Battlefield 6 campaign "brings storytelling back," Dead Space devs "crushing it"

One of Battlefield 2042's biggest pitfalls at launch (and there were many…) was its lack of a campaign. For all of 2042's downsides, its near-future setting - in which the world is thrown into chaos due to economic downturn, environmental disasters, and international feuds - seemed ripe for a gripping narrative. DICE attempted to build a world and storylines through its seasonal content, but it just didn't land. Battlefield 6 is looking to make amends. Motive Studio - one of the quartet of developers working on Battlefield 6 and the team behind the brilliant Dead Space remake - is helping to deliver a blockbuster campaign, and according to franchise chief Vince Zampella, it's "crushing it."

While great multiplayer action will give Battlefield 6 the longevity we all want to see, a stellar campaign could elevate it to one of the best FPS games of recent times. BF6's story is centred around the rise of Pax Armata - a well-armed private military that looks to capitalize on a fractured world where the NATO alliance begins to crumble. The fight against Pax Armata will take us to several unique locations around the globe. It also ditches Battlefield 2042's more futuristic setting in favor of a timeline that's much closer to present day - 2027, to be exact.

Those are some big (and enticing) narrative stakes, and at a preview event in Los Angeles, we asked Zampella and Battlefield's general manager Bryson Beede what fans can expect from the campaign and how things are coming along.

"I'm excited that we're bringing the campaign back - we haven't done a campaign for Battlefield since BF4, so it's been a long time," Beede tells us, acknowledging the narrative void left by the previous games. It's worth noting that Battlefield 1 and 5 did have single-player content in the form of six separate War Stories, each following individual characters, but not a linear campaign. "So for us, that was important. For us, we want to bring storytelling back to Battlefield and help fill out this universe with cool characters and plot lines and what's going to happen next. But we're going to talk about single-player as we get closer to launch in much more detail. But, you know, we're excited about it."

EA's decision to put a collective of different studios on Battlefield 6 (something which has helped main rival Call of Duty deliver even more content in its annual games and Warzone) is an encouraging sign for Battlefield 6's campaign. As well as working on some multiplayer maps, Motive Studio is also building the single-player experience in BF6, and Zampella is full of praise for the Dead Space remake and Star Wars Squadrons developer.

"[These] guys are just fantastic, [they] have come in, and they're just crushing it," he says enthusiastically.

It's worth noting that, according to EA's reveal video for the Battlefield Labs initiative, Criterion Games is also working on the campaign alongside Motive.

With Black Ops 6 finally delivering a decent Call of Duty campaign for the first time in years, and Black Ops 7 already teasing a brain-bending narrative, it'll be interesting to see how Motive's campaign compares when the Battlefield 6 release date arrives. No doubt more gritty and grounded than what the Black Ops series is aiming to deliver, it'll all come down to hitting the sweet spot with its length, nailing some narrative twists, and creating some big, memorable set pieces.

Battlefield 6 releases on Friday, October 10, but there will be two beta weekends before then. Get the lowdown on the dates, and how to get early access, in our Battlefield 6 beta guide.

Be sure to check out our hands-on preview of Battlefield 6, as well as more from Zampella and Beede on whether you'll be able to run it on a Steam Deck and what its new environmental destruction system has in store.

Until we hear more about the campaign, immerse yourself in some great stories by playing anything on our best single-player games list. Or if you want to throw yourself into the heat of battle, head to our best war games guide.

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Additional reporting by Sam Comrie.