HOW I PLAYED
I played the Battlefield 6 open beta on my R7 7800X3D, RTX 3080 gaming PC via Steam. I played at 1440p and was able to get around 120fps.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Okay, so full honesty: I have never properly played a Battlefield game. I think I might’ve dipped into the 2042 beta back in 2020 for like 6 minutes, but I’m not even confident I fired a shot. I’m that guy who 100%’d Elden Ring Nightreign on every platform it’s on... I don’t do shooters. I’m a certified Souls snob. So when I say I was nervous to boot up Battlefield 6, I mean I was expecting a massacre, and I was right, but not in the way I expected.
I get into the game and BAM, greeted by a queue of 15,000 players. I thought, “Welp, guess I’m going to go make dinner.” But somehow I was in a match within 2 minutes with my friends (shoutout to WaraWana and Baal01Dante for babysitting me). That alone earned points in my book.
Getting started was a little clunky, I didn’t really know how to join up with friends or even start a match. Battlefield’s menus don’t exactly hold your hand, and there’s no “newbie lane” for folks like me. But once we were in, it felt smooth. No weird lag, no stuttering, just responsive gameplay and lots of chaos... the good kind. And sure, I lasted an average of maybe 27.4 seconds per spawn, but somehow I wasn’t annoyed. I was going down LEFT AND RIGHT (like your mum), but I was still having a good time with my friends.
That right there? That was a great sign.
WHAT WORKED
Battlefield 6 is fast. Like, die-fast, respawn-fast, get-back-in-the-fight-fast, and I genuinely loved that. For someone who is basically still learning how to aim down sights, it was a blessing that I didn’t have to wait minutes on end just to get back into the action. Respawns were quick, and the map kept the action flowing constantly.
Performance-wise? I was impressed. I wasn’t expecting it to be super insane path traced graphics and sure, it’s not on the level of cutting-edge RPGs or anything... but the lighting, smoke effects, and map design all looked great, especially considering it’s a beta. Explosions had weight, and environments felt lively. Running around with bullets flying overhead and buildings falling apart around me? That immersion hit different.
Movement also felt really solid. Sprinting, vaulting, sliding, nothing felt floaty or delayed. Even when I was panicking and hitting the wrong buttons like a toddler on a keyboard, the controls felt sharp and reactive.
I also liked the way the class system worked. As someone completely new to the franchise and the genre, I appreciated that I could pick a class based on general vibe (I leaned toward support-style roles) without getting completely punished for it. Being able to switch weapons across classes gave me room to experiment without committing to one playstyle. I don’t know what kind of FPS player I am yet, so this flexibility was huge.
Big shoutout to how quickly you can get into matches. As someone who’s trash at these kinds of games, I cannot tell you how grateful I was that I could fail fast and try again even faster. No six-minute spectator mode. No “you’re out until the round ends.” Just straight back into the chaos. Loved it.
WHAT DIDN’T WORK
Okay, now this is from the perspective of someone who has all the map awareness of a blind dog... but there was this one map, this one choke point, where the snipers just had everything locked down. You peeked for even a fraction of a second and it was instant death. And it didn’t feel like “Oh I just suck” (even though I do), it felt like there was literally no way to flank or get to them unless you were fucking Shroud.
It was a frustrating pocket where it felt like the map layout just heavily favored campers, and once they were set up, the scoreline basically just spiraled. I’m not asking for handholding, but I am asking for a chance to, you know, live for more than half a second while trying to do something about it. A little tweaking to that layout, maybe more cover, more flank routes, would go a long way.
Besides that? I honestly didn’t encounter any major bugs or jank. The UI could be more intuitive, especially for new players trying to squad up or customize loadouts, but nothing game-breaking. Most of the friction came from me being bad, not the game being broken.
WORTH CONTINUING?
Absolutely, yes.
I mayyy suck, okay, I DO suck, but Battlefield 6 made me want to keep playing. There’s this weird addictive loop of “die, learn, die better” that hits in a satisfying way. The moment I started understanding the maps even a little bit, or getting a halfway-decent kill, I could feel the dopamine building. I’m nowhere near contributing meaningfully to my team yet, but the desire to improve is there.
When the full game drops, I’m 100% jumping into the campaign first, gotta ease into the mechanics a bit more. But I’ll also be hopping into more multiplayer with friends, especially if the devs keep ironing out the balance and fine-tuning the flow.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Look, I don’t have the Battlefield history to tell you whether this is a return to form or a total reinvention. But what I can say is that Battlefield 6 beta was fun enough to grab me, a total FPS outsider, and pull me in for hours of chaos, frustration, laughs, and the occasional “Holy SHIT! I actually did something!” moment.
If you’re an FPS vet, I imagine you already know where you stand. But if you’re like me, a total beginner, maybe even skeptical about dipping into the genre... this beta proves that even someone who normally dodges shooters can have a great time.
Did you play the Battlefield 6 beta? Let me know what you thought... especially if you found that sniper nest. I want to know I’m not alone.
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