Gripping my LMG for dear life, I dodged incoming fire as my squad rushed the objective. Smoke and debris filled the air and gunshots echoed off the canyon walls. I could barely see my own teammates a few feet ahead of me in all the chaos, let alone the enemy soldiers laying down fire on us.
A second squad was picked off in the advance and the zone was too hot for me to stop and revive them. I slide into what I hope is cover on the slope to a sniper’s nest and lay down my resupply bag. I had no idea if it would do any good, but I felt I needed to do something. From there, I darted around the chokepoint, sliding between barricades, sandbags, and rocks for cover, using my defibrillator to keep my team and our reinforcements in the game. I catch glimpses of the enemy multiple times, and even lay down some fire, but it is all I can do to land a few shots among the chaos.
When I’m eventually shot down with no earthly idea where my attacker was, I accept my fate and hope I did something to help my team.
Only to suddenly see myself getting dragged out of the killzone as a friendly tank rolls ahead and draws all the incoming fire. I’m saved, falling back to heal before I get back into the fray to keep my team alive.
Chaos and earthquakes
I lost that match of the Battlefield 6 beta. But we held that point, and that’s the story I’m going to tell. The last time I had stories like that in a multiplayer shooter that I can recall was Battlefield: Bad Company 2 on the Xbox 360. I was able to spend hundreds of hours in that game thanks to how it lent itself to so many emergent moments in gameplay. The combination of destruction, large-scale battles, and complementary classes hooked me in a way few games ever had.
Oh, and I was good.
Now, however, things have changed. It’s been over a decade since Bad Company 2 and I’ve lost that sharp eye I once had. I can still aim decently, but I find myself having a much more difficult time spotting enemies in modern games. I could chalk it up to the better graphics making characters stand out less, my eyes just not being what they once were, or both. Either way, I knew I was going to struggle to pull my weight starting the Battlefield 6 beta.
Except that wasn’t the case. Yes, I was still outgunned in 90% of firefights, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t contributing. In fact, I was arguably more effective when I didn’t shoot my gun. That’s something that has always been a part of the Battlefield experience, but has been eroded over time. With Battlefield 6, not only can I make a meaningful impact on the game in ways that didn’t involve killing, but it was just as engaging.
For all of you who can land crazy flick shots and can lock on to enemy heads when only a single pixel is exposed, you’ll be well served here as well. The times I was able to tap into my old skills for a few moments and deal some death of my own were fantastic, but I think Battlefield 6 wants you to find a balance.
The giant maps, destructible environments, vehicles, and classes aren’t core to the Battlefield experience just because they are required to help sell the fantasy (or nightmare) of actually participating in a warzone-like experience. They do do that, but they also contribute to a theme of collaboration. No matter what you’re trying to do, whether it be attacking a point on foot or blasting through a choke point with a vehicle, nothing in Battlefield 6 can be accomplished on your own. Not only that, but you also need every single skillset available if you want to win.
That’s what this beta has going in spades right now — it creates stories and moments regardless of raw shooting skill. I played solo with my mic off, but teamwork just came naturally. This could’ve just been my good fortune, but players wanted to stick together, resupply, wait for engineers to repair vehicles, and follow pings. I think Battlefield 6 subtly conditions players to want to play more collaboratively because going off on your own just isn’t fun. You might get a couple of kills, but the adrenaline you feel participating in a clash between two forces where nothing goes to plan is the real prize.
Time will tell if Battlefield 6 has the legs to keep me engaged like Bad Company 2 once did, but if this beta is anything to go by, this might be the return to form I’ve been waiting for.
