A few weeks ago, EA officially gave name to its testing initiative for the next Battlefield. The publisher revealed Battlefield Labs as the new banner for all things community testing-related, and subsequently opened player sign-ups.
The website was hammered for days, with hundreds of thousands of players showing interest, to the point that queue times were in the several hours, with thousands waiting in each. Some of those players actually managed to get in, and over the past week, a few mavericks have been sharing gameplay from the test.
Having been a Battlefield fan since BF2, it’s hard not to be impressed by what I saw. More than that, I was quite surprised how little my feelings have to do with the surprisingly well-puttogether state the build appears to be in.
One of the longest running gripes Battlefield fans have had with the series is how DICE seemingly has to start from scratch with every new Battlefield game it develops. Unlike competitor Call of Duty, a lot of the technical advancements, gameplay features and mechanics developed for the previous game get thrown out when the developer starts working on the next one.
Some of that is to be expected, especially as Battlefield switches historical eras and settings with almost every new game, but most of the well-established, beloved features rarely get iterated upon. I remember feeling frustrated to see Battlefield 2042 doing away with Battlefield 5’s exceptional movement mechanics. Battlefield 5 brought so many fundamental improvements to the way your character feels that, if anything, they only needed to be adjusted somewhat for the next game, not thrown out entirely.
You can apply the same logic to so, so many other features and mechanics everyone liked that inexplicably ended up being one-hit wonders. The Behemoths, infantry charges and Operations mode from Battlefield 1, the more complex destruction and fortification systems of Battlefield 5. Going further back, so many things we loved in BF3 and BF4 were either ignored (vehicle mechanics), or made worse in later iterations (test range).
So, imagine my surprise to watch all that low-quality Battlefield Labs footage and see that Battlefield 5’s crouch run, combat dive and landing roll are all alive and well in the upcoming game. Body dragging, a feature DICE advertised prior to that game’s launch, but never managed to actually make it work in the final game, is working just fine in the build.
In fact, the way contextual leaning works – which started with Battlefield 5 – can be spotted here, and appears to be working more smoothly, too! Imagine that, a feature being iterated upon in the new game and not thrown out entirely.
It is clear, however, that the next Battlefield is taking most of its cues from BF4 – at least in appearance. The HUD and UI are very much modern iterations of that game’s look, and you can even spot that game’s in-match Field Upgrade progression system.
There’s a clear distinction between classes – both in their visuals and silhouettes, as well as their functions. Some of that may change and evolve over time, of course – EA is very much banking on selling Warzone-like skins – but what’s there today is a solid foundation.
Another element that evolved from Battlefield 5 is destruction, and it’s especially impressive to see how reactive the system is to different types of damage. A tank rolling through a building will leave a certain mark that’s a lot different from the one left by a grenade going off indoors.
The map itself appears to be inspired more by the close-quarters skirmishes of BF3’s Seine Crossing and BC2’s Arica Harbor. Pre-destroyed buildings create pathways that force players to meet, while others are left for players to discover and create on their own.
So far, this looks like Battlefield: All the Hits. It may sound tacky to play on nostalgia there, but Battlefield has really never done that. It’s one thing to bring back an old map, and something else entirely to create a game that feels like an amalgamation of the best parts of earlier games.
For my money, this is the best way to bring people back to one of the best shooters in the space, and remind them of why they fell in love with it in the first place.