Battlefield 6 Open Beta Review: Positives & Negatives

How Battlefield 6 evokes old school Medal of Honor vibes, Modern Warfare reboot like expectations, and how this game will set the standard for the future.

This past weekend, hundreds of thousands of fans (including many old friends rediscovering the Battlefield flame), jumped into the Battlefield 6 Open Beta with full excitment. Reminiscent in spirit of Medal of Honor-era grit with some good Battlefield 3 and Battlefield 4 spice on top, it feels like a new foundation is being laid for this "struggling" franchise. With visual brilliance and strong core mechanics standing tall amid a forest of quirks and frustrations, this Beta was a rollercoaster to say the least. Let me, Tom (aka TheLankySoldier), walk you through that ride: the context, the highs, the lows, and what it all means for the future.

Battlefield 6 isn’t just another instalment, It feels like a potential defining moment for the franchise. And I'm literally getting a sense of Deja Vu, as I experienced exactly the same feeling back in 2019 with Modern Warfare (2019) reboot, which set the standard for Call of Duty franchise moving forward (for better or worse). Battlefield 6 is going back to that grounded aesthetic that people loved back in previous Battlefield games like Battlefield 3 & 4, but I'm personally getting Medal of Honor 2010 vibes: gritty, immersive, and unapologetically atmospheric. The Beta brought three infantry-heavy maps (Liberation Peak, Iberian Offensive, Siege of Cairo), showcasing destruction, audio fidelity, and new movement mechanics, which is a nice a packaged preview of what may come on launch day.

The Open Beta launched exclusively on modern platforms, no PS4 or Xbox One support, allowing it to flex full visual muscle. On my PC, with contains an RX 6800 GPU, Ryzen 9 5950X CPU, and 16GB RAM, performance was buttery smooth. This technical foundation set the stage for all the other impressions.

Furthermore, the Beta felt like a social catalyst to me personally, as my old, long silent Battlefield friends, pinged me in the menu, asking “Wanna play?”. I haven't talked to these people for many years, let alone exchanged any messages on Discord or any other social media, and I'm just being randomly joined in by them in the game matchmaking screen. I would be lying if that haven't sparked something special in me that I haven't felt for many MANY years when it comes to Battlefield games. That sense of community returning is a rare magic, and it’s one of the clearest signs that Battlefield 6 could be more than just another release.

Of course, my thoughts on the Beta go far deeper than a single article can cover. On the Battlefield One Podcast, we’ll be breaking down our full weekend’s experience. Talking mechanics, design philosophy, and the little details you might have missed. So if you want the extended version, be sure to tune in.

For now, let’s move into the real meat of this "preview", "review" or whatever you want to call it: the moments that truly stood out, the wins that made us excited to keep pressing “Deploy,” and why, despite the flaws, there’s a lot here to be optimistic about.

Negatives:

• Visibility

  Battlefield games often flirt with visual clutter, but Battlefield 6 takes it to a frustrating level. Heavy smoke effects, hyper-contrasted lighting, and thick shadows often hide enemies even when they’re right in front of you. While this might enhance immersion in theory, in practice it feels like a handicap, especially for competitive players who need clear visual feedback.

  
  

• Audio Settings (War Tapes) & Footsteps

  War Tapes is a beloved Battlefield audio mode, but here it becomes a liability. While it makes explosions and chaos sound incredible, it drowns out essential combat cues like footsteps. If you care about situational awareness, you’re forced to pick the less immersive but more practical default audio. But even with default audio settings, footsteps are still very silent and you have to pay very close attention to ANY different sound that is not ambient war sound effects to know if you have a enemy player coming your way. In Battle Royale, if the audio stays the same, this will be a very huge problem.

  
  

• Menus

  The Modern Warfare 2 (2022)-style Hulu interface is a mess. It’s busy, unintuitive, and forces you to click through multiple layers to find basic options. It’s the opposite of the slick, functional UIs Battlefield 3 and 4 had. Dare to say, even Battlefield 2042 had better menus.

  
  

• Game Settings & Options Menu

  While the options are impressively deep, navigating them is like wandering through a filing cabinet blindfolded. Submenus within submenus make finding a single toggle unnecessarily tedious. Worse, some important settings, like showing ping on the scoreboard, aren’t enabled by default, meaning casual players may never know they exist. I had to explain to my co-host Ray where to find that option, because he had no idea that he was dealing with 130 ping.

  
  

• Vehicles

  As a tank main in every Battlefield game, I have to unforturnately say that tanks and other vehicles feel sluggish, awkward to control, and far too fragile given their size. The HUD doesn’t give enough feedback on threats, leading to deaths that feel cheap rather than tactical, or even just emotionally rewarding. Just try to replicate Battlefield 4 mechanics, I don't care about anything else. No joke, Battlefield 2042 at the moment has better tank movement mechanics than Battlefield 6, which was almost as bad as Battlefield V until certain changes were made late into the lifecycle of Battlefield 2042.

  
  

• Sniping & Sweet Spot Mechanic

  The reintroduction of the sweet spot mechanic from Battlefield 1 is a mistake. It creates wildly inconsistent hit registration, sometimes rewarding a body shot at range while denying a perfect headshot just outside the “zone.” Sniping should reward precision, not proximity to an arbitrary distance range.

  
  

• Movement Restrictions

  Battlefield 6’s vaulting system feels limited. Fences or walls that aren’t destroyed are often impassable, creating frustrating chokepoints. In a competitive or Battle Royale setting, this could become a serious balance issue.

  
  

• No ADS Reload

  This feels like an oversight. In modern FPS design, the ability to reload while aiming is standard, it keeps gameplay fluid without breaking immersion. Battlefield 6’s lack of this feature makes combat feel slightly outdated.

  
  

• Slow Strafing

  Lateral movement (A/D keys) is noticeably slow, making strafing in close-range fights less effective. While it might be intended to add "realism" or just making sure we won't be getting the same unbalanced ADAD spam from Battlefield 1, it also makes the controls feel heavier than they need to be.

  
  

• Suppression Healing Penalty

  The concept of halting passive healing while suppressed is solid. I personally like the idea, which kinda rewards ACTUAL suppression in the right moments of gameplay. The execution however is not that good. The heavy screen blur removes too much visual clarity, making it frustrating rather than tense. Sometimes I even get an impression that bullets do go sideways because of me being suppressed, even if I know that it's just a visual type of thing. Battlefield 3 PTSD is strong I guess.

  
  

• Destruction in Smaller Modes

  In Conquest, destruction feels right: dynamic, exciting, tactical, god damn cinema I tell you. In smaller modes like King of the Hill or Domination, however, it creates unpredictable hiding spots that encourage camping and waste time you could spend fighting for objectives. Limiting destructibility in these modes would make them far more balanced and more predictable outcomes, while would be rewarding players that actually want to play the objective.

Positives:

• Visuals & Presentation

  Battlefield 6 is visually stunning in a way that’s hard to overstate. From the moment you spawn, you’re surrounded by rich texture detail, intricate lighting, and subtle environmental effects. The game’s physics-driven interactions mean almost every object feels like it belongs in the world, not just placed there. It’s the kind of immersion where even stopping to admire a blown-out window feels rewarding. The Medal of Honor 2010-style aesthetic (even some music inspired by it, with some military chatter happening in the background, I'm so sold), with its grounded colour palette and cinematic tone, further sells the atmosphere.

  
  

• Community Reunited

  This isn’t just a shooter, it’s a social revival tool. The Beta managed to pull in people who haven’t touched Battlefield in years. I had friends messaging me out of nowhere to hop in. That “everyone’s back” feeling hasn’t happened for me since the Battlefield 4 days, and it reinforces the idea that a great Battlefield game is as much about shared moments as it is about raw gameplay.

  
  

• Immersion in Menus and In-Game

  While the settings and navigation are a headache, the core presentation of the game world is spot on. The way the menu music blends into the loading screen atmosphere, how the squad deployment camera pans over the battlefield, it feels like you’re entering an active warzone (ha ha).

  
  

• Soldier Dragging Mechanic

  Originally promised for Battlefield V but cut, the soldier drag finally makes its debut here, and it’s better than I expected. Not only does it add tactical depth (you can save a squadmate from an exposed position), but it’s also emotionally rewarding. You’re no longer helpless when a teammate goes down in the open; you can act. It also adds an unspoken layer of teamwork, something Battlefield has always thrived on.

  
  

• Audio Design

  The soundscape is phenomenal. Gunfire cracks realistically depending on distance and environment, explosions reverberate with bass you can feel in your chest, and even distant firefights sound exactly like you’d imagine. The directional audio clarity (on default settings) is sharp enough to make you feel like you’re there, whether it’s tracking a flanking enemy or just soaking in the chaos. When I don't want footsteps, War Tapes audio setting sells that immersion very well.

  
  

• Maps

  Liberation Peak, Iberian Offensive, and Siege of Cairo each have their own flavour. Yes, they’re infantry-heavy compared to some classic Battlefield maps, but they’re well-designed for the pace and mechanics on offer. Iberian Offensive is my favorite from the Beta so far, while other two work a bit better in other modes like King of the Hill or Breakthrough. But overall, decent maps.

  
  

• Performance

  Running Battlefield 6 on my RX 6800 and Ryzen 9 5950X was silky smooth, no stutters, minimal frame drops, and stable FPS even in chaotic firefights. That level of optimisation in a Beta build is promising, suggesting the launch version could be even more refined.

Neutral:

• Gunplay:

  It’s serviceable. Not stellar, not awful. Bloom balancing is fair, but if you lack the right attachments, it can bite you. Animations do look nice and minimal visual recoil is doing WONDERS.

  
  

• Movement Mechanics:

  Takes acclimation. Artificial limits feel deliberate, but once learned, the grounded, weighty movement does feel more rewarding. A subtle nod to improving Battlefield 4’s system.

  
  

• Matchmaking:

  Prioritises ping over skill, which can be good. For us (two Europeans and one American), we consistently landed in EU servers and it's nice, but a compromise for our American friend would be nice. But an option to pick region as a party would be appreciated.

The Battlefield 6 Open Beta was a reminder that this franchise still has the power to unite, thrill, and deliver spectacle. The visuals, both aesthetic and technical are standout, and the immersion they foster is rare in modern shooters. No, seriously, it's actually rare these days. Mechanically, the game shows ambition: dragging, grounded movement, immersive audio, destructible environments.

But ambition without polish creates fault lines. Visual clarity issues, clunky mechanics, inconsistent weapon behavior, and UI frustrations all chipped away at the experience. Even so, the positives, especially how it brought my old squad back, cast a long glow that outlasted the Beta’s rough edges.

When your Beta reminds you why you miss playing together, that’s something special. The core is there: the noise, the mayhem, the feel, it’s unmistakably Battlefield. Whether those still unconvinced by the Beta’s snags can look past them will determine if this marks a true franchise rebirth.

Like my co-host Ray said, Battlefield 6’s Open Beta felt like a modernised version of old shoes you used to love. It's new and fresh, but you're familiar with the feel of it. It's rooted in nostalgic aesthetics, yet hinting at a future where destruction, audio, physicality, and social resurgence shape the experience. It sparked reconnection, made me feel alive again in a game we used to conquer together. The faults are often glaring, but so are the flashes of brilliance.

If this Beta is a crooked mirror to its final form, then the reflection is worth seeing through. I have faith this is the beginning of something memorable, and it might just set the tone for the franchise ahead. This article is brought to you by the Battlefield One Podcast, where we break down announcements like this, analyze gameplay footage, and track the development of Battlefield week to week. Whether you're new to the franchise or a returning veteran, follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you listen, and get the full picture behind the frontlines.

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