Battlefield 6 Beta - Full review

This review is based on my experience of the beta, over the 8 days it was avaialble
I am not a long-time player of the BF franchise, I played BF2MC during my PS2 days, and recently I dipped my toes in BF1.

1. Performance

I played this with a RTX 2070 Super. Consistent 60 FPS on 1980 x 1080, medium settings. So, pretty good optimization I'd say.

2. Art Direction

Since I don't have the max settings, I don't want to talk about graphics, but art direction overall.
From the 4 maps, each of them has their identity, color palette, architecture details. A quick glance, and you can immediately know which map you're playing. And with experience, with the same glance, where you are on said map.
Weapon models are neat, They look all slightly used, not shiny new from the factory. A small detail maybe, but I find that more believable that way. Well-maintained, of course, but they probably saw a few battles.
Same for vehicles.
Infantry models, I am a bit more split. NATO units are easy to identify, and pretty good choice of camo, it seems to blend well with most terrains. For the Pax Armata, I know the joke of them being your sunday teenager airsoft team has ben done and overdone... But yea, I agree with this statement. Those helmets look like cheap plastic, and worse in my opinion, the different classes are less visually distinct.

3. Atmosphere, visual and audio effects

It felt intense. That's the least I can say.
Smoke everywhere, debris falling off, buildings collapsing, it was a treat to walk through this amount of desolation, and sometimes even be the reason of that desolation :P
I am especially impressed with the audio. It has been a long time since a tank firing sound made me jump on my chair. And I mean it litterally. I didn't see that tank, and I got surprised by how close that sound felt, while in reality, it was pretty far.
And, it might sound odd, but I felt more intensity when the fights were over longer distances. Because you still hear the shot, of course, but also the bullet whistle near you, impact that rock or wall. Close combat was enjoyable too, but I didn't feel that tension that much.

4. UI/UX

I'm not gonna sugarcoat it: it is beyond awful.
The main menu hides a good part of the options, just to display first and foremost the marketing stuff. 70% of the screen is reserved to something you will pay attention to once, and after that it will become an annoyance and you just want to play.

Anyone who has taken any course in UI/UX design will tell you the golden rule: Horizontal scroll is not a mistake, it's the seven deadly sins in one spot. Wrath of the players, Sloth of the UI designer, Pride and Lust of the marketing team, Envy of competitors who have done that for years despite players yelling they don't like it, Gloutonny and Greed of the publisher knowing very well such an interface is designed not for comfort, but to encourage to buy whatever they are advertising.

Another golden rule is the number of clicks you have to do when you want to do anything. To customize a weapon: Loadouts > Select your class > Select your weapon > Click "Modify" (which for some reason leads you to an empty intermediary page...) > Click "Customize". Now you are on the screen where you have about 10 attachment points. Have fun. If a hardcore game like Insurgency Sandstorm can give you access in 3 clicks, why do you need double this amount, for a more restrictive system ?

Last, but probably the worst: the settings menu is Greek mythology level of labyrinth. Never have I ever struggled so much with my keybinds. And I have played C&C Generals (and still do to date), where keybinds can only be done via editing the game files. To this day, I still haven't found the way to invert my mouse on air vehicles. I tried many options in several menus, none worked. So I ended up not using air vehicles because that was driving me nuts. Also if there are conflicting keybinds, how come I can't override them simply ? Why do I need to manually go to the previous function of the key I'm assigning and bind it to another key I don't use ? Who is the absolute numb nut who never saw a settings menu in his life who designed this ? And to top it off, sometimes when you go to one of the MANY submenus to fine tune something, and go back to the previous page, you get redirected to another section because someone was too incompetent to understand the concept of a "previous" button. I swear, this settings menu has been designed by a retired Soviet administration officer, because to make something that intricate for a simple task, there is no other explanation.

And I haven't even talked about the in-game UI... Relax, this one is fine. Not outstanding, but fine. My only issue with it is why isn't the compass activated by default ? You get radio call-ins about marked dangers, they mention north, east etc, but you don't know where that is. Just a nitpick, but a thing to think about.

5. Gameplay - Classes

As I mentioned, my BF experience is rather limited. So I will focus on how I enjoyed these classes in the absolute, not relative to any previous BF title.

5.1 Assault

"Frontline killers" as advertised. They do the job. I am waiting to see what other gadgets they will get, because for now, they are rather bland. Not "bad", bland. They are encouraging a very COD-like playstyle with the special combat shot, which refreshes if you kill within 5 seconds, and I find that terrible. The regular adrenaline shot doesn't strike me as super impactful, from the eyes of a beginner. Explosive damage mitigation seems poinless because explosives either do bad damage by default (RPG), or do so much overkill damage, you will die anyway (thermobarics and hand grenades). Better sprint is what I use it mostly for. Control effect mitigation is also eh, as once you get flashed the assaulter is right behind and by the time you stim yourself, you have his shotgun barrel in the mouth.
I didn't use the rifle sling a lot, because it limited the number of mags I was carrying. So, I mostly played with 1 primary and both launchers.

5.2 Engineer

They do the job to take care of your vehicles and destroy other's. The special ability to "overcharge" the repair tool is neat in some situation. Not much to say about this one

5.3 Support

I have seen a LOT of debate around splitting ammo and heal. And honestly, I prefer when it gives both. Because for me, less hesitation. One crate does it all, simple and efficient. If it is too much of a problem, maybe reduce the area of effet, so you need more bags for secure an area. Or increase the cooldown. And medic using LMGs doesn't shock me as many others. It was standard in BF2MC. Up to debate I guess ?

5.4 Recon

So many things about this class make my skin itch... Why is the motion sensor the signature gadget of this class ? You can spam it as much as you desire, with barely any restriction, just a small cooldown. On a wide open map like liberation peak it is no big deal, but on a tighter one like the other 3 it is really a problem. Add on top the drone call-in, and hiding becomes just impossible.
I'm waiting to see what other gadgets it will get in the release version, especialy knowing the respawn beacon goes to assault.
Also, could it be possible to know which scopes do have a glint ? Or is it any scope on a sniper rifle ? Or is it also on DMR ? An in game indication would be nice.
And... a funny detail. How come recon are the only ones trained to hold their breath ? Every class has access to DMRs and high power scopes. I would prefer everyone being able to do it, and recon being able to hold longer. Just a detail, nothing wrong here.

6. Gameplay - In game

6.1 Game modes

I played mostly conquest. A bit of breakthrough and rush. And I ignored deathmatch, domination and koth. At first I didn't understand the difference between rush and breakthrough, but I quickly caught up. Slightly disappointing those 2 don't have a full 64 players option. Because rush on liberation peak when you're on attack and the defenders have 5 snipers in the hills... Tanks don't help much, since either snipers use C4, or since rush was only avaiable in unlocked weapons, you had engineers with sniper rifles ><. Quite a bad moment to pass. How much did I wish for a mortar akin to BF1 in these moments...

6.2 Locked vs Unlocked weapons

I prefer locked. I played both, mainly because my friends prefer unlocked.
My take is that for objective-based game modes, everyone should have their role and not be a jack of all trade. Maybe keep them unlocked on deathmatch and domination, where kills matter more, and vehicles are not available.

6.3 Weapons

Balancing requires some fine tuning. Just general opinions
It feels like higher fire rate means higher success rate, and when you have high fire rate laser beams like the M4A1, M433 and MP7A1, other rifles like the HK417 or G36 (forgot the ingame names, you know which one they are) feel very underwhelming. It is still unclear to me what differenciates in game a carabine from an assault rifle, feels like an arbitrary choice.
SMGs dominate in close quarters due to their insane rate of fire. your only chance against them is a one shot kill, usually with a shotgun.
I'm not gonna make many friends on this one, but the shotgun was so much fun. I know the whole debate with the rifle sling is a thing. I didn't use the rifle sling. I was running around with a shotgun primary. And thank you the devs for making a shotgun that feels like a shotgun, and not a useless nerf gun.I hope this particular shotgun stays unchanged, and maybe if there are auto shotguns like the AA12 have them less powerful.
DMRs are rather lacking. The only case I found them useful was on Liberation Peak, to apply suppressive fire on snipers. They are decent at counter-sniping, but I wouldn't use them in a closer environment.
I am terrible with the sniper rifle, so I'm not going to talk about it.
LMGs are a bit lacking. If they are supposed to apply suppression, they are terrible at it. I'd rather use the magazine fed one (forgot the name) and pop heads. This thing is scary good at it. But for supporting and suppressing, pass.

6.4 Summary

Overall, aside some specific scenarios where people were glitching on Cairo rooftops, I had a great time. The game flow is good, and it can go back and forth. Sometimes you can even lose a game despite having advantage during the most part. This is the part I prefer. You need to give it all at all stages. Otherwise, you can get stomped last minute (not if you're 700 points ahead, sure. But I've seen teams catching up on a 300 points difference).

7. Technical difficulties

For a beta, it was surprisingly stable. No hard crashes
I have had a few freezes where I got stuck in loading screens (very marginal), forcing Alt F4 and restart.
I got rare occurences of screen tearing. Actual rare occurences. Not BF2042-like "rare" occurences.
Sometimes (only during week 2) I got movement bugs, where my character would suddenly go in unwanted directions. I press S to go back, it goes forward. Again, rather rare.
A few odd visual things happened, like levitating panels on empire state. Pretty sure it's known, it was already there during the multiplayer showcase.

8. Wishlist

Not much, but nice to have, some kind of practise range for vehicles. Not only to get the hang of it, but so one can fine tune his settings. Give one can find said settings...

9. Conclusion

The game is promising. I have over 40 hours of gameplay through those 8 days. And I had a great time.
Gameplay is solid. Can't wait to see the new gadgets to come.
Please, Please, PLEASE redo the menus. Entirely. Someone even made a concept of his own, and it's 100 times better. 
I won't pre-order, and I won't buy it day one.
I will wait for release, for reviewers to give their opinion, to see more gameplay, to see what kind of new toys are available, and what kind of micro-transactions will be force-shoved last minute. Because, while I trust the devs to continue doing a good job like they have done so far, I don't trust the suits. The publisher is still EA. EA games. Monetize everything.