Battlefield 6 Multiplayer Review: Explosive Layers That Almost Perfect the Formula
It’s strange, you know, sitting down with Battlefield 6 after all these years. I’ve played every one since Battlefield 2, across deserts, skyscrapers, jungles, and the occasional collapsing tower; this one feels brand new, but doesn’t lose its familiarity. It’s the sound of bullets hitting steel, the dirt kicking up from explosions, the sudden moment when the wall you’re using for cover disappears because someone in a tank blew it up – nostalgia hit me hard after playing the new release.
The whole thing works on layers. I mean, that’s really what this game does better than anything: it stacks chaos on top of chaos in a way that still feels deliberate. The infantry layer, where you’re running through alleys and narrow streets with nothing but your rifle and panic to keep you company. The vehicle layer, where tanks and armored trucks chew through buildings, scattering enemies like ants. And then there’s the sky—the pilots, the helicopter aces, the jet jockeys who think gravity is optional and everyone else is target practice. When it all collides, and it always does, it’s spectacular.
The shooting feels more grounded than in 2042. Guns in Battlefield 6 have personality now. The assault rifles snap and buck with precision, bullet travel and drop matter again, and the sound design makes it all feel alive. If you’re wearing headphones, it’s absurd how much you pick up: the faint clink of spent casings, the echo of distant tank fire, even the dry crackle of debris falling after an explosion—the small things that make the big picture feel authentic.
Classes make their return—Assault, Engineer, Recon, and Support—but there’s a catch this time. You can equip any weapon on any class. Sure, the Recon gets a small bonus with snipers, and Engineers can still repair vehicles, but you can easily throw an assault rifle on every class and go wild. The only downside is that some of that old Battlefield rhythm, the sense that every player has a unique, essential job, starts to fade when everyone can do a bit of everything. Still, using a Medic defibrillator to bring a teammate back mid-firefight is as rewarding as ever. When you save your squad’s last life in Breakthrough, it feels heroic, no matter what weapon you’re carrying.
Progression, though, tests your patience. It takes far too long to unlock meaningful gear. Some of the most important items, like the Deploy Beacon that lets your squad respawn in key spots, are locked behind high-level milestones. You don’t even get access to the class-specific challenge tracks until level 20, which can easily take dozens of hours. Although the game throws daily and weekly challenges at you, early on, it feels like it’s holding its breath. You can feel all the cool stuff waiting for you on the other side of the grind.
Once vehicles enter the mix, Battlefield 6 becomes a different game entirely. Tanks dominate every map they touch, reshaping fights both physically and strategically. A single tank can send an entire squad running for cover, tearing buildings apart as if the map were made of paper. I spent hours learning how to handle one properly—when to charge, when to fall back for repairs, when to bait enemies out of hiding. A good tank commander changes everything. When you’re rolling through Empire State or New Sobek City with your squad repairing your hull and your machine gun spitting fire, it feels unstoppable.
And then there’s the air layer, the hardest but most thrilling part of all. Flying in Battlefield 6 is pure adrenaline. Dogfights spiral across the map like tiny wars inside the bigger one. You can strafe a tank column, dodge a missile, and pull up just in time to see the sun flash across your canopy. But here’s the problem: there’s no flight training. You can practice guns at a firing range, but not flying, so most new players crash into the ground before they even figure out which button fires rockets. It’s a shame, because the air combat is one of the most exciting parts of the game, but it’s locked behind a steep skill curve that punishes newcomers instantly.
The modes, thankfully, keep things varied. Team Deathmatch is still the casual warmup, but the real meat is in Breakthrough and Conquest. Breakthrough is structured chaos: one team attacks, the other defends, and the attackers have limited respawns. Conquest is classic Battlefield—two massive armies fighting for zones spread across sprawling terrain. When the frontlines shift, you feel it. Rush returns, too, smaller and sharper, perfect for when you don’t have time for a 40-minute brawl. And then there’s Escalation, a brand-new addition that surprised me with how well it works. The mode starts with tons of control points and gradually narrows them down, squeezing all the players into tighter and tighter battles until it feels like the map itself is collapsing in on you. It’s chaos done with precision.
There are nine maps at launch, and they’re a mixed bag. Saints Quarter is fantastic for close-quarters combat—alleys, tight corners, and endless firefights. Operation Firestorm stretches out wide, perfect for vehicles and snipers chasing long-range kills. Empire State might be the best overall mix, giving tanks, infantry, and snipers all a piece of the action. New Sobek City is a visual standout, with unfinished buildings, dust storms, and destructible walls that keep the battlefield changing minute to minute. But some maps, like Liberation Peak, completely miss the mark. That map has one hill that’s always packed with snipers, turning it into a shooting gallery and killing any sense of balance. Mirak Valley has similar issues, especially in Breakthrough, where attackers have almost no cover to advance. Manhattan Bridge frustrates me every single time—its spawn points are so poorly placed that you spawn straight into gunfire.
The destruction, though, makes up for a lot. Watching a tank shell tear through a wall or seeing a bus explode into debris never gets old. The destructibility feels organic. In one match, I plowed a tank through a construction site on New Sobek City, collapsing half a building as my squad stormed through the smoke. The debris, the dust, the light—it’s all so perfectly choreographed that you’d swear it was scripted, but it’s not.
Weapons feel mostly balanced at launch, with a few caveats. LMGs could use more power, SMGs are kings in close combat, and assault rifles are reliable across mid-range fights. Snipers remain deadly, especially for those players who can pull off long-distance headshots. Shotguns are in a weird spot—they were toned down after the beta, and now they’re inconsistent. Sometimes they’ll one-shot an enemy from a doorway, and other times you’ll swear you hit dead-on and still lose the fight. But it’s early days; the developers will likely tweak them later down the line.
The most disappointing part, for me, is the lack of dedicated servers. Battlefield 6 relies entirely on matchmaking and community-hosted Portal servers. The “persistent” servers sound nice until you realize they disappear after seven days of inactivity. There’s a server browser, yes, but it only covers those player-hosted experiences. Gone are the days of logging into the same server every night, seeing familiar names, rival pilots, and old teammates. The sense of shared history that defined older Battlefield games feels missing here. It’s not game-breaking, but it’s a hollow spot that longtime players will feel immediately.
Performance-wise, the game runs smoothly and looks incredible. The Frostbite engine handles destruction and lighting beautifully. Every explosion, every collapsing building, every chunk of debris feels physical. Movement has improved dramatically, too—you can climb ledges, vault through windows, and slide down hills with far fewer glitches than before.When Battlefield 6 launched, 747,000 PC players jumped in on day one, with console numbers climbing beyond that. It’s the biggest launch the series has seen in years, largely fueled by the excitement from the open beta in August. Two months later, that excitement still lingers. After more than 30 hours of playtime, I can confidently say I’ve had more fun here than in over 400 hours of Battlefield 2042.