Battlefield 6 review: a return to old greatness

Philipp Rüegg

9/10/2025

Translation: Patrik Stainbrook

Battlefield 6 finally offers an entertaining single-player campaign again. Not quite Call of Duty-tier, but still. The highlight, however, is multiplayer mode, which delivers across the board.

With Battlefield 6, Swedish studio Dice wanted to return to former greatness. This includes an epic campaign – not developed directly by Dice, mind you, but by Criterion and Motive. It appears a whole armada of teams is now working on Battlefield 6, under the moniker Battlefield Studios. Finally, group four is Ripple Effect.

This strategy is paying off. Battlefield 6 offers a varied campaign, and the multiplayer gives you that unique Battlefield feeling again for the first time in many years. Chaotic massive battles in which you never know what’ll happen next. Only that it’ll put a big grin on your face.

Battlefield 6 is set in the year 2027. NATO is near collapse, and private army PAX Armata is lusting for power. Across nine missions, you have to avert an impending catastrophe as part of Dagger 13, a US special forces unit.

At first, the scenario is too close to reality for me to enjoy it as pure fairground fun. And by the third mission at the latest, I can no longer take the superficial story seriously. It’s just stuffed with clichés and familiar conspiracies. The actors really go all out, especially during cutscenes. They really want me to believe their pathetic dialogue. In comparison, Call of Duty, with its realistically rendered Ronald Reagan, packs more of a punch.

You’ll also make use of the destruction physics in house battles. When storming a multi-storey house, you’ll literally knock the door down with a grenade launcher. Even ceilings and walls aren’t safe.

No mission knocked my socks off, but they all offer entertaining action fare. The missions I’ll remember the most are vehicle ones. Storming a beach with an amphibious vehicle is somewhat reminiscent of the legendary Normandy level from Medal of Honor. Here, however, you’ll enjoy the protection of thick armour while taking aim at enemy foot soldiers.

When storming a PAX base, you switch back and forth between tank and ground combat. Here, the campaign almost feels like a multiplayer battle. Countless soldiers storm across a debris-strewn battlefield, planes thunder over your head and lightly armoured vehicles wait to be blown up by your grenade launcher.

It’s somewhat annoying that some particularly spectacular moments only take place in cutscenes. For example, at the climax of a dam mission, you can only watch as your team abseils down and blows everything up.

The campaign offers a few hours of shallow entertainment. A little less pathos would’ve been nice. Enemies don’t shine with tactical finesse. They usually march across the battlefield single-file or stand in windows and balconies like an open Advent calendar. And the faces have the expressiveness of mannequins. Still, the campaign is only an amuse-bouche for the main course anyway: multiplayer.

During my test phase, servers were only online at certain times with a schedule predefined by EA. That wasn’t quite enough for me to play all four classes enough. What I can say with certainty, however, is that I haven’t had this much fun in multiplayer since Battlefield 3.

The Engineer relies on submachine guns, repairs vehicles and is generally more efficient in the use and destruction of vehicles. In addition to rocket launchers and mines, their gadgets include a moving robot, only unlocked at level 40.

The Support soldier prefers shooting a machine gun. They can revive fallen comrades immediately thanks to the defibrillator. Their supply bag replenishes health, ammunition and gadgets for both them and surrounding players. They can also carry a mine launcher, a grenade interception system or a protective shield.

Recon, on the other hand, fights from a distance with a sniper rifle and automatically marks enemies when they hit them. Drone surveillance marks enemies within a radius of 100 metres on the map. The drone can also be controlled manually to destroy equipment. They can also set up a dummy to confuse enemies. This doll head on a stick is probably the best and dumbest gadget of all time.

All four classes have two training paths for alternate playstyles, unlocked via class-specific challenges. This can, for example, give Support soldiers better offensive weapons at the expense of healing capabilities. The Assault soldier in turn regenerates themselves, takes less fall damage, and squad members that spawn near them are boosted for two seconds.

Classes have dedicated weapons with which they’re particularly efficient. However, they can all be unlocked and selected – unless a server has the Closed Weapons option activated.

I usually choose Recon when I’m constantly being picked off by other snipers. Fighting fire with fire, and all that. But the drone gadgets are fun too, since most players rarely look up and their buzzing is drowned out by the general chaos of battle.

Finally, Assault is my choice when I’m on the attack and mainly want to blast at baddies. You’ll also use them to help your team with adrenaline injections or a ladder, which I used more than once to sneak up from an unguarded window.

Level structures are retained more or less everywhere, depending on the map. Infantry-focused maps like Siege of Cairo are somewhat more stable. New Sobek City, on the other hand, with all its vehicles, will practically be flattened by the end of the game. And yet, there’s still enough structure to keep the map varied. The destruction model is wonderfully detailed. Walls fall down piece by piece, entire houses collapse and even vehicles blow up in massive explosions.

This game simply offers the right mix of chaos and tactics. The Kinesthetic system also contributes to this, referring to the movement model. You can peek out from behind ledges, climb walls, hang on to tanks or pull comrades out of the danger zone while reviving them. It makes the game feel much more dynamic than previous parts.

I have to admit, I’ve always had trouble distinguishing between the different all-out warfare modes in Battlefield. The gameplay doesn’t change much for me, whether I’m storming a battlefield to capture points and push back opponents or whether we’re all fighting over the same objectives. Rush is clearly the most unique. Blowing up communication systems and defusing bombs adds more hustle, bustle and movement than is present in other modes.

This lack of diversity never bothered me. I don’t really care which mode I play – they’re all fun since the core game just works.

And as if that wasn’t enough, there’s Portal again. This has nothing to do with Valve’s legendary puzzle games. No, it’s a tool with which you can create your own game modes. Levels with only sledgehammers, or where every shot is lethal. Custom level designs for NPCs and scripts are also possible.

The performance is consistently impressive too. With maximum details, 4K resolution and no upscaling, I achieved an almost constant 120 fps with an RTX 5090 and Ryzen 7 9800X3D. It also runs smoothly on Domagoj’s PS5 Pro. The game usually achieves over 100 to 120 fps on Sony’s console. In hectic situations, it can drop to 90 – but thanks to VRR, these fluctuations aren’t noticeable.

The sound design is as powerful as ever, and when that classic Battlefield theme plays after a victory, I still have to hum along every time.

Battlefield 6 will be released on 10 October for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. The PC version was provided to me by EA.

We also talked about the game in the latest episode of our German-language podcast A Tech Affair.

Philipp Rüegg

Senior Editor

Philipp.Rueegg@digitecgalaxus.ch

As a child, I wasn't allowed to have any consoles. It was only with the arrival of the family's 486 PC that the magical world of gaming opened up to me. Today, I'm overcompensating accordingly. Only a lack of time and money prevents me from trying out every game there is and decorating my shelf with rare retro consoles. more

---

Review

Which films, shows, books, games or board games are genuinely great? Recommendations from our personal experience.

Show all

These articles might also interest you