Hooked

Battlefield 6 had potential but somehow managed to abandon everything that made Battlefield Battlefield.

Instead of building on the rock solid DNA of Battlefield 3, Battlefield 4, and the Bad Company era, DICE under the ever watchful eye of Electronic Arts seems obsessed with chasing trends. The end result feels less like Battlefield and more like a mash up of Apex Legends, Fortnite, and Call of Duty with none of the soul that once defined the franchise.

It honestly feels like DICE threw away the old Battlefield codebase, deleted the backups, and now pretends it does not remember how destruction, class identity, pacing, or large scale warfare are supposed to work. The mechanics that once made Battlefield distinct have been replaced by design decisions that feel like they came straight from a boardroom slideshow titled What Is Trending With the Kids.

Yes, the graphics look nice because of course they do. But graphics alone do not save a game, and Battlefield 6s campaign is proof of that. For a series once known for spectacle, immersion, and weight, the campaign is bland, forgettable, and borderline tedious. It looks impressive while doing absolutely nothing interesting. Style over substance once again.

I wanted Battlefield 6 to succeed. I really did. Instead, I stopped playing months ago, and I have not missed it. That is the most damning verdict of all.

At this point, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that DICE has lost its way. Ironically, the best example of what they should do comes from Bungie, who found their identity only after breaking free from Microsoft. Maybe DICE needs to do the same and cut loose from EA, because right now Battlefield feels like a franchise being slowly optimized into irrelevance.

Battlefield 6 does not fail quietly. It fails loudly and proudly with a middle finger raised toward its own legacy. And that is a shame, because Battlefield did not need to reinvent itself. It just needed to remember who it was.