Battlefield 6 is a good-old time with your mates. Played solo, it can be a lot of fun, but having a tight-knit squad is optimal to obtain enjoyment from this large multiplayer shooter. Sure, there is a single-player campaign, but I'm not currently in the mood for rah-rah-our-military-is-badass-type jingoism so I haven't touched it and I'm not sure that I ever will. Multiplayer has always been the focus of these games (the OG Battlefield didn't even have a campaign) and most people probably will jump straight into the multiplayer.
There are several modes this time. Old-favorite Conquest is what I've spent the most time with, but there's also Escalation (7 points to capture instead of 5 like Conquest), Rush (the battlefield keeps shrinking), and Team Deathmatch (Call of Duty), as well as Redsec, a Battle-Royale mode. I'm sure Escalation plays out different than Conquest, but I haven't played it very much, and Rush is cool if you enjoy the meat-grinder. Redsec I have no interest in; I'm sure EA mandated that Dice had to have a Fortnite mode in their multiplayer shooter, but I'd really like to know the average age of a Battlefield player. I suspect that most of us are in our thirties and forties--Battle Dads, if you will--and we aren't likely to want to play a Battle Royale game (if we did, we wouldn't be playing Battlefield anyways, right?). It's curious how far removed these suits are from the games and communities they manage.
There are four classes to choose from: Assault, which specializes in front-line combat; Engineer, which focuses on repairing and taking out vehicles; Support; in charge of healing and ammo resupply; and finally Recon, the sniper and spotting class. Of the four, Assault is my clear favorite. The spawn beacon is their signature gadget, and careful placement allows you to sneak your whole squad into a point and keep them coming back for more. Also, shotguns are their secondary weapon, and there's nothing as satisfying as one-shotting an opponent with a blast of buckshot. Engineer is also fun, especially when paired with a buddy driving a tank. You're in charge of keeping that fragile armor up. The USG-90 is also my favorite submachine gun, submachine guns being the Engineer's signature weapon class (signature guns handle better when matched with the appropriate class). Support specializes in heavy machine guns and has the defibrillator to shock allies back to life. Recon is my least-played class. The aerial drone is great fun to pilot and spot enemies, but the rapid fall of bullets when shooting from great distances makes sniping difficult to master.
As for vehicles, you got your tanks, armored cars, ATVs, helicopters, and fighter jets. I really enjoyed being a gunner on a tank while someone else takes the reigns. Helicopters aren't difficult to fly but they seem hard to survive in; I usually get shot down within seconds. Jets are unflyable as far as I'm concerned.
The maps are all pretty good, but there could be more of them. Contaminated, a new large-scale map, was just added, but I haven't checked it out yet. Liberation Peak, Blackwell Fields, Eastwood, Operation Firestorm, and Mirak Valley are all good-sized and feature plenty of vehicles. The smaller, infantry-focused maps are Siege of Cairo, Empire State, Manhattan Bridge, and Iberian Offensive. Empire State is probably the only one I don't like. It has no vehicles and there are too many choke points that just devolve into an endless cycle of death. Dying has always been easy in Battlefield--it only takes one or two well-placed shots--so knowledge of the environment and when to engage is key. The last thing you want to feel is like you've been placed in a tiny Call of Duty meat grinder where everyone gets a kill because you're likely to spawn right in front of some doofus. Battlefield's strength is in wide-scale, cinematic moments that feel organic. Maybe you're hiding above a Capture Point in Manhattan Bridge, prone inside a building, picking off approaching enemies when a tank suddenly rolls in and brings the whole upstairs down underneath you, and you're forced to scramble through the wreckage, looking for cover and dodging bullets. Maybe you finally managed to sneak up into the mountains on Operation Firestorm to get revenge on that sniper that shot you from 750 yards away. Or maybe your tank just cleared out a whole rats nest worth of enemies massing on Siege of Cairo. There's always some spectacle happening, and the Frostbite Engine's destructible environments really make warfare in Battlefield feel special compared to any other game.
How is Battlefield 6 now months after release? There are still plenty of matches out there, but there's been a steep dropoff in players since the game's successful launch. They need more maps and faster weapon unlocks and probably a couple more interesting vehicles. But as a funtime game with your buds, Battlefield is excellent. I just hope Dice keeps supporting the veteran fanbase instead of chasing that Call of Duty and Fortnite money.
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