'Battlefield 6' Review: Checking in on EA's Online Shooter

Based on my years of reviewing video games, one of the hardest things to do is determine how well a multiplayer-centric game will age. If you get a game early, the best case is maybe some allotted times are set up by the publisher with other reviewers. Even waiting until after launch is problematic because everything is fresh, and the player base hasn’t worked out the various tricks and techniques that will come to define gameplay.

With that in mind, today I’m taking a look at Battlefield 6, roughly four months after its initial release and with countless hours of online multiplayer matches under my belt. While I’ll still touch on the basics, the focus will be on the multiplayer aspect and how it’s holding up ahead of the Feb. 17 launch of Season 2. Also, please note this review deals with BF6’s paid components, so the free-to-play REDSEC and its associated modes won’t be included.

The Basics

Battlefield 6 returns to its class-based specializations with Assault (typical run-and-gun), Support (medic and defense), Engineer (anti-vehicle), and Recon (long-range shooting and identifying enemy movement). All four are viable in any map or game mode, though Engineer and Recon lose some luster on smaller maps with no vehicles and limited sightlines.

Unlike previous iterations, there are no gun restrictions tied to the classes. While each class does have a “preferred” weapon, incentivized by a boost such as quicker reloading for Recon players using a sniper rifle, it’s not enough to dissuade you from using whatever gun you prefer. As a result, it really comes down to which gadgets you want to use. That’s why you’ll still see a lot of Engineers in Team Deathmatch, because they get multiple RPG shots each spawn.

In terms of presentation, Battlefield 6 consistently impresses, which is why it landed a spot on my list of the best-looking games of 2025. Although I’d enjoy more variety in terms of the locations (more on that later), what’s there looks great, both in the single-player and online modes. Nowhere is that more evident than in how buildings are destroyed during combat. The audio shines as well, especially if you have a quality sound system or headphones. It really helps build tension when you’re in the heat of firefights.

The Campaign

Even if you’ve technically never played Battlefield 6’s single-player campaign, if you’ve played pretty much any military FPS in the past 20 years, you should be up to speed. Set in the near future, you’re part of Dagger 1-3, a Marine squad dispatched to do battle with Pax Armata, a private military organization that opposes NATO. Every story beat is purely surface-level stuff with as much quotable jargon as can be crammed in.

It’s told in a series of flashbacks, allowing you to play as the different members of Dagger 1-3, and by extension introducing you to the class system of the multiplayer. The missions are decent enough, though again, there’s nothing here that hasn’t been done before, and there’s a lack of destructibility that limits your options as you proceed through the mostly linear levels. It’s an odd omission when blowing up buildings is such a core part of the multiplayer.

At around five to six hours, the campaign feels about the right length. There’s nothing inherently bad about it, but at the end of the day it very much feels like a training ground for the multiplayer, and that’s not what I want. Give me standout set pieces and cool gadgets and weapons to use while I live my spec ops power fantasy. Looking back on the campaign, it’s completely fine, yet there are precious few moments I’d care to experience on a second playthrough.

Multiplayer State of the Union

Multiplayer modes are essentially split into two categories, ones featuring infantry (e.g., Team Deathmatch, Squad Deathmatch, King of the Hill, etc.) and ones with vehicles (e.g., Conquest, Breakthrough, and Escalation)—yes, some of the infantry-centric modes will include a vehicle or two, but they’re not the focus. Matches also divide into small- and large-scale battles.

It’s a decent selection of game modes, though the Battlefield experience feels lost on the basic Deathmatch modes. It’s here that you’ll really feel a Call of Duty(COD) influence seeping in. Not that every match needs to be a deliberate, slow-paced battle that emphasize teamwork, but the run-and-gun nature of TDM has really felt amped up as the months have gone on. It’s disappointing to see some of my least-favorite COD tactics, like sprinting and sliding all over the map or jumping when close-range firefights begin, and I’d love to see Electronic Arts figure out a way to dissuade that stuff.

Rush and Breakthrough could also use a refresh. Competitive matches in those modes seem like the exception rather than the rule with a clear edge to the attacking side. This is particularly true in Rush, which tasks an attacking side with limited respawns to detonate two points to claim territory while defenders have unlimited lives. It doesn’t sound bad on paper, but in practice the defending team might win one game in 20.

Breakthrough, which features the same attacker/defender approach, fares a bit better, but the number of vehicles the attackers get access to is excessive, and it often becomes an excuse for gamers to boost their K/D ratio rather than actually play the objective. If you get two teams with people playing as intended, though, it can be fun.

After months of online matches, I find my favorite small-scale mode to be King of the Hill, which creates a frantic pace and naturally funnels the action to choke points, creating a nice mix of intense gunplay and team-based tactics. On the larger front, it’s Escalation or Conquest. The latter is the classic Battlefield experience, while the former has the cool hook of removing capture points as each team gains territory—this is done by holding more points than the opposing team—and thus condensing the action into increasingly tighter areas.

The last thing I’ll touch on is the maps. With just seven locations, you’re going to see the same stuff repeatedly, though the available territory will expand and contract based on what mode you’re on. Battlefield 6 would benefit from a new location or two, and within that it’d be nice if we got a new biome of some kind outside of the desert-based locales that dominate here.

Final Score (8/10)

While Battlefield 6 has some problems—a disposable campaign, an increased Call of Duty feel in its smaller modes, questionable skill-based matchmaking—it continues to deliver a consistently crisp online experience where even matches on the same map and mode can play out wildly differently based on environmental destruction and player approach. That’s why it remains in my heavy rotation even months after launch.