Feedback regarding the aesthetics and visuals of BF6

Hello everybody. I've been a huge fan of the franchise since I was 11 years old when I got my first copy of BF3. I wanted to write this post just to share some of my thoughts regarding the visual and immersive aspects of the game, not only as someone who loves battlefield, but also from the standpoint of a designer, since that's my profession :).

I would like to start by congratulating EA and DICE for their launch with this new title. I think it's certainly a huge improvement in many, many aspects since the last previous titles, and it shows in the success in sales. 

I'm having lots of fun playing BF6. A lot of times I'm taken back to when I first started playing Battlefield. It's lovely to remember those times and enjoy again what makes this franchise so great.

That being said, I can't shake the feeling that sometimes when playing the game something feels off. With this post, I want to focus specially on the visual and aesthetic aspects, but I believe this is a problem of the game that goes beyond this. I think the game is good, but it could be amazing. It definitely has the potential, and as a BF lover, I would love to see it reach that potential.

First of all, I believe some of the biggest problems is the lack of a well defined direction in terms of the overall aesthetics. I feel like this title has tried to please many different audiences, and in the end it ends up not fully pleasing any of them. I'm gonna talk about a concrete example; the player skins and cosmetics, but I do think it extends a little beyond that. When I played BF3, then BF4, and more recently BF1 and BFV, something that I loved was the immersion you got from how player skins looked. Sure, maybe they didn't have the variety of BF6, but they looked gritty, they looked real. A youtuber I follow compared this feeling to when you watch a war movie, and I think it's a very good analogy. You felt like "another cog in the war machine", like just another soldier of many. I think BF1 also understood this perfectly, and I consider that title a total masterpiece. BFV, even with it's highs and lows, also had a very good balance between customization and the preservation of an overall coherence and visual direction between every player. 

BF6 has some very, very good infantry cosmetics and skins, but recently I've felt like a lot of the newest ones look too "call of duty-like" and definitely not in a good way. Neon bright colors, cringey masks and decals and just overall soldier loadouts that look like taken from an airsoft field. They are definitely more grounded than the ones of CoD or other similar titles, but I feel very uncomfortable with the direction some of them are taking. "Wicked Grin" for example, looked straight up cringey and unrealistic, and with all the due respect, I believe the backlash it got was perfectly deserved. The grin decal on the mask looked like something you would find on cheap gaming hardware packagings or decals (again, not in a good way), and the color palette made it look goofy. It just feels like something from a free mobile game or something like that. I appreciate the work you guys have done by tuning the colors down and removing the grin, as I believe the skin looks way better now. This is just an example, but I think it applies to many cosmetics on the game. Maybe the grin by itself wasn't really a problem, but idk, make it look gritty, make it look real, make it look as if the soldier itself had painted the grin with a marker while on their barracks. If it looks like the operator bought it from TEMU, it's not good. 

What I want to say by this is that even if I (and many other fans) appreciate that the overall look is more "grounded" than othe current FPS games, I think it would be great to see more true-to-life skins. I know BF has never been a true "mil-sim", but that doesn't necessarily mean it needs to look like a generic mobile phone fps. I believe the rangers skin pack looks amazing, and I would love to see more of that. Ditch the bright colors on the skins, mute them, take inspiration from real military units and equipment, and think about wether a skin would fit in a real world battlefield. I want skins and cosmetics to feel gritty, battle worn and badass, not like an airsoft outfit. I understand that the neon green/yellow is a key point of the Pax identity, but guys, maybe the soldiers don't need to be drenched in yellow green paint or decals. Maybe they can just wear different equipment and then a neon green armband or tape to differentiate themselves on the battleground. I think some skins go a bit too overboard with the neon colors and it's just a big no. Some of the skins are not even inherently bad, they just need to have their colors adjusted because all these bright saturated colors look just silly and make you an easy target on the battlefield.

To be more specific, I think many of us would like to see more skins like "Sovereign Operator", "Commander", "Regiment", and less or none like "Limited Hangout", "Spiteful Mirage", "System Override", "Wicked Grin", "Venomous Pulse", "Phantasm" etc. The skin from the BF PRO battlepass is also a huge turn off because of it's huge similarity to CoD: Ghosts. 

I write this hoping to bring some constructive criticism and to channel a feeling that I think a lot of people that bought this game have. It's not just nostalgia, it's that a lot of us expected to experience the core identity of BF coming back with this new release, and it still feels too diffuse and failing to truly represent what the franchise is and brings to the table. I believe that EA and DICE can do much better than this, and that's why I write this. Not every game needs to be Fortnite or CoD, I know the executives and other leaders on the studios might want to follow some of the strategies from other titles (as is expected and nothing to criticize) but please, listen to us players as well. In a time where almost every game is resorting to flashy, "operator-like", colorful skins and cosmetics, maybe a way to differentiate BF is to be more grounded and grittier. 

I don't know what the solution could be. I think we players wouldnt mind it much if skins were rolled out more slowly or in smaller batches but had much better quality. I think the motto of quality over quantity applies here. I'd much rather have two or three good skins per season pass than having 8 that look sloppy, rushed and cringey. 

When it came out, I bought CoD MW2019 and played it a lot. Many people loved that game for how gritty and grounded it looked, with relatively clear factions and lifelike soldier cosmetics. Some years after the release, they started adding the goofy skins and cosmetics. Never touched the game since.

Please, reconsider the game's aesthetic direction. When you try to please all crowds, you end up pleasing none. I'm starting to notice a very unpleasing direction with this game, and honestly, if it keeps going and cosmetics keep being as corny as a big part of them are right now, I will stop playing the game, and I feel like many of us feel this way.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I know I wrote a lot, but I feel like it's a very important topic. I want this game to succeed and to become something great, and I can't stay silent about what bothers me and other players.

Cheers!

TLDR; EA and DICE, please ditch the TEMU looking corny infantry skins, go back to making gritty, battle worn, lifelike soldier skins even if that means having less but better skins per season pass. Don't turn this game into Fortnite like it happened with other FPS franchises.