Battlefield 6 Beta: Feedback and Requests

Intro

I have played every Battlefield game since the release of BF4. I have played a touch of BF3, so I have limited experience with that entry to apply today. My favorites are BF4 and BF1. There are elements and features from the more recent games that I like and may mention when it comes to critiques for improving Battlefield 6. I have also played and enjoyed several Call of Duty games, with the most recent being Modern Warfare 2019 and Modern Warfare 2 releasing soon after. I mention these since it’s seems part of the goal of Battlefield 6 is to capture some of the CoD audience. I do believe there are some aspects of CoD that would lend themselves well to Battlefield, but they are few and far between. Don’t let Battlefield turn into CoD!

The Beta

I was able to get early access to the beta and overall thought it was fine. I enjoyed it enough to remain interested and optimistic. But there are many problems- some being small, or even a personal preference, to some being detrimental to Battlefield’s identity.  Hopefully some stuff will be addressed by weekend 2. YOU NEED TO HAVE TRUE, BIG, BATTLEFIELD MAPS TO SELL ME AND A LOT OF THE COMMUNITY. I know there are some things that will change and will be included in the full game. As a result, some things like vehicle balance is hard to gauge until they are fully fleshed with loadouts later on.

Visuals and Sound

The game looks great. The visual style finally feels like it is back on track when putting it next to BF4. That being said, BF1 had a greater range in color that really helped set maps apart, and it would be cool to see that in the future. Both of the city maps in the beta look very similar in color tone despite being in different places on the planet. The game ran smoothly on PS5 for me. The destruction and smoke seems to be in a pretty good place. I did not experience any visual bugs, but I have seen a couple others who have.

Now, I have seen many other people praising the sound of the game, and I would agree for the most part. Explosions, voices, and most other effects sound good. Vehicles sound good when using them, but some may be a little quiet as far as their main armament firing goes from a distance (IFV, Abrams). It was sometimes hard to detect that there was some sort of tank near me or firing in my direction as a result. The main thing that has a SOUND PROBLEM are the SMALL ARMS WEAPONS. The guns I am using all sound like they are SUPPRESSED, even when I do not have a suppressor equipped. The shotgun sounds like a big marshmallow launcher. The RPG sounds like me in socks sliding across a wooden floor. The sniper does not sound powerful at all as a result of the sound choices. The pistol sounds like an air soft gas blow back gun.  The grenade launcher does not have that nice audible “thoomp” sound. Assault rifles, carbines, SMGs, and machine guns sound as if they are already suppressed, even though I do not have a suppressor equipped. I understand that some sound effects cannot be too loud, but these guns are what people are going to be spending most of their time with. The (DMR) EBR or EMR as it was called here, was one of the only guns that sounded alright with its more metallic action functioning. I tried several of the audio mixes, and the 2 war tapes options helped, but still didn’t make the weapons sound great to me.

This sound problem is not just me either- my friends joined when the beta opened up to everyone and one of the first things they commented on was how the guns sounded too quiet.  Here’s my suggestion, go back and look at the sound of the firearms from BF1 or BF4 and try to implement that sound design. I know it’s a long shot, but it would go a long way.

Get rid of the cash register kill sounds(I believe this was for headshots) and replace with something less obnoxious. Alternatively, and maybe better, give the player some options to choose from for those confirmation sounds. The current kill sounds remind me of some goofy arcade game or CoD and sometimes just take me out of the immersion.

Last thing with sound. Music. I like the small sample we had in the beta, and I hope it grows from there. BF1’s music did so much for that game because there were so many epic and distinct tracks. There was a new album released for each DLC that kept things fresh and each map had its own soundtrack that got your heart pumping. I bring up BF1 because I hope music is something that is not being forgotten.

Gameplay overall

Some things feel like that were made way simpler to use, which takes some of the skill or risk out of using them. I talk about the specifics of this later. Recoil was good with the majority of weapons- not too much not too little, but SMGs pulled off some long range laser beams. DMRs could use a little buff in rate of fire or reduction in recoil or increase in damage. They did not feel competitive.

TTK is a little bit too fast, and sometimes the TTD feels a little faster than that. Some weapons need rebalancing.

In my opinion, movement should be slightly slower- especially in the context of Battlefield. Right now everything feels too much like Ground War from CoD. Also, I did experience some slide cancelling and jump spamming that needs to be looked at. Otherwise, diving and crawling, crouch running, and drag revives were great. The drag revives are the best thing so far- nicely done!

Classes

Firstly, locked classes and weapons make the most sense to me. There is already plenty of choice within each class to fit one’s play style. I played BF2042 and while the open classes were not as atrocious here in the beta as in that game, I am not convinced that it offers some innovative experience. My main worry is that having both open and closed classes will lead to weapon balancing problems and ruin the gameplay for both playlists. The feedback from the player base may cause all kinds of confusion for the playlists and end of leaving no winners. The whole point of a class is to play a role and coordinate with a team. This works well in the closed weapon playlist. Each class feels distinct for the most part, and I experienced some good team play. That falls apart significantly when I played the open weapon playlist. Everyone feels like a one man army, and caused confusion in what I had to deal with.

The following class reviews are in the context of the closed weapon playlist.

—Assault

Pretty solid. I felt like a force to be reckoned with. The only thing that feels off here is the grenade launcher. On the one hand, I like it. It is easy to hit targets at range. But on the other hand, it feels like I don’t have to manually adjust my trajectory up or down, which is part of what makes getting a kill with it so satisfying.

—Engineer

Also very good. There’s an argument that the repair tool is too good at its job. It’s hard to tell right now with the limited variety of vehicles.

—Support

I’m still not 100% sure on the healing and ammunition resupply being combined, but I think it will be fine. The only problem with this class is the Defibrillator gadget. It feels too “spammable.” I cannot tell you how many times I would hear constant beeping as someone is running up to revive me. I would be the only person down in that area, and the support player would spam the defib as they got closer and closer. There should be a charge up mechanic like in BF4, and if you miss- well now you’re punished for it. That brings me to this- it is also difficult to tell when the defibrillator has made a positive connection. Right now, it’s just some paddles floating out in front of me and the only confirmation of a revive I have is the UI text telling me I had a revive. There needs to be some extra animation that signals a connection was successful. In BF4, there was a slight jolt, and this would tie in well with the charge time I mentioned. Also, in BF4 rubbing the paddles extra hard brought someone back to full health, whereas a quick charge was partial health.

—Recon

GOOD LORD THE SNIPER GLINT IS EGREGIOUS. I can’t look anywhere without seeing sniper glint. The cone in which it’s visible is too wide, and the visual effect again makes things too easy for opposing players. Also, when I am sniping and looking at an enemy sniper through my scope, I am trying to be precise, as a sniper would, and go for his head. HOW CAN I GO FOR HIS HEAD WHEN IT IS ENTIRELY COVERED BY THE SNIPER GLINT EFFECT!? I’ll say it again, BF4, BF1, and even BFV had this down. Just tone this effect down a bit. I know there’s the optics coating attachment, but still- tone it down.

Bullet velocity and drop seems fine, but it’s honestly hard to tell with how small the maps and sight lines are.

The auto spot or 3D spotting is another addition that makes things too easy. It feels dumbed down. All I have to do is scan across a hilltop or across a capture zone with my scope, and I instantly know where an enemy is with no effort. I may not have spotted them otherwise if they were hidden well or not moving. It should be up to the player to put in the effort to find an enemy, mark them with the spotting button, and then go from there. In past Battlefield games, I could run across open ground and take fire from only the sniper that spotted me. Now, I take fire from the sniper/recon who autospotted me, all his sniper buddies, and whoever else is looking my general direction who have nothing else to do. Even when playing other classes and on maps where recon is not as common, it seems like there is a lot of auto spotting going on. This makes me think I’m good to come around a corner, only to get pre-fired by an enemy. I know this is the case because it did it to others as well.

One other issue autospotting introduces, is interference. By this I mean, when I autospot someone through my sniper scope and I’m lining up my shot, now someone else on my team starts shooting at him and either steals my kill or ruins my shot by making the enemy run off. In the past, I HAD THE OPTION to spot. If the shot was a tough shot, I would spot so I could notify teammates to zero in and increase our chances of taking him down. Or if some friendlies were in imminent danger of the enemy I saw near them, I would spot, then shoot.  If I had the time, I would not spot and would carefully line up my shot for the kill. AUTO SPOTTING NEEDS TO BE REMOVED OR VERY HEAVILY TWEAKED. If just tweaked, maybe you have to hover your sight/scope over an enemy for a significant amount of time to actually spot them.

Also keep in mind that trying to flank or stay hidden becomes near impossible with the way auto spotting/3D spotting is set up right now. This makes turning the tide of a gunfight or a match a very rare occurrence.

Please also ensure that there be higher magnification scopes with good reticles for the launch too. Something with MIL settings probably. The scopes now for the sniper feel too much like CoD- all trick shotting and quick scoping rather than calculated precision. Please take a look at real life scopes such as the Leupold Mark 5HD 5-25x56 M5C3 FFP PR2-MIL.

C4 feels inconsistent in regard to damage and blast radius. Personally, I would take 3 more powerful C4 charges, rather than 4,5, or 6 like it is right now.

Maps and Modes

I like the vibe of the maps and how each plays, but only if I am not thinking in the context of Battlefield. The city maps feel A LOT like Ground War in CoD, including some the bad spawns. Bad spawns are a problem mainly in Breakthrough. I get the feeling that there is an attempt to thrust the player back into the middle of the action as soon as possible based on the layout of these maps- and THATS JUST NOT ALWAYS WHAT BATTLEFIELD IS ABOUT. The Liberation Peak map felt the most Battlefield-like of all the maps, but it is still TOO SMALL. I’m going to sound like a broken record, but this plays like a Ground War match too.

Also with Breakthrough, why does the match just end when tickets run out as an attacker, but one objective is captured by the attacker and the other is still contested? As attackers we still had the chance to capture the objective, but instead the game just ends. Sure, no more respawns maybe, but let it turn into an elimination game at that point or the defender MUST recapture one objective.

Get rid of the capture zone painted on the ground. We have a mini map to use to see when we are near the zone. People will learn what is in and what is out. We don’t need our hand held everywhere. Put a flag of the factions in the middle of the zone.

Vehicles

Again, not seen in the beta, but a must have, is vehicle loadouts. Having loadouts will help get away from the CoD simplicity that I have been feeling so far.

The IFV feels a lot like the LAV from CoD’s ground war. Too arcade-like.  Just point in a direction and get some free kills.

This sort of ties in with the maps, but if there is a jet for a map, there should be a runway-at least for the larger maps.

I am sure this is the case, but has not been seen in the beta. There needs to be a counterpart vehicle for each faction.  For example: NATO tanks— Abrams and/or Leopard 2(if Germany is still in NATO). PAX Armata- Leclerc(since France left NATO) and/or T90.

The Abrams plays well. Some of its handling needs polish, mainly when at higher speed. I like the detail of being able to see where your shell penetrated.

Not sure how this next idea would work here, but it could be cool to see return. In BF1 there was a ricochet mechanic off of armored vehicles if you did not line up your shot just right. This incentivized players to make their shots count depending on the armor profile of the vehicle they were facing. A decision to risk a shot that could bounce could have a bigger effect on the outcome of the encounter.

Jeeps and similar vehicles seem kind of slow,  or at least sluggish when turning. They should be more mobile for what they are. As things currently stand, that slowness lead to a lot of getting shot out of the jeep. Perhaps adding some kind of mechanic like in BF1 that the cavalry had where there was a little damage reduction for the rider. Apply that to whoever is in the gunner seat of the jeep.

Helicopters have terrible default control settings. I was able to turn off the so called “assists” and that made things bearable. The attack chopper feels more sluggish than weighty. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE DO EVERYTHING YOU CAN TO MAKE THE CHOPPERS MOVE AND PLAY LIKE THE CHOPPERS FROM BF4 OR BF3. In those games, they felt like that had weight and momentum, while still being precise and agile.  Please DO NOT go the route of 2042 where they feel like a RC toy where they pull off impossible flips without losing altitude, or rotating on an axis and then not move in the direction of that axis. Once again, that feels too dumbed down.

ALL VEHICLES SHOULD REQUIRE SOME EFFORT TO GET GOOD WITH. Most of the vehicles are in a good place when it comes to this point, but just please keep it in mind.

Please include dirt bikes or quads.

Please bring back a commander and the AC130 gunship. Also, things to intersect with on the map like bombers overhead, explosive controls, PICK UP WEAPONS, etc.

Shooting Range and Weapon Loadouts:

This was a nice thing to have for the beta. It was helpful in determining what guns, attachments, and mechanics were useful. However, for the full game, there NEEDS to be a much bigger practice range like in BF4 where I can practice and test all the equipment and vehicles the game has to offer.

I do like the weapon customization system, and I would say it is an improvement over the Gunsmith from CoD. The point system makes it work well in the Battlefield context, and it tells you great information. The only caveat is the UI is a little cumbersome when navigating through those menus to customize.

Thank you EA for making the beta easily and freely available. Thank you for taking the time to read this. I hope nothing I said here came across as too rude- I was just trying to keep things a bit casual. I wish the devs good luck and hope you come up with something everyone can be proud of.