No multiplayer shooter has more satisfying comeback moments than Battlefield. Modes like Conquest and Breakthrough are tailor-made so that one team can feel down and out before mounting an exhilarating comeback, surviving just long enough to win the match. The series has never lost that spark, but it has shone less brightly over the years.

For the past decade or so, the Battlefield series has felt stuck in a rut, experimenting with different eras and gameplay ideas rather than building on what worked. At launch, Battlefield 6 is making all the right moves to recapture the series' magic. On the multiplayer front, Battlefield 6 is everything that EA needs it to be, offering both the bombastic, large-scale multiplayer modes Battlefield is known for and the more intimate and intense modes that will appeal to a Call of Duty player.

It's unfortunately let down by one of the worst campaigns I've played in a shooter in recent memory, one that balks at the opportunity to offer that classic Battlefield feel. The campaign is a noticeable blemish in a Battlefield that otherwise gets the series' groove back, but if what you're looking for is a new content-rich multiplayer shooter that rivals Call of Duty, Battlefield 6 is the most worthy alternative in years.

Price and Availability

Battlefield 6 launches for PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5 on October 10. The game can achieve better frame rates at higher resolutions when played on the PS5 Pro.Battlefield 6 will be available both digitally and physically, and there are two editions of the game:

• Standard Edition ($70): The base game. Pre-orders also get the Tombstone Pack.
• Phantom Edition ($100): Includes the base game, Tombstone Pack, a BF Pro battle pass token, 4 Phantom Squad soldier skins, the Shrouded and Drop Shadow weapon packages, Glimmer Melee weapon skin, and the Chimera vehicle skin, Death's Head weapon sticker, weapon charm and dog tag, and the Phantom XP Boost Set.

Battlefield 6 understands what makes this series great

The massive scale of Battlefield remains unrivaled

In my eyes, three things set Battlefield apart from its genre peers: the classes, the emphasis on destruction, and the massive scale of the battles and maps. Battlefield 6 excels at all of those things. While slower-paced than something like Call of Duty, the game feel of Battlefield 6 is clearly refined and user-tested to maximize enjoyment. The progression treadmill is also lengthy, with plenty of challenges to complete and levels to level up right from the start.

You feel like you're leaving an impact, no matter what class you're playing as. While Battlefield 2042 initially didn't have the class system, it's back in all its classic glory from the start here. You choose between Assault, Recon, Support, or Engineer, and your loadout and skills in battle are adjusted accordingly. I typically stuck with the Assault class, as I wanted to have the best chance at survival in a fight.

However, if my team were struggling, I would switch to the support role and focus on reviving my teammates. Each class's unique skill set is useful in some part of larger-scale modes. Battlefield 6's multiplayer maps are large enough to handle massive player lobbies, but still effectively funnel players into key choke points where the matches get really intense. Players can also patrol the maps with tanks and other powerful vehicles, making matches even more chaotic.

Being able to drag your teammates away and heal them adds another strategic layer to these battles, too, as every life truly feels like it counts in matches where one side has a limited number of them. Matches can also feel dynamic due to the amount of destruction players can leave behind.

Although Battlefield 6's destruction system isn't as all-encompassing as a game like The Finals, player actions still have a tangible enough impact on each map to the point where they truly look like war-torn battlefields at the end of a match. None of this reinvents the wheel for Battlefield, but I didn't need it to. Battlefield 6's gameplay simply delivers everything I like about the series in top form.

Battlefield 6 is locked and loaded with tons of entertaining modes

There's definitely not a shortage of content

In an era where many multiplayer games focus on a limited number of gameplay modes with minor variations, it's refreshing to see Battlefield 6 deliver so many different, well-designed multiplayer modes for its players to experience. My favorite modes are the "All-Out Warfare" ones, which tend to have the biggest player counts. Modes like Conquest, Breakthrough, Rush, and Escalation have players competing over control points on giant maps.

Over time, it really feels like the frontline of each battle is moving. It's possible to have fun in these matches playing by yourself, but coordinating with your squad and team at large leads to the most memorable comeback moments that make Battlefield so special in the first place. Battlefield 6 also features some modes that are more popular in games like Call of Duty, such as Team Deathmatch, Domination, and King of the Hill.

While the slower pace of Battlefield 6's campaign makes kill-focused modes a little less exhilarating than Call of Duty, I'm sure the genre diehards will be happy to find their favorite modes here. They may also like Escalation, the new mode that whittles large-scale battles down to a single remaining capture point. I'll likely stick with Conquest and Breakthrough, as those are the classic Battlefield modes that truly thrive with the game's general return to form.

Another part of Battlefield 6 is Battlefield Portal, which allows players to create and share original content with others. It's EA's answer to the user-generated content platforms offered in games like Roblox and Fortnite. I was not able to test Battlefield Portal's building tools during the review period, but I believe the core gameplay loop of Battlefield 6 is strong enough to support such an ecosystem. I'm really excited to see what people create once the Godot-powered tool is in players' hands.

While I was initially looking at its wide variety of modes, I was worried that Battlefield Studios prioritized quantity over quality. Thankfully, that's not the case, as none of them feel like the clear disappointing outlier of the bunch. When looking at its multiplayer offerings, there's not that much to complain about with Battlefield 6.

Battlefield 6's campaign is a total misfire

Underbaked and underwhelming

While the Battlefield fan in me wishes there wasn't much to dislike about this new game, I'd be remiss to break down how the campaign feels like an absolute afterthought. We're long past the glory days of campaigns in first-person shooter games, but Battlefield 6's is particularly dire. That's probably because the studio originally working on it was shut down about a year and a half before the release, and the other Battlefield Studios had to finish it.

The campaign aims to add more narrative depth to Battlefield 6's overarching conflict: NATO vs. Pax Armata. Pax Armata is a paramilitary group operating outside the jurisdiction of a single country, led by a man named Kincaid. The campaign is framed by a squad of United States Marines interrogating their CIA handler, flashing back to their escapades against Pax Armata around the world for each mission.

While the game feel is obviously shared between the campaign and multiplayer, the campaign feels underbaked from a gameplay standpoint. Outside of one of the final missions of the short campaign, the game barely takes advantage of any of the things that I've mentioned that make Battlefield special. All but one of the missions is extremely linear, and they are mostly repurposed multiplayer maps.

I'd also think a single-player mode where EA doesn't have to worry about server issues would be the place to really emphasize destruction, but you can barely leave a mark on many of the campaign's levels. The most fun I ever had with the campaign was one level where I got a sledgehammer and could break down the walls of New York apartments. I wish the campaign had more moments like that.

From a design perspective, the campaign for Battlefield 6 feels creatively bankrupt and as if it's supposed to be part of a completely different game. Despite the overwhelming amount of explosions and visual noise in each mission, I was extremely bored and unimpressed by anything I played. The narrative itself is also underwhelming, as its time-jumping setup and short run time mean its characters are unable to leave a lasting impression.

It's also a missed opportunity to focus all but one mission on American Marines when the best Battlefield campaigns are international affairs. It's also tough to swallow its United States military propaganda at a time when some of the country's own military leaders are acting more like Kincaid than anyone on NATO's side in the game. It's unsurprising that Battlefield 6's campaign isn't very good, given the problems it faced during development, but I still can't help but be let down by how uninspired and narratively tone-deaf it feels.

Battlefield 6 is the best Battlefield game in almost a decade

As long as you're able to look past the campaign

Battlefield 6's multiplayer embraces everything that made this series so distinct and beloved in the first place, while the campaign doesn't. The game actively suggests you uninstall the campaign once you beat it, too, so I think that even EA and the developers that make up Battlefield Studios do understand this. It's unfortunate that I'm recommending you ignore an entire portion of a game that you'll have to spend $70 on.

If you can look past Battlefield 6's campaign, though, you'll find what's otherwise the best game in this series since 2016's Battlefield 1. The massive battles, character class system, and destruction that make Battlefield what it is are all as good as ever in Battlefield 6. Even with Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 on the horizon, I expect this will be my go-to multiplayer shooter for the foreseeable future.

Just like my team rallying to come back from a match that seemed like we were about to lose, Battlefield Studios came back swinging and reminded us why Battlefield was a juggernaut in the multiplayer shooter space in the first place. While the recent acquisition of EA does make the future of this game and franchise a bit uncertain, I can at least view Battlefield 6 as one last hurrah for this series before whatever comes next.