When alpha footage of an unreleased multiplayer game leaks onto the internet, how studios react can tell you a lot. Often, they make the call to go full scorched earth: Issuing DMCA takedowns to wipe leaked videos or screenshots from the web as much as possible. That’s not what’s happening with the yet-to-be-officially-named Battlefield 6, which for months has held early playtests that have sprung more leaks than a porcupine’s water bottle.
Most attempts to upload huge chunks of Battlefield 6 alpha gameplay are getting sniped by EA lawyers, but the company is being surprisingly chill about all the other clips and screenshots making their way onto X, Reddit, and elsewhere.
It’s kinda funny that the front page of the official Battlefield subreddit is basically a nonstop feed of Battlefield 6. A few minutes of scrolling turned up:
- A heat-seeking rocket blowing up a helicopter
- Someone gushing about explosions
- An LAV wreaking havoc on a city block
- An unfinished match intro animation
- Shooting an RPG at the ground, for some reason
- Screenshots of one of the alpha maps
- The return of dolphin diving?
- Manually reviving with defibrillators
- A weapon select screen
- My beloved bomb disposal bot’s return
- Generic soldier skins, as requested by fans
- Gushy blood splatters on kills
Battlefield 6 (placeholder) continues to look promising. Though, it’s also striking how much it looks like a less futuristic Battlefield 2042. There’s nothing especially surprising about what I’ve seen so far, but it’s nice to see generic soldiers back, if only because it reminds me of simpler times, before every FPS soldier had to have a backstory and 007 gadget.
Even under the grainy blur of a clip splattered with Chinese watermarks, those maps look very pretty and the enhanced building destruction is obvious. Walls still appear to crumble in square-sized “units” similar to the Bad Company games, so we probably shouldn’t expect the crumbly freeform destruction of The Finals.
While we consume the Battlefield alphas in little chunks, DICE keeps blogging about them. Its latest topic is a spicy one: Classes. In part one of its class system series, DICE reiterates that classes will once again be the star of role selection. It sounds like operators with specialized gadgets and names are gone, but the studio is folding in a controversial change from 2042: Any class can carry any weapon, but you’re incentivized to use the weapons that match your class with passive buffs.
“For example, using our same ongoing test subject, the Recon class, if you select a weapon from the Sniper Rifle category, you will benefit from increased breath-holding duration,” the post reads. “In contrast, an Assault player choosing from the same category will not receive this bonus.”
That’s exactly how things have worked in 2042 ever since the class system reworks of 2023, and it sounds like DICE liked that system so much it’s coming back. The news was a gut punch to some fans, with several already rallying alpha players to pressure DICE against it.
“To everybody that got invited to the playtest this weekend, give your feedback when the playtest is over: WE WANT CLASS-LOCKED WEAPONS! RETURN TO BF4 SYSTEM,” wrote reddit user bshaoulian.
“Make it like Battlefield 4” is an increasingly common sentiment among the fan base, which is funny, because when BF4 was new, I remember equally loud cries to make it more like Battlefield 2. Such is the cycle of a series that changes so much between games: The Battlefield you played when you were a teenager was the best one (which is why Bad Company 2 was peak, of course).
