Battlefield 6's low-poly rival is back, as its new update's playtest attracts an "overwhelming" number of players in just four hours

Can't quite leave your block-based gaming past behind you? Do you turn down the graphics options in your military shooters so low that they tend to look like a long-forgotten '90s gem anyway? Whether you're itching to break your ties to the yearly military shooter or want to throw down with hundreds of players without throwing down a chunk of your monthly rent, an incoming update to Battlebit Remastered, one of the best FPS games for the price, is gearing up to drop Operation Overhaul. But not everyone is happy.

Released into Early Access in June 2023, I vividly remember Battlebit Remastered getting some serious attention on Steam. It was that wild period of a long-awaited Battlefield game missing its mark, Call of Duty fatigue settling in, and the battle royale trend souring some on the idea of round-by-round deathmatch marathons we had enjoyed for decades. But still, Battlebit persevered, and with 78,000 Steam reviews backing it up two years later, it's certainly one of the more popular multiplayer shooters in recent memory.

Even with the massive success of Battlefield 6, extraction shooter Arc Raiders, and whatever term we're using to describe Helldivers 2 nowadays, Battlebit isn't simply laying down to accepting its fate as players stroll by, neglecting to revive it. In fact, the three developers who worked to get it out of the door in the first place are back at it, with Operation Overhaul - the game's next major update - seemingly just around the corner. It's promising a new map and some redesigned classics, reworked weapons and audio, and tighter movement mechanics both on the ground and in the air. And while the first playtest has seemingly achieved its purpose, those who put their block-based life on the line don't seem thrilled.

Though the 17-second teaser above dropped back in June, the formal announcement of Operation Overhaul just last month was the first real chunk of Battlebit news in almost 18 months. Prior to that, a simple feedback application request went out in March 2024 to 4,000 eager recipients. The Operation Overhaul announcement itself garnered triple that, suggesting a good chunk of players who were very happy to see the block-based blasting game back for another round.

Confirmed to have been in development since that 2024 feedback form, it was announced to contain "a ton of changes to gameplay, levels, UI, QOL, balancing, graphics, and many other areas." The whole bag, really, with playtests set to take place on weekends starting at the end of November.

Well, that first test has now been and gone. And the consensus? Despite performance issues related to memory leaks and other developmental nasties, an "overwhelming amount of players" showed up to see what's been cooking for the past year and a half. But we only have to jump into the comments to see that a good chunk of the paying playerbase is far from thrilled.

Only getting four hours to test what's been simmering behind the scenes for 18 months hasn't gone down well, with the usual "unplayable" performance issues cropping up, presumably stemming from a graphics overhaul that feels a little at odds against the low-poly point of the game.

Now, speaking from a logistical perspective, the four-hour playtest does make sense. After going AWOL for 18 months, the developers couldn't know that enough people would show up at the same time to fill a 200+ player lobby had it been running for a whole weekend. I know I've missed countless beta opportunities over the years by being a chronic procrastinator, so stuffing everyone into potentially weekly four-hour windows of opportunity was a good call. They're gathering crucial data here, people; it's a playtest opportunity, not a demo. A chance to help the team make a game you want to play once it's ready for prime time (again).

But there are some positive comments among the bunch of confused armchair developers. Though they all still mention "the massive memory leak" and say "lag was the main issue," they praise the UI and visual upgrades, and took a liking to the new helicopter handling and the verticality of the new Mesa map.

For those calling it "dead" and having moved onto Battlefield, that's fine. Your PC can handle it. Battlebit, in my honest opinion, is the alternative big-battle FPS simulator for those whose rigs can't keep up with the modern multiplayer shooter. Even with the refreshed graphics, Battlebit's minimum requirements still support the GTX 970 GPU. Once the kinks are ironed out, anyway. That's one that celebrated its tenth anniversary last year. Professor Oak would be giving it a Pikachu if he could. The second-hand market has it for less than the price of the game, for goodness sake.

With more playtests planned subsequent weekends from here on out, keep getting those reports in if you're dying for this low-poly Battlefield rival to live to fight another day.