Battlefield 6 Campaign Is a Short, But Sweet Military Blockbuster

One of the biggest questions about Battlefield 6 is what’s going on with the campaign. The very first reveal trailer for Battlefield 6 utilized footage from the campaign to set the stage for the game’s basic premise and we got a small glimpse at a cutscene at the game’s reveal event in July, but that’s it. It has been tight lipped and I’d by lying if I said I wasn’t a bit concerned about the single player portion of the game. Reports circulated earlier this summer that Battlefield 6‘s campaign was in rough shape and had been behind schedule throughout its entire development.

Sources told ARS Technica at the time that Battlefield 6‘s campaign may ship unfinished with levels released post-launch unless some serious work was put into it. While I haven’t played the entirety of Battlefield 6‘s campaign, I have played 3 levels from the beginning, middle, and even near the end of the game, all of which seems to make up a pretty complete experience. Based on the rumors, I was bracing for something messy, but the campaign helps round out the rest of Battlefield 6‘s strong offering. It’s not perfect, but it is a roaring good time.

Battlefield 6‘s Campaign Surprised Me

Battlefield 6‘s campaign takes place in 2027 and NATO in a state of disarray, prompting a private military company known as Pax Armata to rise up and begin attacking allies for in an effort to claim power in this weakened state of the world. You fill the shoes of Dagger 1-3, a squad of marines that are tasked with combatting Pax. Throughout the campaign, you’ll play as different members of this four-person squad, all of which fill the typical multiplayer class roles of Assault, Engineer, Support, and Recon, allowing each character to have their own unique gadgets and responsibilities on the team.

The structure of Battlefield 6‘s campaign is very similar to Battlefield 3 and 4, meaning this is a linear story as opposed to the War Stories of Battlefield 1 and V which allowed you to see multiple perspectives in their respective eras. This is one contained story, but it still takes you across the globe. In my preview, the three levels I played took place in New York, Gibraltar, and Tajikistan, offering a wide range of environments to play in.

The overall experience reminded me a lot of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019), leaning into a more grounded and tactical experience. The New York-based mission seems to lift pretty heavily from Modern Warfare‘s Clean House mission where you raid a claustrophobic townhouse to take down a group of terrorists. Battlefield 6 takes this core idea, but expands upon it with the franchise’s signature destruction. You can sledgehammer your way through doors before tossing a flashbang in, blow open walls to get the jump on enemies, and even bust open the floor to kill enemies downstairs.

While you’d imagine that you’re being strategic when you blow down a wall to clear a room, the tables can be turned against you as well. At one point, I took cover behind a wall only to have an enemy take it out, exposing me to a storm of gunfire. The destruction keeps things tactical and tense, meaning you’re rarely ever truly safe. Have no fear, though. If you do die, you go into a downed state, just like multiplayer. A teammate can come over and revive you with defibrillators, however you only get a limited amount of charges and they can also go down in the process as well.

If a teammate goes down, you can drag into cover and revive them. This is where Battlefield 6 really surprised me as you can bring up a command wheel with one unique directive for each member of your squad. They can be ordered to fire an RPG, toss a frag or smoke grenade at marked areas, spot enemies, or focus fire on specific targets. While you can play the game without utilizing these, it adds an extra layer of teamplay and strategy that isn’t often present in these kinds of shooter campaigns.

During a tense firefight, I was low on health and dove onto my back to get low and give myself suppressing fire. I quickly commanded a smoke grenade on my location so I could move out of danger and into cover. These are the kinds of dynamic moments that elevate combat beyond simple shooting galleries and make Battlefield 6‘s campaign actively engaging.

The game also opens up to have more sandbox-y levels with open-ended objectives. You’re given access to vehicles and told that you can conquer your objectives in any order you want, allowing you to make more use of the tools and gadgets that have been made available to you. It’s unclear if this is a big part of the entire campaign or just one level, but regardless, it’s a fun way to shake things up.

Despite my enjoyment, there are some problems with Battlefield 6‘s campaign, namely with the AI. Both the enemies and your allies seemed a bit hollow-headed. I watched a friendly tank nearly flip itself while driving down a street, saw my teammates staring enemies down without shooting them, and witnessed a Pax Armata soldier literally sitting down while I smashed a guy’s head in with a sledgehammer and blasted someone else with a shotgun. He eventually got up, but in a very scripted animation that lacked urgency and allowed me to kill him with no challenge whatsoever.

I also commanded a squad mate to shoot his RPG at a target, only for him to fire it into a rock straight ahead of him. Not only does this sort of ruin immersion in the moment, but it is also irritating because you then have to wait for a cool down on that command. It’s clear the AI needs some work and hopefully that can either be done before launch or very shortly after release.

Battlefield 6 Mixes Blockbuster Moments With High Stakes Storytelling

I’m refraining from talking too much about the actual story of Battlefield 6 since I have only played a chunk of it and all of the missions were at different points in the narrative. It’s hard to get a good read on the actual writing, but there is one aspect that felt compelling. As you’d hope for from a big-budget military blockbuster campaign, there are a ton of explosive set pieces that are motivated by some urgent stakes.

During the New York mission, a train occupied by Pax Armata soldiers who have remotely tapped into a nearby warship is racing through the city. If you don’t stop that train, it could lead to New York City being bombed and left in ruin. After chasing the train by car in the subway tunnels, you crash and are forced to call in a helicopter to catch up to it. You eventually catch up to it and make the tough, but necessary call to air strike one of the bridges into Brooklyn in order to derail the train.

This isn’t the only moment like this in Battlefield 6‘s campaign either, but I won’t spoil them. However, it creates an epic and grand sense of scale for the game that emphasize the dramatic circumstances the characters have been put in. It’s exactly what I look for in a campaign like this and scratches a huge itch.

Battlefield 6‘s Campaign Will Likely Be Pretty Short

In an interview with some of the minds behind the campaign, I asked how long we can expect Battlefield 6 to be. I was told the campaign will feature 9 missions, which means it probably won’t be very long. Each of the three missions I played took about 30 minutes to complete, though your experience level with these kinds of shooters and your difficulty level could extend that time. All in all, I personally estimate that Battlefield 6 will be about five to six hours long when you factor in things like cutscenes, which is on par with your average Call of Duty campaign these days and past Battlefield games.

While some fans seek longer single player modes, I generally don’t mind this shorter length since there is often very little downtime. It’s pedal to the metal with lots of explosive set pieces and stretching these things out much longer can push the player to a point of exhaustion. It’s like how comedies and horror movies generally shouldn’t go too far past the 90 minute mark, as you eventually lose the necessary tension and attention for laughs and scares to work. There is a fine balance that has to be struck and we’ll see if Battlefield 6 can keep a consistent pace in the full game. Not only that, but the multiplayer of Battlefield 6 is the real meat and potatoes, so there is still a ton of value in this package.

Battlefield 6 releases on October 10th for Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC.

Every Gun in Battlefield 6 (With Real Gun Names)