While Call of Duty graces our systems annually for some big-budget blockbuster thrills, it's started to feel like Christmas as an adult -- at some point, things become far less exciting, especially with two decades of year-on-year releases that capture fewer of the thrills you experienced as a child. Instead of waking up to toys, you're stuck receiving socks.
Battlefield, meanwhile, has been biding its time and learning some important lessons. Respawn Entertainment's Vince Zampella -- best known for working on Call of Duty's original Modern Warfare series and Titanfall --- was brought in after Battlefield 2042's divisive launch, and now we have Battlefield 6, the first game in the series in four years, and its most exciting entry in over than a decade.
Battlefield 6 has abandoned futurism and far-flung technological advancements for modern-day, boots-on-the-ground warfare. The series has always been defined by its large map and team sizes, and Battlefield 6 is no different, featuring maps large enough to support heavy ordnance like tanks, in addition to helicopters and jets.
Whether you're in the air or on the ground, the scale of the battle feels truly immense and imposing. On those larger maps where you'll see air support rain fire down on enemy units, you feel like a drop in the bucket of an ongoing conflict. But even some large maps split battles with streets and buildings, making pushing down a crowded road with tanks and soldiers feel like a hard-earned fight. It's scary and confusing at times, empowering and emboldening at others.
Its best moments have you overcoming what feel like impossible odds, like climbing a heavily-defended hilltop for several minutes straight, rushing from cover to cover, eliminating targets that get in your way. Even just attacking with tanks feels epic, with players jumping out to quickly repair and recover before pushing again down war-torn stretches of land.
The game's four base classes set the game apart from Call of Duty and other contemporary shooters, as it forces team play across a huge number of players without ever having them directly communicate. You'll sometimes hear little to no mic chatter, but see players actively reviving players as the Medic class, repairing artillery as the Engineer class, and tagging targets as the sniper-wielding Recon class, all while the (slightly selfish) Assault class users push ahead for kills.
FPS games are usually about granting players a power fantasy, and that can lead to online teammates that don't pick up their share of the slack, but Battlefield's classes, loadouts, and variety of vehicles and strategies naturally push players toward supporting the team. You are a drop in the bucket in these large-scale battles, but you understand that, and therefore everyone else is too. Every small action pushes the team forward, and it's --- against all odds --- one of the better FPS games for a friendly, cooperative experience, even when online with strangers, without voice chat. More than once you'll find yourself downed, only for a stranger to drag you out of harm's way and revive you.
It all comes together to position Battlefield 6 as one of the best online FPS experiences of 2025, and it seems very unlikely that even Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 could change that. But when it comes to single-player campaigns, Battlefield 6 falters.
The campaign combines entirely forgettable characters with an overabundance of military movie-style dialogue, filled with code words and vague allusions to other battles that have taken place across the globe. You talk to an agent, they mention a location you fought in previously, and then you play a flashback mission to that location where you fight an organization known as Pax. What is Pax? Who is funding them? Are they a CIA front? The campaign never actually tells you, as the credits just roll before anything gets answered. While there are one or two decently fun missions in the mix, the vast majority of the campaign experience is rote and dull.
Luckily, players don't come to Battlefield for in-depth storytelling. They come for action, and that's what this game delivers in spades. Those intense firefights are truly electrifying, and while it's still early days, Battlefield 6 seems to be delivering on almost everything players want from a new Battlefield game. Season One kicks off at the end of October and a battle royale mode will come at some point in the future, giving current players even more to look forward to.
While a lot of fans might've been expecting socks for Christmas this year, Battlefield 6 has come through with a sleigh full of fun toys. It's visually incredible, performs excellently on PC and console alike, and has the most satisfying gunplay of 2025. This is a return to form for the series, and hopefully, the start of a bright new era.