After our Reviews Editor Jesse blasted through the explosive campaign of Battlefield 6 in his review, we decided to take our time with the game’s multiplayer portion. A game like this needed to be judged on the field, after launch, with real players. And that is what we did. This is the XboxEra review for Battlefield 6‘s multiplayer, tested on Xbox Series X!
It’s just one of those days
Cast your mind back to Friday, October 10th. Plenty of US gamers took the day off to play the new Battlefield at launch. In Europe, the day of work was ending, letting folks like me finally hop onto the servers. Slightly less optimal timing for Asia and Australia, but I’m sure there were plenty of hardcore fans of the franchise there too, ready to break stuff in Battlefield Studios’ latest shooter. If that name confuses you, just know that it’s still DICE, but with support studios like Criterion, Motive and Ripple Effect are now under the same banner, too. A couple minutes after launch, the game’s cross-play queue was showing upwards of half a million people waiting to play, on top of the countless players already shooting at one another. Now that’s hype.
As said, a run through the short campaign of Battlefield 6 may be worth it for the explosive sequences alone. Fortunately, it even has a handful of cosmetics and unlocks that can be used for the game’s main dish: the multiplayer suite. The short version of what’s in it is… well, about what you can expect from a Battlefield launch in 2025. All sorts of objective-based modes like Conquest and Rush. More shooting-focused variants like team deathmatch. Giant maps with ground and air vehicles, closed quarters small maps and anything in between. Even the customisable experiences of Portal make a comeback, and so do bots if players want to use them. But let’s get the most important aspect out of the way, first. Is the gameplay great?
You hear that? That’s the sound of a shotgun!
It is baby, it is. Battlefield 6‘s gameplay feels like a weird mish-mash of nostalgia and modernity. As in, what your brain remembers about how Bad Company 2, Battlefield 3 and Battlefield 4 played, but with just enough changes to feel snappy and precise in 2025. Indeed, gone are the many experiments the franchise has gone through in recent years. Absent is the limited equipment possibilities of the first World War. Abandoned is the flattening of the class curve, with every archetype retaining their roles again. No more obscenely big maps, no tornadoes, nothing too revolutionary. We’re back to what truly works, and I have to point out that the launch has been rather smooth – queues aside. A few glitches regarding unlocks, some small netcode woes and a few weird glitches persist, but it’s easily one of the most satisfying AAA multiplayer launches in recent years.
Needless to say, the Frostbite engine offers some stellar views, highly detailed particle effects, convincing destruction and more. Sounds are as crisp and detailed as ever, with footsteps, shots, explosions and screams filling up the warzone with proper 3D audio. The gameplay feels a lot more snappy and precise than, say, Battlefield 4 on console. With decent field-of-view options, highly customizable sensitivity settings, tons of options for the HUD and more, anyone can create their ideal Battlefield experience. You can crank the FOV high up, pick a faster class and play it like Call of Duty, or go for a slower and more methodical sniper or engineer – or anything in between.
Re-arranged
Of course, that isn’t to say there are no legitimate improvements to the Battlefield formula in here. The class system is similar to the aforementioned older games, but now with far more individual customization for each. Not only skills, but even sub-classes, new abilities, and any class can use any and all main weapons, too. While the Assault class has a bonus on, well, assault rifles, nothing stops you from giving them a sniper rifle and some traps, either. Yet, the general playstyle and abilities stay, such as the medic being able to quick revive everyone – that’s something others can not do.
Yet, in an even more interesting change, any class can do a, so-to-speak, “slow” revive of their teammates. Whereas the Medic’s defibrillator is instantaneous resurrection, other classes can grab a player, pull them to the side, and slowly revive them – akin to what happens in most battle royale games, for example. This is quite transformative, and it encourages players of all classes to take a risk for the benefit of the team, rather than just hoping that a medic comes by. It may feel like a subtle change, but it’s one of the biggest improvements seen in Battlefield 6.
Now everybody bounce with the franchise
But other than these slight changes and the improvement gameplay feel, Battlefield 6 seems to take tremendous pride in offering an older style of Battlefield experience. Developers seemingly managed to nail what makes this franchise so great, and the virtual maps offer every kind of scenario, really. Hills, mountains, cities, streets, corridors. In the modes with the bigger maps, players can choose whatever role they wanna be playing in this virtual war.
Want to engage in aerial dogfights? Stick to a turret on the ground and annoy enemy vehicles? Hide on a tower to ping enemies and to snipe them? Run and gun around with an SMG, hopping from one key location to another parachutes and vehicles? Be solely of support in reviving teammates or repairing vehicles, while barely even shooting a bullet? It’s all there for the taking, and the player can choose to contribute to the big picture in any way they prefer. This being a proper Battlefield experience, there’s even medals, ribbons, XP bonuses, challenges and more, studied specifically to reward players, no matter how they contribute. The highest score of the match could belong to someone who captured a lot of objectives and revived a lot, rather than the fastest finger on the trigger.
Build a bridge
Custom servers and Portal also make a comeback. The latter is a brilliant game mode, introduced in Battlefield 2042, allowed players to customize rules, create unbalanced battles between differently armed factions and more. Well, forget the limited options there, because this new installment of it is basically Halo’s Forge mode. While most of the options can only really be used on PC, and then played on console on any server, the possibilities are truly endless this time. Custom maps, triggers, new game modes and more. We’re already seeing classic Call of Duty maps being recreated, brand new minigames and more. Should be exciting to see what the community can come up with.
Perhaps there’s two areas where I didn’t find Battlefield 6 all that exciting. One would be the weapon and class unlocks, which take absolute ages. For a game that encourages experimentation and hopping between different playstyles to suit needs, it feels weird to see every weapon and subclass needing countless hours to unlock stuff for. There’s a lot of extremely useful items and skills locked behind dozens of hours of grind, so it’s no wonder that many of the custom servers employing unique rulesets have been tweaked specifically to boost the XP gained.
When you’re hot, you’re hot
Secondly, Battlefield 6 is quite unambitious. While it looks and plays better, the destruction tech hasn’t drastically improved since the previous games, the map sizes are similar to what we’ve seen before Battlefield 2042, and so forth. There’s a couple interesting twists and turns, but for better or worse, this is a very safe sequel. I understand it, however, after many recent changes in the previous years have been met with less than stellar reception. Down the line, the game should also launch a free-to-play battle royale mode, but we don’t know much about that one just yet, so stay tuned.
In short, Battlefield 6‘s multiplayer is the most Battlefield-coded entry in the franchise in many years, taking us back to the series’ glory days. Tight gunplay, excellent presentation, impressive polish and a surprisingly robust launch arsenal. All that in service of a shooter that is quite safe in its intents, but one that offers all sort of exhilarating “only in Battlefield” moments that just beg to captured for a clip to share. The glacial unlock progression and the lack of meaningful innovations can’t really hide the elephant in the room. Battlefield is back, and we’re set to stick to this digital warfare for months to come.
Battlefield 6 Multiplayer
Played on
Xbox Series X
PROS
- Peak Battlefield gameplay
- Gorgeous game
- Tons of content at launch
- Portal is more powerful than ever
- Surprisingly polished and stable launch
CONS
- Very few innovations
- Extremely slow and grindy unlocks
