Battlefield 6 Beta Feedback from a 15+ year vet
Background:
I have been playing battlefield since BFBC2 and have enjoyed most of their games despite some games having a lot of drawbacks. Only Battlefield game I did not play was Battlefield V as during that time I was at a really busy point in my life and didn't play much video games in general. I have played on console until 2024 for all the previous games and so 2042 is the only game I can speak on in terms of mouse and keyboard. This will also be the first time I actually have ever provided feedback in a forum form so please do forgive me for any grammar issues.
Overall Feedback:
I think the game is fun and has taken a lot of elements from the old versions I have loved, but there are some glaring issues (details below). Obviously there are things changing from now until release, but I will still point out the issues that EA is claiming will be fixed before launch. Realistically they should have another beta and push the release until the winter time, but they want to get the profits before CODs release. My rating of this game at its current state is 6.5/10.
Vehicles:
Tanks/IFVs:
I am a tank vet! I love tanks and have had many games where I can directly shift a game with me getting hold of an MBT or even a MAV from 2042. As for tanks I love that they come stock with multi purpose and anti tank rounds as well as the hmg for the gunner. I have a couple issues with it however. Firstly the tanks turret moves insanely slow on first person and this does not bode well when you switch to 3rd person and it is insanely fast sensitivity. I think Battlefield 4 by far had the best maneuverability for the turret where you can counter infantry close up without having to full on switch to 3rd person. If this was to not change, which is fine, the tanks need more health and/or the engineers need some fixes (will talk later). Lastly I am indifferent on the weak spots on tanks. I personally don't like it, but can understand if they are trying to go for more realism but that is not Battlefield. If you want more realism Squad would be your bet, but it feels very inconsistent overall with these weak points especially with the new mines that specifically target this area. For me if EA fixes 2 of these spots I can deal with not having the 3rd.
Helicopters and Jets:
I am not much of a pilot on M&K, but I think it was easier to fly in this game than 2042, but I have no opinion here as I do not pilot. I do think the Jet can be a bit overwhelming when an experienced pilot is in the air, but that has been like this in every game so I have got used to this and they can be easy to counter aside from the Jets in BF2042.
Jeeps:
I actually had a lot of fun in them and think these are the more balanced vehicles in the game and fun to mess around in. I think the only feedback would be to give the gunner a bit more protection, but not many people ride around in these to kill people like a tank.
Maps:
Overall I think the maps we have been given work in certain modes and not others. For example Liberation Peak I think is the best so far with it being playable in every game mode, granted I understand the frustration on Breakthrough, but I have won multiple times as an attacker. For me its just that first zone which is not good and that's really it. As for the other 2 maps they are pretty bad aside from domination or king of the hill, conquest is hit or miss with these maps as it really is just a turkey shoot on most of the points. My biggest pain is the center of Cairo as it just sucks to play as infantry or tanks as there feels like little to no cover for infantry and tanks just get bombarded within 2 seconds of poking out requiring 2 engineers to heal you to even stand a chance. I personally wished they went with bigger maps overall. Liberation peak should be like a standard smaller-midsized map, but it is a larger-midsized map according to EA. Look back at like Kharg Island, Caspian Border, Siege of Shanghai. These maps were great in size and great with having multiple choke points for vehicles. Operation Metro was a map the somehow worked based on multiple factors aligning that being size, class systems, lane construction, and player counts. It is very hard to pull this off nowadays I feel and even Operation Locker was not on the same level as Metro. Hopefully there is better maps in the release or planned in the future.
Server Browsing:
No need to explain just bring it back!
Closed Class Weapons:
This should have been standard for all battlefield games and I have no clue why they ever took this out in the first place. This forces you to make a choice and weigh pros and cons. I have always been a support player in any Battlefield game specifically because I like LMGs and having an ammo box, but when I choose recon I now do not have an ammo box meaning I have to make my shots count if I am trying to not die or it will eventually force me to have to move of need a squad mate to spawn and give me ammo. Every choice you make has a pro and con and you need to make the choice based on what you are trying to accomplish, not be able to pick and choose what you do and don't want on your class choice. This will then cause the game to be like BF2042 where you see 30 Engineers on a team to just take out vehicles.
Guns:
Realistically this is a minor area in my opinion of this game to improve on. Hit registration can seem off at times, the shotgun needs to be reworked, some guns are laser beams and others have some recoil you need to compensate for. I think every game has these issues and they will eventually be worked out and some new gun takes its place until they finally get everything worked out which can take a long time.
TTK and TTD:
TTK can feel inconsistent at times and same with TTD. They know this issue and will be fixing it as this impacts everyone as a whole and a lot of people have already mentioned this before.
Classes:
Assault:
The only thing I can cry about is the shotgun, but I do not mind that this class has 2 weapon slots. The weapons ammo is decreased in each gun for this reason to balance it out. I think it is balanced aside from the grenade launcher it has which can be broken at times. I think lowering the splash damage and fixing the rooting bug the incendiary one causes would be all I would do to it. Plus they did already state they will be adding the spawn beacon to this class, so I would have to see how the rework on this one is after they make their changes.
Engineer:
This class is probably the most broken of all of the classes. The subs are bad at first but get better with attachments. They have the ability to equip the stinger and rpg which no other battlefield allows so no clue why they did this. The rockets deal a lot of damage to vehicles which is why they need to rework them or the vehicles health or both. The amount of rockets they get is insane for how much damage they do and the reload and velocity speeds are very fast, Repair torch is also insanely quick to heal, but I do like the reload animation. They do need to also fix the bug where if you overheat your torch jump in the vehicle and jump out and its reset effectively negating the reload time.
Support:
Realistically I don't think there is much to really change here other than make the support have to choose between ammo or health box, but if you got rid of the medic class I can understand keeping it like this.
Recon:
My biggest pains are the sniper glare and sweet spot mechanic like everyone else. Sweet spot just needs to be taken out of the game it feels random and cheesy while taking away the whole point of being a sniper which is precision. The glare should just not exist at all in my opinion, and if you do keep it lower the effect it has and decrease the cone spread when it shows. It literally takes away the whole point of being a sniper with the light house effect it provides. I used 4x scopes or lower in 2042 to avoid this, because it is ridiculous that as soon as I scope in everyone knows where I am at that moment. On the plus side it does have satisfying feedback when you get a headshot.
Final Thoughts:
This game has all the making of becoming BF3 or BF4 for the next 5-10 years if they clean this up. I currently will not be pre ordering or even buying day 1 unless there is some clarity of the changes I hope to be made. I got 2042 which I will admit I liked at the start but had pains about it which caused me to stop playing until end of 2024 until now. I would play it on occasion and I can say I do enjoy the game, but there is still many things that are problematic especially the vehicles and class additions to that game. If EA goes back to their core roots of BF3 and BF4 I think this game will be amazing, but I still have yet to see it in this beta although they have some elements right.
