Brooklyn is on fire. Periodic muzzle blasts are muffled by tank tracks grinding the asphalt along Washington Street toward the East River embankment where the destroyed 100-year-old carousel lies. As American troops destroy tourist spots and halal trucks in a deadly skirmish with a fictional paramilitary cell, you can't help but wince in horror.
Thankfully, this scene is not taken from the daily news, even if it is eerily close to the future that many Americans fear. Instead, the violent unrest in New York is just one backdrop for EA. Battlefield 6 (out October 10), where 64 players compete to become king of the hill in a stunningly realistic first-person shooter.
The phrase “realistic” is a bit loaded; the episodes depicted are not exactly what anyone expects to see any time soon. But they still hit close to home, and the heavy footsteps of the infantry and the high-tech physics of collapsing buildings make everything seem as real as possible. While other games combine cartoonish action and powerful fantasy, Battlefield 6torturous gameplay seems like a back to basics approach, even if it's still this above.
After being overshadowed by the huge success of a competitor Call of Duty over the past decade or so, Battlefield returns as perhaps the most anticipated military shooter 2025. And with a pretty solid single-player campaign and a best-in-class multiplayer mode that turns the horrors of war into a thrilling and addictive experience. Battlefield 6 it's a pleasant sight, even if it often makes you want to close your eyes.
Obama-era military machismo
Although this has been attempted many times over the years with sub-series such as Bad companyThere have never been single story campaigns Battlefieldthis is a strong point. The newest option is by no means revolutionary; It's mainly an excuse to showcase high-quality on-rails versions of locations used in multiplayer maps for some neat set-pieces. The paper-thin plot follows a group of US Marines as they travel the world seeking to thwart the terrorism of a fictional private army called the Pax Armata.
The story is wall-to-wall cliché, with the game's segments serving as flashbacks to capture the audience up to the present day as the Marines interrogate a shady government official about how the world became FUBAR. The main cast is forgettable, but the game has its own tricks. old era Call of Duty names like Modern warfare And Black Operas burdening players with alternating viewpoints of events long enough to learn someone's name before you have to live through their demise.
Battlefield 6The characters are one-dimensional stand-ins who get the job done.
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Mechanically, most encounters are just a series of shooting galleries, which doesn't really matter. Battlefieldstrengths. While some areas are relatively open, moving forward in the story means there's always a right way and a wrong way – although you only learn which path to take when an on-screen countdown asks you to return to the war zone.
Level design sometimes takes inspiration from multiplayer games, where the solution to smoking out a sniper is usually to destroy an entire building. But it often gets confusing in the main campaign. Players are told to clear a three-story apartment, but regular rifle bullets destroy the walls around you and unknown enemies appear as jump scares.
The developers have made an excellent attempt to incorporate a class system into the story, with each squad member fulfilling a specific role, such as medic or engineer, but this basically means that once shot, players will lie back and wait for a somewhat vague AI partner to come along to revive them, even as enemies swarm the body.
The plot of speculative fiction remains politically neutral—there are only good guys and bad guys.
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A campaign is most effective when it showcases stunning destruction in scripted scenes. When jumping in HALO in the early game, smoke and condensation will accumulate on the player's visor as they free fall towards the Gibraltar war zone. In another, the squad sneaks through the alleys of Cairo using night vision goggles while avoiding a protest that escalates into a full-blown street riot.
The main selling point of the marketing materials is the chaos in Brooklyn, which takes up much of the plot in the game's first act. Bringing the battle home to players storming brownstones in Brooklyn Heights or frantically crossing the crumbling Manhattan Bridge is inherently scary – because majority People. Despite the fiction's apparently apolitical, speculative bent, it's hard not to see parallels between the US military's occupation of a liberal city in the video game and what happens daily on CNN.
Cognitive dissonance arises from placing blame on a fictitious, morally compromised private army, but clearly this experience works both ways, regardless of your actual political views. For a certain type of MAGA-inclined American, rushing through Grand Army Plaza with a 50-cal is bound to be virtual Viagra. For others, it's too close to a homemade horror show, albeit with a healthy dose of NIMBYism – it's a relief to return to Egypt or Iran to engage in the same level of mindless carnage on foreign soil that pop culture has desensitized. A clever trick will convince you that, no matter what Why you like it, that's normal, because you're a good guy.
Internal warfare has shock value, but is nonetheless effective.
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At the peak of its development, Battlefield 6The story mode operates on the same wavelength as the military shooters of the late 2000s, where morally gray military action was a dime a dozen, highlighted by the shock value of insider threats played out with thrilling POV.
Multi-level multiplayer chaos
Despite the surprisingly competent story campaign, the real appeal Battlefield it's multiplayer, and it rarely gets better than in this new game. Let's remove all the fat and gimmicks from recent entries such as Battlefield 2024 (2021) and Battlefield 1 (2016), the gameplay style returned to the designs of the best entries in the series, such as Battlefield 3 And 4 (2011 and 2013).
Since the first records appeared, the determining factor Battlefieldcompetitive multiplayer was its huge scope. Originally 24, then 32, and now an assault on the senses for 64 players, there really isn't anything better than what EA's military shooter series has to offer. It's a game where users can start a match on foot, running headfirst into a hail of bullets, and moments later find themselves in a jeep, tank or attack helicopter raining fire onto the roof of an apartment complex.
Single player standards are important, but multiplayer can live up to that.
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The class system encourages teamwork; The only way to successfully take control of a designated area is to throw bodies into it, but it's easy to come under sniper and artillery fire. The smartest path forward is to coordinate your actions and play your role – be it as a stormtrooper, engineer, support or reconnaissance. Each class has its own unique abilities: Assault allows players to attack a point with powerful firepower and improved mobility; Engineers can repair friendly vehicles or cause serious damage to enemy vehicles; Support can instantly replenish ammo and revive fallen allies; Reconnaissance allows players to locate and mark enemies to increase field visibility.
Unlike Call of Dutywhere everyone is essentially their own one-man Rambo, there's more Battlefield than just running endlessly and killing enemies. Of course, there's basic Deathmatch, which can be played in either a classic 2v2 team or in small squads of four where all groups compete to get 50 kills to win.
But real Battlefield experience is a tug of war around capturing locations in long battles of attrition. Modes such as Conquest, Breakthrough, and Domination are different variations of this concept, with slight changes to the ruleset that defines each. Conquest is a large-scale skirmish in which two teams fight for control of various marked points on the map (labeled A to F), where holding each point for an extended period of time reduces the opponent's score until it reaches zero. Domination is the same, except there are fewer points to capture and smaller arenas for more hectic action.
The modes aren't all that varied, but the core experience remains unparalleled.
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The breakout is similar, but instead of everyone jumping equally to points in a loop, it's a more straight forward and defender scenario where one team advances and the other has to hold the line. Onslaught mode is the same, but smaller and focuses on eliminating targets rather than simply flooding areas to control them.
While most multiplayer modes are different variations of the same idea, there is an element of constant improvisation that makes Battlefield 6 shine where other shooters fail. If a team fails to capture a point because their infantry is trapped in a doorway that becomes a kill box, you can always just take out the entire wall with an RPG. Suddenly the gathering is canceled and everyone can rush out.
While the slower pace and emphasis on physics, from bullet trajectories falling long distances to the foundations of structures collapsing, is a huge part of BattlefieldIn the DNA, some of the tactics that create joy are simply stupid.
Using your class's strengths is the key to victory.
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As a support medic, you can gain a ton of experience and turn the tide of battle by simply running around a crash site, defibrillating a dozen downed soldiers with a slap and shouting, “Get up, soldier!” As an engineer, I find it very interesting to operate a shotgun in a helicopter by simply holding down the repair button, as a simple blowtorch keeps the bird alive despite the intense fire turning its walls into Swiss cheese. It's a balance of realism and fun that only carefully threads the needle.
Today everyone has their own trick. In the arms race for audiences' undivided attention, both single-player and competitive gaming have become self-perpetuating ecosystems. Everything has gotten bigger, louder, and filled to the brim with pop culture IP skins just to make people bite.
For comparison: Battlefield 6 It almost seems strange. It's an all-meat-and-potatoes shooter that sticks to the 20-year-old script, both in its gameplay and in the way it blindly sidesteps any real-life perspective on its amoral, militaristic chauvinism. With what overwhelming noise in both games and reality became frankly desirable entertainment.
Battlefield 6 will be released on October 10 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.
