Much ado has been made about Battlefield 6‘s map sizes, but frankly, I am not worried in the slightest. The Battlefield franchise is best known for its scope and scale. It prides itself on all-out warfare and has always distinguished itself from other shooters by having an emphasis on grander gameplay. The maps are massive, there are tons of vehicles to travel around in, and there are a lot of players to give a feeling of chaos. It’s a big difference from Call of Duty’s 6v6 lobbies, which are much faster-paced by comparison. If a Battlefield player chooses, they can remove themselves from the action pretty easily and watch from afar.
Ironically, Battlefield 2042 went a bit too big. Matches could have up to 128-players, often populated with bots, and the maps were absurdly big. They had way too much downtime and lacked a sense of flow, leading DICE to have to rework some of them in post-launch updates. As a result, Battlefield Studios realized bigger isn’t always better and scaled it back a bit for Battlefield 6. The series’ triumphant return is back to basics with 64-player matches that focus on destruction and that feeling of so-called all-out warfare. However, some took umbrage with the size of the maps.
Battlefield 6‘s Map Sizes Shouldn’t Worry You
The Battlefield 6 beta featured four maps, three of which are notably smaller than ones from previous games. The other, Liberation Peak, is more typical, but still feels a bit restrained due to the fact that you only get one of each vehicle per team and there isn’t a ton of room to fly around without being locked on to by AA. The team was clearly focused on close-quarters gameplay for the beta content and getting players familiar with that moment-to-moment gunplay, likely wanting to use that faster pace to gain more data and feedback about how the game plays.
Still, this led some to fear that Battlefield 6 would be mostly small maps when it launches in October. Aside from the fact that Battlefield Studios has already assured people that there are massive maps in Battlefield 6, I don’t have any real worries about the size of this game. For starters, I think the maps in this game so far have focused on density rather than overall size. Sure, having big open spaces for tanks and infantry to fight in is great, and I hope to see that, but urban combat is just as important.
Being able to go into plenty of buildings and weave through a maze of back alleys is also really fun. Siege of Cairo was my favorite map in the beta, primarily because it feels like there are so many places to go. If you’re a tank, you can’t just roll into an objective and shoot at anyone in the road. There are rooftops and numerous windows you have to watch as someone could sneakily fire off some rockets at you. It feels like a proper war zone where there is always a place to turn the tide of war. Not only that, but being able to use a tank to blow out the floors or walls of those buildings to flush out foes keeps things consistently fresh and satisfying. Cairo even feels a bit comparable to Battlefield 4‘s Flood Zone, though not as vertical.
However, personal preference aside, this also isn’t the first time Battlefield has even experienced this. Battlefield 3‘s beta took place in Operation Metro, a map that has no vehicles at all and can feel claustrophobic. Of course, this map is now a huge fan-favorite that fans routinely want to see return. That map was also important as it showed the variety of sizes that Battlefield 3 could incorporate. You have infantry-only maps that are focused on firefights, but also maps like Caspian Border that mix everything together.
Even if every new map in Battlefield 6‘s launch rotation was the size of the ones in the beta, I’m still not worried. Operation Firestorm is coming at launch and Battlefield Studios has stated that it will be adding more classic maps to the game based on fan requests. As such, that will certainly mean some of those big, large-scale battle grounds like Caspian Border or Hainan Resort that capture all aspects of gameplay that Battlefield has to offer.
What maps do you want to see in Battlefield 6? Let me know in the comments.
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