I was able to get about six hours of gameplay into the weekend's Battlefield 6 open beta and came away pleasantly surprised. With a full gaming backlog including both Madden 26 and College Football 26, I didn't think I'd want to tear myself away from my sports duties for long. By the end, knowing that I had a a full day of stories to bring you was the only reason I was able to force myself to go to sleep.
Sometimes in gaming we go forward by going backward, and this is one of those. They're aiming for the feel of Battlefield 3-4, mixing in modern technological advances with just the right dose of nostalgia.
The game's four classes each unlock a special gadget that helps them do their job. Assaults, for example, get an adrenaline injector that allows them to sprint faster, resist more damage and easily discover surrounding enemies. You have to level up during the match to unlock these. So the more useful you are to your squad, the quicker you'll unlock the full skillset of your class.
Doing it this way feels like a nod to the popularity of hero shooters, while stopping short of the gamebreaking, kill-everything in sight at the press of a button ultimate abilities you see in Overwatch or Valorant.
To be sure, the best players will still have an outsized impact on the game but in a more realistic way. My game chats were filled with people calling for sniper nerfs after an opponent found the best perch and made our lives hell.
After trying to use my admittedly lapsed Call of Duty reflexes, I remembered which shooter I was playing and strategically moved from cover to cover much slower than I wanted to. Often, said cover would get blown right off me by an opposing vehicle.
There's nothing that makes you feel as powerful as holding an objective with a couple of stealthy knife kills. In contrast, you'll never feel more naked than when the building you were locking down vanishes into thin air. Warfare comes at you fast.
Medics can now drag bodies before attempting to revive them, and it's a long needed improvement. In every gun encounter, you need to make a quick decision on whether you've got time to aim down sights or whether you should hipfire. Now medics must decide whether they can get a revive safely or whether they need to drag someone behind cover, which of course can evaporate because Battlefield.
Before all that, you've got to decide whether it's safe to attempt a revive at all. I'll be honest, most of my teammates in the beta didn't bother. Everything I've read from my colleagues suggests that this was a common problem. If it continues, you'll want to bring your own squad or at minimum your own medic.
But I'm confident there will be more battles for me. First up is the second weekend of Open Beta August 16-17. Battlefield 6 will officially release Oct. 10, and this may be the year it no longer plays Vegeta to COD's Goku.