Electronic Arts revealed its Season 1 content for Battlefield 6 in a preview event where I was able to play the new maps.
Just a day after the AWS outage, the internet was back and I was able to join a small group of players who were exceedingly good. I suspect they were fellow creators — just much better than me. That’s life for me on the modern Battlefield. It’s hard to find a place where I can just camp and hang out and snipe. That’s because the maps are so big that players just come from all directions.
This kind of seasonal approach is par for the course when it comes to post-launch live ops. And this one will matter a lot, as the seasonal content will have to keep Battlefield 6 going as Activision’s own hype machine kicks off for the November 14 launch for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. Battlefield 6 debuted on October 10 and it sold seven million copies in three days. Now it’s all about keeping the momentum going and making sure that Activision doesn’t peel off those players for Call of Duty.
Cody Corona, Battlefield product director, said in a briefing that the season will launch on October 28, a full 17 days before Black Ops 7. The second season will come in the new year, but Season 1 itself will have three parts to it. In fact, Corona said every season of Battlefield 6 will come with three phases launched on different dates.
For Season 1, the first drop is on October 28, the second is on November 11, and the third is on November 18. You can see the strategy they’re using to try to snipe away at Call of Duty’s players.
“We’re so thrilled with the response that players have had to Battlefield 6 so far,” Corona said. “And we have so much more to come. Bringing quality content to Battlefield 6 at regular intervals is a huge priority for the team. We think we launched a great game, and clearly people out there agree, but we don’t want to stop. We want to make this even better.”
He added, “Every season of Battlefield 6 will add new weapons, maps, loads, vehicles and more, and all of it will either be free from the get-go or earnable on free tiers of the Battle Pass with exclusive cosmetics and other rewards available if you purchase Battlefield Pro.”
And he said, “Battlefield 6’s version of the Battle Pass is focused on player choice, and with Season 1, you’ll have four paths that you can progress through, letting you prioritize the exact rewards you want to pursue, and a fifth path will open up for those who complete the first four.”
Phase one
The first phase of Season 1 is called Rogue Ops, and it’s “themed around high stakes ops in pursuit of valuable military secrets,” Corona said.
The season starts with Rogue Ops’ first post-release map, Blackwell Fields, a large map built for all-out warfare set in the California chaparral, with a focus on outdoor combat and standoffs within scattered structures ducked in and out of military installations and homesteads littered across a “beautiful scorched landscape,” he said.
I played this, and it was scorched, but I wouldn’t call it beautiful. There was tons of wreckage. So perhaps it was beautiful, but only to a hardcore Battlefield player.
Tanks were plentiful on this map and they roll across the desert while jets duel in the sky. The helicopters are pretty deadly, but so are engineers with rockets, like me. I created a kit with a light machine gun and the standard rocket launcher that the engineer carries. But it turns out that almost everybody gets the jump on me when I try to wield the LMG in a duel. It’s actually best used when I’m lying down and hitting enemies from afar. I hit some tanks, but I only destroyed a couple, as it takes multiple rocket hits from the front or sides.
Rogue Ops also has a new mode, Strike Point. It’s an intense 4v4 mode where two teams fight over a single objective. There are no respawns, so once you’re out of the round, you’re dead until the next round begins. You can win the round by capturing the point or eliminating the enemy team. The first to six victories wins the match.
New weapons will also be available to you, including the Scar SC 300 which is perfect for close quarters combat; the Glock 22 as a new trusty sidearm.
“And for those of you who like to strike from a distance, the mini-fix bolt-action rifle might become a new favorite,” Corona said.
There’s a new vehicle, an APC called the Traverser Mark II. The Mark II functions as an infantry support vehicle, capable of serving as a spawn point and a supply station for friendly vehicles.
A host of active and passive combat functions also makes it a great asset for pushing deep into enemy lines. Rogue Ops runs from October 28 to November 11, and right after that, phase two starts.
Phase 2
Ryan McArthur, executive producer at Ripple Effect Studio, said the second phase of Season 1, dubbed the California Resistance, kicks off on November 18. As a California resident, this one hit home for me.
As the name suggests, NATO and the “local militia” are trying to fend off the incursion of PAX Armada, the private military company taking on NATO, into California. Eastwood, the map, debuts as a location that is in a formerly quiet and affluent SoCal neighborhood that has become a battleground.
“This map will find you fighting enemies in suburbia, blowing apart houses with tank rounds and diving to the floor in living rooms and porches as bullets shred cover to pieces,” McArthur said. “You’ll need to keep your head on a swivel and stay moving if you and your team want to seize victory.”
California Resistance will also introduce a limited time mode called Sabotage. In Sabotage, two teams of eight attack and defend supply caches around the map, with the attackers and defenders switching sides after each round. The team that destroys the most caches wins the match.
“During this phase, we will also be debuting battle pickups, high value and rare weapons with limited ammunition that can wreak havoc on foes,” McArthur said. “New additions to the players’ arsenal introduced in this phase are the DB-12 shotgun, which lets you load different ammo types into each of its tubes, as well as an eight-shot revolver, the S&W M327.”
There will be cosmetics too. One thing that Battlefield leaders have promised is the cosmetics will be “grounded” in modern reality. The cosmetics are not all all like the crazy colors and wacky style of Fortnite or Call of Duty. It’s just not a Battlefield thing.
The third season will debut on November 18, and EA isn’t saying more about it now except that it will “bring a chill to New York.”
And he promised that Season 2 will come in the new year with new maps, weapons and vehicles.
Hands-on impressions
I really enjoyed the California Resistance map, Eastwood, where I was running through a swimming pool trying to get across a yard. I thought about it and figured maybe a round hit the pool because all of the water had leaked out. Then I shook my head and thought, “The game can’t be that real, right?”
Some of the objectives were pretty far apart and it was hard to run to them, in contrast to the Brooklyn map, which was pretty vertical. This one was just spread out, and it made it almost a necessity to get in a vehicle.
I also played Blackwell Fields in a large Conquest battle, and that was pretty deadly as well. I was exposed on grassy hills and become a sitting duck for snipers. I used my rocket launcher a lot because there were so many vehicles. I even tried hitting jets with them, to no avail. I really wished I had leveled up weapons, as it was hard to bring down enemies. I am hoping that EA eases up on the progression slowness and helps us get better gear faster. But here’s a note to end with. Battlefield 6 is an excellent game, and this seasonal content will keep people playing on a regular cadence. Call of Duty has a fight on its hands — and the outcome is going to swing billions of dollars to Activision or EA.