Since the ancient times of 2007, when Call of Duty 4 cracked player progression in online shooters, I've responded like a trained dog to the arousing level-up sound FX, intermittent score visuals after getting a frag, and all sorts of icons cluttering the screen up. The grind is good, the grind is life, and yet, I don't mind if Battlefield 6 takes things a bit slow on that front.
At the time of writing, I'm level 30 in the game after 26 hours of play time. Considering I have a healthy social life and tons of work to go through (including many games), I'd say I'm doing alright after the review period. That account level is nothing if you think about how fast you can blast through an entire progression track in modern Call of Duty though. That's just the Twitch shooter brain rot talking though, which neither of us should care about in Battlefield.
Conquering from the get-go
Battlefield 6 review: "More refined than innovative, this FPS is on target with multiplayer even if its campaign is just a big shrug"
During my first night on the frontlines (actually the night before launch), I dominated with the default sniper as soon as I entered a match. I double-checked the scoreboard (most players had to be bots at that point, right?) to make sure there wasn't anything funny going on. Nope, all human. It's important to note they mostly were console folks who got lucky with those early physical copies, yet I was flabbergasted by the notable performance you could get out of the M2010 ESR out of the box.
When the game opened up at launch, things admittedly got a bit sweatier. Yet that proved what I was already thinking: Level doesn't really matter, especially when you get some of the most useful attachments after one match tops. Yes, getting to suppressors (my beloved) and other famous bits and pieces of hardware can be a proper grind, but do I really care when the game is as chaotic and unpredictable as we all wanted it to be after the beta?
Better recoil is noticeable. Having a larger magazine (USG-90, baby) helps. You can definitely hipfire better with a laser on your gun. All of these statements are true and seemingly confirm the opposite: different weapons and attachments in Battlefield 6 matter and can heavily alter your experience and class build. But that doesn't mean it's an incompatible thought with "none of these toys are making me better at BF6." While BF1 had me literally dying to unlock some of the more modern-feeling weapons with a disturbing lack of recoil, later entries, including this one, simply aren't built around the idea of putting the best and most fun guns behind tens of rank levels.
It's a playground, not an arena
Though I'm not writing off the usual half-cooked patch breaking the balance in a major way by adding in an unlockable weapon that greatly outperforms the rest in its class, the fact is I've yet to come across a non-starter gun that clearly dominates what's available as soon as you jump into a match without any XP. Whereas CoD's perk systems make the existence of 'absolutely must-have' unlocks for competitive play real, it feels like BF6, much like its immediate predecessors and in spite of conscious advances towards the more cutthroat crowd, is far too loose and playful to waste precious play time caring about weapon stats and whatnot. Unsurprisingly, BF6 is a 'pick your favorite flavor' kind of affair, and that's that.
If you spend a few minutes scrolling through Battlefield 6 reels on Instagram, you won't find many wannabe streamers shouting because they landed a quad kill while sliding all over the place and moving the camera in a seizure-inducing manner. They shout 'cause they had one of those "only in Battlefield" moments, an improvised setpiece so funny or cinematic it sets the game apart from other military shooters. We're so back, etc. No one cares about how that late-game AR performs while getting rocked by missiles from two directions and an entire building is crumbling on top of you, my man. If streamers aren't treating BF6 like a sweaty esport, there's no reason why you should.
Yes, the progression is slow. Yes, I'm not getting my aforementioned cheap stimuli and pop-ups as often as my Call of Duty veteran brain would like. But I'm well aware of the FPS I'm playing daily at the moment. If I wanted to pay attention to weapon behavior and optimize class builds, I'd be playing Counter-Strike 2 and Diablo 4. Just let me put three C4 charges on that drone, mate, I promise it'll be very funny.
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