While the Battlefield 6 open beta wasn’t quite enough to completely grip me, it’s so nice to be back playing a first-person shooter that’s a bit more forgiving.
Competitive shooters like Call of Duty are great when you luck upon a lobby with evenly skilled players. But that’s not always a luxury you’re afforded.
Enjoying these games requires a heavy time investment to keep up with the high skill ceiling. That’s time many of us simply don’t have, relegating semi-regular players to the doldrums of embarrassingly low KD ratios.
Keen to see what all the fuss was about, I jumped into the Battlefield 6 open beta over the weekend. To say it was popular would be an understatement. More than half a million players jumped in on Steam alone in the first weekend, as curious players tested the waters after a run of lukewarm Battlefield entries.
As someone who only plays first-person shooters infrequently, Battlefield 6 is a much friendlier experience. It’s still not easy, not even remotely — you’re only a split-second away from an unseen sniper putting a bullet between your eyes — but there are many more ways to be competitive, even if your aim resembles a Stormtrooper’s.
Playing support in the Battlefield 6 open beta
I always gravitate towards support classes in competitive games. Without enough time to keep my skills and reflexes sharp, I can usually contribute to the team by keeping others alive.
After being shot down, your soldier stays alive for a brief time, bleeding out on the ground. Teammates can jump in and revive you, keeping more soldiers on the park, and preventing the opposing team from picking up a kill.
Except, as has been noted elsewhere, many players don’t bother reviving squadmates. Are they newbies who don’t know how? Is it funny to inconvenience strangers online? Or, perhaps worst of all, they simply don’t care?
Maybe it’s my inner harried parent manifesting in video game form: playing support is my way of dealing with the age-old ‘no one helps out around here’ mentality. No one else wants to revive injured virtual soldiers, so it’s up to me to be the change I want to see in the world.
Realistically, I know that if I choose an offence-based class like assault, I’m getting gunned down the second I turn a corner. So, the best way I can stay in the game is by getting out of the way and keeping the defibrillator warm.
Unlike other classes, support can revive players instantly by equipping the defibrillator. Took a shotgun to the chest? ZAP. Blown 10 feet into the air by a tank? ZAP. Two teammates fell to the same grenade blast? ZAP ZAP.
It’s an oddly satisfying way to play in a game that’s otherwise solely about death and destruction. And the destruction in Battlefield 6 is damn impressive. Maps populated by abandoned buildings look unrecognisable by a round’s conclusion. Every impact, every vehicle collision, and every weapon fired contributes to a structure’s decay and dilapidation, to the point that it unceremoniously collapses into a pile of debris-laden rubble.
A support unit might not be able to reconstruct what was a towering building, but they can still help those who might be caught underneath it.
The bigger the better
As much as I enjoyed playing the Battlefield 6 open beta with some friends, it wasn’t all impressive. Its confusing menu doesn’t make a strong first impression. A big splash screen shows the latest news, leaving you to figure out where the actual game modes are.
Instead of just listing the available game modes, Battlefield 6 steers you towards curated playlists with large tiles. Let me see everything clearly on one screen! Perhaps it’s the developers’ way of showing more love to specific game modes. But when I just want to play big map encounters with my mates, I want less time in menus and more time in games.
To EA’s credit, this was one of the smoothest betas I’ve ever played. Playing on a PS5 Pro during the early evening in Australia, I connected to matches without delay and encountered no technical hiccups.
That didn’t make up for some tepid map designs, however. Of the several maps included in the open beta, only Liberation Peak captured the scale I remember from the copy of Battlefield 2 I got with a Pizza Hut bundle. Jets roaring overhead and attack helicopters patrolling the skies gave a much-needed sense of verticality.
Most other maps favoured close-quarters combat, which is fine in small doses, but wearisome when they occupy most of the match rotations. Logically, I should be grateful for the focus on tighter maps. Less space to cover means I can revive more teammates quicker, boosting my score.
But that’s not what I play Battlefield for. I play it for the slightly slower and more strategic team-based gameplay. Even if I spend most of the time running around with my little shock paddles.
Battlefield 6 releases on 10 October 2025 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and PC.
