BF6 is very mediocre
After playing a handful of hours this beta, all the issues I had with 2042 are still present in BF6. Controller players get reduced recoil and crossplay is still on by default. They're claiming that it prioritizes input, or it will on release, but the problem with that is the inputs were balanced around crossplay being enabled. So controller players on PC have the same assist as players on Console. They don't balance the different platforms independently, which is the right move, but then separate the player pools, or balance the inputs in a more fair way.
The movement in BF6 is fine, it's not exciting, it's not interesting, but it gets the job done IF the actual game play had more depth. The maps are poorly designed, and team play has not been further developed. There's no real strategy to the game, there hasn't been for a long time, but that's the problems with BF6's movement, it's boring. So the game has the same depth but feels worse to play. So I don't really get the point of this new game. Dice needs to just make one Battlefield game and then keep improving on it instead of making a new game every few years, starting over and over, making the same mistakes, and then spending time and resources to correct it.
The maps are horrible. The lanes are few and tiny. It doesn't feel like a bigger Battlefield game, it feels like COD maps or something with more players on it. There are no vantage points, everything is pretty neutral, while you might think that's a good thing, but then there's no spots worth fighting over. I guess that I prefer the loop of having to fight for the superior position, holding onto it for long as possible, but the enemy knowing you're there makes it hard to keep. You don't really get that here. What you do get is you kill a player, and then almost immediately die to someone else. There's no clearing out spaces or anything like that. The spawn system has not been innovated or improved in any way whatsoever. You don't isolate fights, you mindlessly run around hoping you have better reflexes than your opponent and the hit reg gods are on your side.
So all the grievances I had with 2042 are still present:
- Hit registration feels the same as 2042 if not worse. Slower movement and higher tick rates seem to have zero effect on dying behind cover.
- Reduced recoil and spread for controller players.
- Maps are still poorly designed. There's a difference between clutter, debris, and actual usable cover. Small lanes that make this BF feel possibly the most arcade like out of the franchise yet.
- Crossplay on by default. I don't see an option to turn it off, maybe that changes with the full release. However, from what I've read, Dice is only concerned with how Console players perceive balancing of platforms.
BF6 is a console game through and through. It's going to be a hard pass for me on release. I'd only buy it on a deep sale and if Portal turns out to be anything worth while. To be fair, Dice made the game they thought the community was asking for, and it might be. The problem is that Dice doesn't have a deeper understanding of why people are asking for certain features. The questionnaire proves that point. Shallow questions will only give you meaningless answers. How people come to conclusions is more important than the answer itself. For instance, locked weapons = I don't want everyone sniping or shooting rockets. A problem that doesn't get solved with classes having locked weapons, it's a failure in game design. Ironically, I think Dice actually understands that point while a lot of the player base doesn't.
To sum it up, BF6 feels like it was made by people who don't have passion for playing the actual game. It looks great, the assets are all really nice, sound design is great, but it's not fun. It could be a solid foundation if the maps were to be greatly improved and more depth was given to squad and team play.
