of Portal user-generated content maps
Battlefield 6 also launches with an all-new and improved iteration of Portal, the user-generated content map generator.
Now it includes a robust toolset including spatial editing, AI and custom scripting and mutators to build your preferred Battlefield experience, including open and closed weapons, hardcore mode, and vehicle toggles, and a server browser.
EA has plans for ambitious post-launch support. It will add more modes, maps, weapons, and other features to the game on a consistent basis.
This recognizes something important about modern games. Every fan fancies they are game designers. They can get frustrated with the real game designers over the choices that they make.
With Portal, those fans can put their money where their mouth is by making their own games and maps.
“What we’re expecting to see is a wide variety of experiences created. We have a program where we’re able to verify experiences. So for the first time, portal allows you to progress in the game. So progression is part of the experience. And then obviously what you saw in the video that people were particularly excited was spatial editing. What that means is placement and movement of 3D objects in the map,” Chubb said.
The Portal experience has an improved main menu user interface to make it easier to find, share and create things. It has a server browser for community experiences. You’ll be able to find the Portal maps front and center, along side maps like Operation Firestorm, created by the Battlefield team, said Alexia Christofi, a producer at Dice, speaking on stage.
The biggest open beta
And Battlefield will also have its biggest open beta for two weekends from August 9 through August 10 and from August 14 through 17.
So far, EA has let the cat out of the bag on Battlefield 6 demos by inviting a huge number of people into its Battlefield Labs large-scale game tests. It gives EA feedback on different communities in the Battefield ecosystem.
“Sometimes we hear things that really validate things that we suspected about the about the experience, but also we see massive amounts of data coming from the game,” Chubb said.
He added, “It’s also incredibly important for performance. So performance is a huge challenge in a Battlefield game. You know, it’s an experience in which we can potentially crowbar 64 players through a bottleneck in Breakthrough intensely around the same place. We have vehicles, fully physical experience, destruction, deformation, massive amounts of particles. For our technology team, it’s like a nightmare. It’s like the worst kind of thing you could build. But obviously, if you focused on it, then you can ensure that you hit incredible performance targets. It’s FPS, so people need to know that it’s a solid 60, at least beyond, for superior, superior hardware, and so that’s been a massive focus.”
Surprises
Byron Beede, general manager of Battlefield, said at the close of the event that Battlefield studio Ripple Effect was working on something special for the franchise. Then he showed off a bunch of aircraft, vehicles and soldiers fleeing something.
Then the camera panned back to show a wall of flame approaching. That, of course, was a sign of a ring closing in on the soldiers in a battle royale match. It was not unlike Operation Firestorm from Battlefield 3.
Another surprise during the reveal video today was the inclusion of more detail on the single-player campaign, which pits Western allies (or what’s left of them) against the Pax Armata, a private military corporation. It pits the U.S. and the NATO alliance, or what is left of it, after the PMC causes some disruption and allies to change sides.
The short scene at the end of the event showed a CIA operative, Mills, discussing the war with the hero of the story, named Murphy, who is part of Dagger 1-3. He is a Marine Raider, which means he is one of the elite soldiers of the U.S. Marine Corps. The operative mentions “all of the alliances since the dawn of World War II have gone out the window.”
Disclosure: EA paid my way to the event in Los Angeles.