Battlefield StudiosAbout half a mile south of my position, my teammates are struggling to take point D. There’s no issue holding out against enemy infantry, but the helicopter circling the objective has given them hell for five minutes.With my squadmate and I finally capturing A, I turn south in the hope of being the backup my comrades so desperately need. An engineer kitted out with anti-vehicle rockets, I shoot a missile towards the helicopter and miss by several yards. I look into my scope again, this time with more consideration for my aim. As I see the helicopter pulling up, I fire several klicks above it.After three seconds of holding my breath, an explosion confirms that my aim was true. My HUD reads “New Best: Triple Kill” as the wreckage plummets to the ground. It’s only a matter of moments before Objective D is ours.It’s been 12 years since we last had the comfort of a traditional Battlefield experience. There’s certainly been some good ones in that time: 2016’s Battlefield 1 delivered the series' best single-player campaign, and Battlefield Hardline gave things an underappreciated urban twist. But after the disaster that was Battlefield 2042, you couldn’t help but wonder if Electronic Arts and DICE still understood the franchise and its fanbase.Thankfully, Battlefield 6 is the reset button the series needed. It’s a hefty package of multiplayer, single player, and user-generated oddities that’s begging you to make this your forever game. And while the unoriginal single-player campaign stumbles through its six-hour runtime, Battlefield 6’s main draw, its team-based competitive multiplayer, is the best it's been in over a decade. For fans who’ve been waiting for a meat-and-potatoes Battlefield experience, your prayers have been answered.Bringing Back The FeelingGun combat has never felt better than in Battlefield 6. | Battlefield StudiosBattlefield 6 is the first game set in the modern day since Battlefield 4, and it's clear that developer Battlefield Studios set out to replicate that high point verbatim. The game’s soundtrack, tone, and desaturated color palette all feel ripped straight from the 2013 game. That’s far from a bad thing, as every moment of Battlefield 6 centers around clearly defined player classes whose roles are determined by their equipment. Vehicular combat is just as central as boots-on-the-ground firefights, and dynamic environmental destruction is the primary spectacle across all modes. In Battlefield Studios’ own words, 2042 took some ambitious swings that changed many of the franchise’s core aspects. It upped the player limit from 64 to 128, delivered huge maps, and axed the traditional class system in favor of hero-shooter-like operators. A willingness to shake things up can be commended, but it produced a game no one asked for. For better and worse, none of 2042’s experiments remain in Battlefield 6. As the name suggests, this new game pretends the last game never happened and picks up where 2018’s World War II shooter left off.Dynamic environmental destruction is the primary spectacle across all modes of Battlefield 6. | Battlefield StudiosBattlefield 6 does tweak the feel of its gunplay. Shooting has never felt snappier, as recoil feels manageable and players gain momentum with ease. It’s clear that the developers took inspiration from the frenetic pace of its biggest competitor. However, without the sporadic player-movement that works so well for the kind of shooter Call of Duty has evolved into, Battlefield retains its identity as the game that rewards deliberate decisions and smart tactics over fast reflexes.Battlefield 6 brings what worked flawlessly 12 years ago into a modern context with tweaks most players won’t be able to verbalize. Unfortunately, it doesn’t wrap these finely tuned mechanics around a campaign worth your time.The War At HomeBattlefield 6’s interchangeable protagonists are completely forgettable. | Battlefield StudiosWith the exception of Battlefield 1, Battlefield Hardline, and the Bad Company games, single player is typically a negligible part of the Battlefield package. And unfortunately, Battlefield 6’s campaign is another throwaway campaign in a series known for throwaway campaigns.Set in 2027, Battlefield 6 starts during a global conflict where NATO fails to retaliate against a growing private military corporation called PAX Armata. NATO’s sheepishness is enough for some nations to lose faith in the 80-year-old organization and join this more confrontational power in an alternative alliance. The game follows a marine unit at the frontlines as PAX Armata attempts to seize control of the international community.The setup may sound like an old Tom Clancy novel, but Battlefield 6 doesn’t do anything compelling with it. In typical military shooter fashion, it presents shadowy cutscene cinematography and snappy, clichéd dialogue without cluing in players as to why they should care. The campaign doesn’t properly explain which nations are on what side, or even what Pax Armata’s ultimate goal is.“Battlefield 6 doesn’t feel like a campaign you play, but one that happens around you.”Our main cast doesn’t fare any better, as the four protagonists are as interchangeable as they are forgettable. Morally gray soldiers who “just follow orders” have never been more unappealing as heroes than they are today, and Battlefield 6 never differentiates them from the bland, cookie-cutter mold they’re stenciled from. Hilariously, the game finally gives them something interesting to ponder literal minutes before the credits roll, cementing just how little this campaign tries to rock the boat.Missions fail in a similar way. Battlefield 6 isn’t a campaign that highlights and recontextualizes the strengths of what makes Battlefield different from other shooters, like large maps, emergent moments, squad-based combat, and sheer destruction. It instead follows the heavily scripted formula that Call of Duty popularized two decades ago, but with far worse execution.Battlefield 6 doesn’t feel like a campaign you play, but one that happens around you. It’s remarkable how often you’re doing nothing but moving to an objective and waiting for the next story beat to play out. Straying even five feet from where the developers want you to be at any given moment risks mission failure. When enemies do show up, they’re often mindless drones spilling out of monster closets. On normal difficulty, I often caught enemies standing next to me or squadmates without taking notice of us.What makes all this even worse is just how devoid this campaign is of setpiece concepts. Battlefield 6 regurgitates all of Modern Warfare’s ideas: there are multiple breaches, sneaking missions featuring night vision and synchronized shots, and a poorly executed facsimile of the beloved “Clean House” mission. There’s even a take on the AC-130 mission from 2007’s Modern Warfare, but it’s nowhere near as subversive as it was 18 years ago. Instead, at a time when drone strikes are synonymous with unpunished war criminals, it feels woefully tone deaf and egregiously derivative.Battlefield 6 is a flashy carnival ride that’s uninterested in reacting to player agency and spontaneity. It copies the homework of the influential games that came long before it, and when the competition just had its most interesting campaign in years, it baffles the mind as to why Battlefield Studios didn’t go down a different route. Battlefield 6 is proof that the series needs to seriously rethink how its campaigns are executed. Thankfully, its bombastic multiplayer more than makes up for the campaign’s many shortcomings.Battlefield Is Truly BackMultiplayer is the main event here. | Battlefield StudiosBattlefield 6’s multiplayer is a perfect representation of why the series has endured for all these years. While it’s a treat for long-time players like myself, it should also be a breath of fresh air for those who want an alternative to Fortnite and Call of Duty. The game wisely includes some basic tutorials for newcomers, which should ensure a smooth transition.Like the best games in the series, Battlefield 6 rewards well-oiled squad play. Assault classes specialize in firepower and close combat, and carry a ladder that squadmates can climb to reach higher ground. Engineers are mechanics capable of repairing allied vehicles and destroying enemy hardware with a variety of explosives. Support classes are medics and ammo suppliers who keep the team operating throughout combat, while the Recon class is the stealthy sniper who can survey the battlefield and provide others with critical information about enemy positions.Ideally, you’ll be in a squad with at least one of each class type, allowing your team to complete objectives without missing a beat. Players can excel in a match by playing their roles efficiently, and it's a welcome change for those who may not be the fastest gun on the internet.Features like Battle Royale and Battlefield Portal are meant to make Battlefield 6 the next forever game. | Battlefield StudiosThe classic modes of Conquest, Rush, and Breakthrough return, and are joined by the new Escalation mode. Escalation works like a spin-off of Conquest, where capturing and holding the majority of a map’s seven points fills up a meter. As points are captured, the map shrinks and the points are moved to a new area. It’s a nice twist on Battlefield’s most popular mode, as it makes the match more chaotic as it moves on. Skirmish-based modes like Deathmatch are also available, and the improved gunplay should make that a blast for those who prefer a smaller scale.These modes are paired with a strong selection of maps. We won’t truly know how well-designed they are until the public can put them through their paces, but I found all of them, except for the flat sniper haven that is Iberian Offensive, to be a good time.There’s plenty more on the multiplayer horizon, as Battlefield Studios has already announced that a Battle Royale mode is on the way. There’s also Battlefield Portal, a mode dedicated to custom, user-made experiences, although reviewers weren’t able to test it out.HomecomingAt launch, Battlefield 6 is a tale of two very different games. The campaign reflects everything wrong with modern military shooters: it’s short, boring, completely devoid of new gameplay ideas, and doesn’t have the guts to say anything interesting about the heavy topics it tippy-toes around. On the other hand, it's the best online multiplayer experience I’ve had all year. It’s chaotic, player-friendly, and fills a niche that’s been missing in the current competitive shooter landscape. Battlefield 6 plays it safe to the point of feeling like a remaster of Battlefield’s greatest hits, but when it’s been 12 years since its developers got every detail so right, that essentially feels like a fresh experience.While post-launch support will ultimately determine the game’s long-term success, what Battlefield Studios has delivered at launch is a very promising start. Battlefield 6 is a new high point for the franchise, and the beginning of an overdue journey towards making things right.8/10Battlefield 6 will launch on October 10, 2025, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.INVERSE VIDEO GAME REVIEW ETHOS: Every Inverse video game review answers two questions: Is this game worth your time? Are you getting what you pay for? We have no tolerance for endless fetch quests, clunky mechanics, or bugs that dilute the experience. We care deeply about a game’s design, world-building, character arcs, and storytelling come together. Inverse will never punch down, but we aren’t afraid to punch up. We love magic and science-fiction in equal measure, and as much as we love experiencing rich stories and worlds through games, we won’t ignore the real-world context in which those games are made.