Battlefield 6 Campaign Preview: A more focussed action epic

In the eternal debate of Call of Duty versus Battlefield, I've always found myself trending more towards EA's shooter series than Activision's annual epic. Granted, this hasn't been such an easy mindset to maintain over the past decade due to wildly uneven Battlefield projects, but when both series are firing on all cylinders, it's typically Battlefield that I prefer. In a multiplayer sense that is. When it comes to single-player campaigns, I've always found that Call of Duty has Battlefield pipped, even if the latter has had some amazing stories and moments in the past. The question then is where Battlefield 6's campaign will sit on the spectrum of mediocre to masterful.

While we won't know for a fact until launch on October 10, I have had the opportunity to experience a slice of Battlefield 6's campaign as part of a preview session. It consisted of three missions throughout the wider story, taking place in Gibraltar, New York City, and Tajikistan, and they all had slightly different elements that made them unique.

The first of the bunch, Operation Gladius, had the greatest focus on vehicular action and began with an intense scene where US Marines stormed a beachfront as part of an armoured amphibious platoon. It was intense, violent, loud, and basically on rails as you gunned down anti-vehicle encampments and soldiers while punching a hole through the Pax Aramata defences. This is before you exit the vehicle and then proceed to work up through tight Gibraltar streets while defending the tank from any enemy soldiers hiding in the surrounding buildings, and even repairing the tank with your blowtorch when needed. This was more claustrophobic and deadly, as enemies hide around corners and use powerful snipers and explosives to put you under pressure, all as you press towards the end goal of a Pax Armata headquarters being used by the central villain of the game.

Now, I won't be going into depth on the narrative elements to prevent spoilers, but even just this first mission shows that Battlefield Studios is not looking to offer a campaign like previous titles. This is something more akin to Call of Duty stories. It's focussed, more linear, dances the line of politically sound, and has plenty of set pieces that define the experience. It's also somewhat of a tutorial for what's on offer in multiplayer, as you are introduced to different vehicles and weapons, class specialities, and the core mechanics of Battlefield 6 gameplay, albeit in a slower and safer environment packed with computer-controlled enemies and not intense online players. To me, this already makes the campaign more interesting as it's clearly looking to tell a more cohesive story than before while offering earth-shaking and edge of your seat narrative developments.

Anyway onto No Sleep, which comes a couple of missions later. Do you remember that epic Call of Duty: Modern Warfare mission in Camden Town called Clean House? The one where you had to methodically clear rooms in a London townhouse in the middle of the night? This is somewhat like that, as you progress through a New York neighbourhood clearing out Pax Armata enemies while attempting to prevent their latest terror attack. It's much slower and offers room-by-room combat, where you breach doors with a sledgehammer with your team on hand. It's more strategic and focussed, and just when you begin tiring of this, it breaks out and becomes chaotic with a train chase, a helicopter evacuation, and a mad dash across a collapsing bridge in a desperate attempt to save the day. It feels like you're playing through an action movie at times, and it certainly shows that Battlefield Studios is willing to take more risks with the variety on offer in this campaign.

And then comes the final mission of this preview, which again is a few more down the line. Operation Ember Strike, as it's known, is what I would regard as the weakest of what was presented in this preview session. It placed me in a more open level and gave me a handful of objectives and basically told me to tick them off as I saw fit. It's a bit more akin to what Call of Duty has been flirting with as of late to middling effect, and the same issues that Activision has faced play out here, where the lack of focus takes the steam out of the mission a tad. Plus, the parts that are focussed and look to offer set piece-like elements were mostly underwhelming. You get to use a small guided rocket system to destroy oncoming vehicles, with the catch that each vehicle comes at you in a straight line, making it basically no challenge whatsoever. Plus, the actual main set piece of destroying a massive man-made structure doesn't feel as thrilling as similar moments felt in Battlefield 4's actual multiplayer, which is a bit of a strange sensation considering that game is well over 10 years old.

This is where I start to notice cracks in the Battlefield 6 campaign armour, as while it's undoubtedly a better direction than the less focussed and thrilling open missions we had in Battlefield 1, for example, the actual execution here isn't up to the same standard as Call of Duty. For one, the enemies don't really move much and stand around waiting for you in the same way that foes did in Rainbow Six Vegas 2's Terrorist Hunt. Your allies, like every other shooter campaign, are absolutely useless and are essentially walking defibrillators to revive you when you are knocked down. There's a ton of collectibles and other challenges to complete that the majority of players probably don't give a damn about and will forget they existed the moment they wrap the campaign for the first and only time they ever play it...

But despite all of this, I do think this campaign shows progress in how Battlefield delivers its single-player offerings. The more focussed design will work in its favour overall and the combination of the excellent destruction engine and the set pieces do lead to memorable moments. Plus, the element of squad cohesion and being able to direct and give commands to the computer-controlled allies is a lovely added extra that should be featured in more games with NPC allies.

So coming full circle back to the question of where Battlefield 6's campaign will sit on the spectrum of mediocre to masterful. I can't help but feel as though it's somewhere in the middle. It will entertain for the hours it lasts, there will be parts that people appreciate and parts they do not, but from what I've seen do I expect this to stand out above any and all competition? I'm not certain it's there yet. Thankfully, the multiplayer mode, which most Battlefield fans are more excited about, is looking to be truly special.