Battlefield 6 is the gritty, challenging, all-out warfare FPS we need right now

The street ahead is riddled with debris, my ammo is low, and the remains of a scorched tank are my only cover. In any other shooter, that'd mean all hope is lost. But after playing for a solid five hours, it's clear that Battlefield 6 isn't just another shooter. Across my time with a slice of its multiplayer suite, it was clear that this is a swift, skillful course correction and - whisper it - an exciting return to form for the beloved FPS series.

Battlefield 2042 wasn't a bad game. Flawed at launch? Yes, absolutely. But beyond its middling debut, the overall package shaped up to be a solid entry in time, just one with an identity crisis at its core. But if Call of Duty now has Beavis and Butthead skins and more radical alternatives like the highly underrated The Finals often struggle to find sustainable levels of love, where does that leave Battlefield? The rise of grittier, more hardcore FPS games like Escape from Tarkov, Grey Zone Warfare, and even Ready or Not prove that players are hungry for a return to a more grounded mil-sim-flavored action. Luckily, Battlefield 6 looks to deliver that in spades.

I flew over to LA this week to go hands-on with Battlefield 6 and interview its key creatives. The build EA shared with me focused on Breakthrough and Conquest. Rush and newcomer Esclation, a more chaotic spin on Conquest, will arrive alongside the Battlefield 6 release date on October 10. Squad Deathmatch from BF4 returns, too. And if you're wondering, 64v64 isn't on the cards.

Battlefield 2042's near-future setting is dead and buried, as Battlefield 6 leans much closer to 3 and 4, with some shades of Hardline in the mix. Chaos reigns across the trashed streets of Brooklyn, the thoroughly bombed mountains of Tajikistan, and the once-bustling markets in Cairo. Each map confidently assures you that Battlefield 6 knows what it's about this time around: down and dirty warfare.

Pushing up through abandoned farm houses and makeshift bases in Liberation Peak is an adrenaline spike waiting to happen. It's the kind of map that feels ripped right out of Battlefield's history while still offering a fresh experience. The spirit of famed maps like Bad Company 2's Atacama Desert and Battlefield 1's St. Quentin Scar feels alive here, offering up a large-scale playing field that's a tactian's dream. Weaving off the beaten track in a Humvee is as grin-inducing as ever, with the series' impeccable sound design selling every moment.

Looking and sounding good is only a small part of the puzzle, though. To really crack a Battlefield game, and get players back onboard, it needs to play right. The elephant in the room here? A permutation of 2042's open class system returns. For me, I'm on the side of variety and experimentation. I rely on trusty assault rifles and long-range weaponry for most of my session while sticking with the Support class to pop that incredibly satisfying de-fib. My journey as a healer could be an article in itself, as I almost take on the role of a conscientious objector in battle. But while 2042's similarly malleable class and weapon choices resulted in designated roles getting lost in the mix, that doesn't seem to be the case here, as Battlefield 6 actively encourages you to take on and nail a precise role in your squad. The series' age old mantra of 'play the damn objective' hasn't been this strong in years.

When you do start to get granular with the weapons, there is plenty to experiement with. Attachment points are the focus when it comes to building your guns, with each part taking up a specific number of your 100 total points. Because of this, you can't design supremely overpowered death machines that unfavorably shift the meta. At least not yet. Instead, I fretted over every attachment and my overall build in a way that actually challenged me.

No skirmish is the same in theory, forcing you to rethink your build for the match type and map ahead. Sure, a sturdy assault rifle with decent range can do the job in a lot of scenarios, but it doesn't draw fast enough for close-quarters engagements. Can I negate that disadvantage by sacrificing points for certain attachments? Yes, but I need to consider how it fits into the rest of my loadout. It especially rings true as each class' signature weapon suits the corresponding gadgets at your disposal. That's what Battlefield should be about. Sure, I can outfit a Support loadout with an LMG, but I need to be agile to zip across No Man's Land to administer revives.

EA says that combat has been redesigned from the ground up. Recoil patterns, weapon behaviour, the lot. It certainly feels more responsive than 2042, as guns across each subset are snappier where appropriate. On the flip side, heavier weaponry is bullish, relaying the physical heft it requires to shift these pieces of machinery with each stride. Meeting this is that classic Battlefield time-to-kill. A few too many sniper rounds to my cranium repeatedly tell me the shot is fatal with a splash graphic, ensuring a revive won't be putting me back on my feet.

Between the bullets and ballistic mayhem, it wouldn't be Battlefield without an appetite for destruction. If there's one aspect I'm conflicted about with Battlefield 6, it's EA's zeroing in on what it's calling Tactical Destruction. When I think of carnage in this series, my mind shifts to the Siege of Shanghai or Hardline's excellent Downtown Los Angeles map. Both of these feature iconic Levolution events, but oddly enough, it feels this is sidelined here - at least in the maps and modes I've played. Throughout the preview event, Levolution barely gets a mention by the collective talent from each of the studios bringing Battlefield 6 to life.

Battlefield 2042 veered away from it in favor of weather modifiers. While tornados and sandstorms are cool, I want to see skyscrapers fall or maps radically change shape. There are hints of this in Tactical Destruction. Rather than focus on completely randomized bouts of chaos, it's slightly more curated. A good portion of structures can be blown up, whether that's Cairo's shop fronts and apartments, or forgotten housing on Liberation Peak. Need to create your own line of sight? Blow up the floor or use a sledgehammer in these apartment blocks to get the drop on your enemies.

It's exceptionally cinematic seeing a building face reduced to rubble, especially when you're seeking refuge from hails of gunfire and artillery. But I worry that the thrill might wear off quickly. With plenty of former Battlefield talent heading up The Finals, I thought maybe Battlefield 6 would attempt to meet that game's unbelievable levels of destructibility. I've sunk around 500 hours into The Finals, and I can confidently say that no match feels repetitive because of how drastically the map can be reshaped. The map itself becomes a weapon. You can play with destruction in Battlefield 6 to a degree, but EA still wants you to adhere to some rules.

With no major Levolution style set pieces, I'm concerned that BF6 might not honor this essential Battlefield tenet. Maps like Empire State, set within the game's Hardline-coded New York City, are begging for something grandiose to unfold. I'd love to be proven wrong here, but as it stands, Battlefield 6 isn't quite scratching that bombastic itch. What it is doing, however, is proving that we need Battlefield more than ever.

It's already in a far better shape performance wise than 2042, and hopefully that translates into the forthcoming Battlefield 6 beta, which begins on August 7 for those with early access. Other players can hop in from the first official beta weekend on August 9. Most of the hallmarks are here, from a pulsating score with that spine-tingling Battlefield thump to best-in-class sound design as each gunshot echoes across the hairs on my neck. The real question is whether the game's rumored battle royale mode can rectify the errors of Firestorm, but that's something to tackle another time.

For now, even without Levolution to fall back on, there's already a formidable FPS here with a real chance of reigniting this legendary series and bringing it back to the pantheon of modern shooters.