I spent 4 hours playing Battlefield 6 multiplayer and speaking with the creators, and here are my 10 biggest takeaways

The Battlefield 6 multiplayer preview event in Los Angeles greets me with a huge sign that reads "In Squad We Trust," and things only get more bombastic from there. I was fortunate enough to be given several hours fighting through the trenches and ruined cityscapes of the war-torn near-future of 2027 in Battlefield 6, as well as a chance to speak with two of the game's developers, executive producer Christian Grass and creative director Thomas "Tompen" Andersson.

While there's way too much info and new details than could ever be covered in a single article, I've compiled the ten biggest takeaways from my Battlefield 6 experience and what players can expect when the game launches later this year. Leaving the event several hours later, ears still ringing from the endless explosions and gunfire, it was pretty clear that Battlefield is back – and with a bang.

10. Battlefield 6 is a clear successor to Battlefield 3 and 4 (with a little bit of Bad Company thrown in)

What felt pretty implied at first is made clear in both the presentation and my talks with the creators: this is a game that's looking to Battlefield 3 and Battlefield 4 for inspiration more than any other game in the series. The modern setting, the movement, and gunplay are built from the ground up, but the template and tone is very much from those two beloved classics. In my interview, Andersson calls Battlefield 6 the "spiritual successor" to BF3 and 4, though also admits that the game's interest in destruction and blowing things up definitely had them looking back to the Bad Company games.

9. Destruction is "deterministic" rather than random – and there's a reason for it

Rather than buildings falling apart in unpredictable ways depending on how you shoot them, the destruction in Battlefield 6 is somewhat set in stone. Have a tank fire at a specific wall and it will blow up the same way in every game (albeit with variations in smoke and particle effects).

Andersson explains the logic for this as wanting to provide "tactical destruction" that has to be mastered over time through experience in the game, having players learn the patterns of the map. "You can rely on the cause and effect," he reveals during a Q&A. "Randomness would be chaotic, it's not something I want," though he makes sure to clarify that players "(shouldn't) expect everything to be destroyed the same way" and that the playspace will still differ game to game, depending on who's blowing up what.

8. Classes are back with open weapons that won't be what defines them

The previous game, Battlefield 2042, did away with the traditional class system that the series has historically used – but now it's back, with all the old favorites. Assault, Engineer, Support, and Recon. However, weapons are "open" rather than closed, meaning that you can have any class use any gun. The purpose now is to have these classes defined more by their gadgets and secondary abilities, which are more powerful and integral to playstyles than ever. It frees you up to customize your character accordingly, and also, the devs admit, stops certain classes from being the overwhelming favorite, so it's not just everybody picking Assault.

7. There's more mobility than ever before, including the ability to cling to vehicles

A four-seater tank? Says who? Now with the new "hitch a ride" system, players in Battlefield 6 can cling onto the backs and sides of certain vehicles if all the seats are full, though they shouldn't expect much protection if that's the case. I didn't get the chance to see if it works with fighter jets… but we can only hope, right? This is part of a push to generally increase mobility and movement within Battlefield 6, including combat rolling to help deal with long falls, the ability to peek and lean around corners, and mounting weapons on cover to reduce recoil.

6. Dragging your friends to safety feels pretty damn heroic

Of all the new mobility elements, my favorite is the new "Drag and Revive," which is exactly what it sounds like. When reviving a fallen ally (assuming you're not just instantly zapping them back up with the Support class's defibrillator), you can drag them back in a direction of your choosing during the animation as a way to get you both to safety and cover. It means there's more reason than ever to make sure that you're reviving your squad, and I rarely felt more proud than when I was dragging a wounded ally out of the danger zone, promising that they were going to make it back home no matter what… which admittedly is usually when a burning helicopter would fall on us both.

5. The new Battlefield Portal experience builder is so detailed you can build minigames into the UI alone

In a presentation full of strong moments and pitches, it was the brief glimpse of the new Battlefield Portal experience builder (wherein players can make custom games and maps) that elicited genuine gasps from the audience. Grass explains to me that they've focused on making it more powerful and nuanced than ever, while trying to ensure that it's still accessible.

The biggest two new features are a "spatial editing tool," which will allow players to move elements of the map around, and a way to make custom UIs for those playing – something that's apparently so detailed and complex that Grass laughs that one of the dev team actually managed to make the game Pong on the UI itself. I can't wait for the inevitable moment that somebody puts Doom in Battlefield 6.

4. There'll be 9 maps at launch, including an old favorite

The other big moment that got cheers during the presentation was the reveal of the beloved Operation Firestorm map from Battlefield 3, which will be making a return to the game as one of nine maps, with more planned for post-launch. Certain maps will also pop up during different game modes, as "Combat Zones" have been built into the larger maps. For example, the Brooklyn map is designed for large-scale combat with vehicles, meaning game modes like Conquest and Rush, but there's small buildings and locations within it suited for smaller combat encounters that will pop up as small-scale maps in smaller Squad Deathmatch games. Maps within maps!

3. The shotgun is an absolute beast and you should fear it

I'm not great at online shooters – my reaction speed goes down by half for every new grey hair that appears in my beard – so while my performance in Battlefield 6 wasn't great to start with, that all changed when I unlocked the game's pump-action shotgun and immediately proceeded to get a 12-person killstreak. Do yourself a favor when the game comes out: try the shotgun in close quarters, and you'll lead your squad to almost certain victory.

2. There's a brand new game mode coming – "Escalation"

Though it sadly wasn't available to play during my preview, the devs had great excitement over the upcoming new game mode debuting in Battlefield 6: Escalation, which by their description sounds like a game of Domination in which capture points disappear over time, forcing players to group in increasingly huge numbers around the few capture points that are remaining.

While I'm excited to try Escalation, it's also been confirmed that there'll be seven other game modes available at launch, including all the old favorites: Conquest, Breakthrough, Rush, Team Deathmatch, Squad Deathmatch, Domination, and King of the Hill, with the promise of more to come post-launch. When is that, by the way?

1. Battlefield 6 launches this October, but you can play it before that!

Yes, we can confirm that Battlefield 6 has an official release date, and will launch on October 10, 2025. But you can play it earlier than that, as there'll be two open betas in August, running on the 9th and 10th as well as the 14th through the 17th! The game is confirmed for PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC, though we don't yet have the minimum hardware requirements for PC players. Still, those open betas are the perfect time to get used to the destruction and gunplay that awaits your squad this fall.

Remember folks: In Squad We Trust.