I was cautiously optimistic about footage had some serious Bad Company 2 vibes in its destruction, and it seemed to be returning to a visual design reminiscent of Battlefield 3 and 4.

Those three entries are responsible for my fondest memories of playing the series, and while I greatly enjoyed Battlefield 1, and found plenty to like about Battlefield 5, it undeniably hit a new low with Battlefield 2042. Battlefield Labs was announced as a way to work with the community in shaping the next installment, which I assumed meant Battlefield Studios (the collective moniker for DICE, Motive, Ripple Effect, and Criterion) had already decided to axe what everyone despised about 2042. Apparently I was wrong, and some unfortunate design decisions have already made their way into Battlefield 6.

Weapons Will Not Be Class-Restricted In Battlefield 6

One Of 2042's Biggest Issues

In a Community Update posted to Reddit by the official Battlefield , the developers outlned their vision for the work-in-progress class system. A slick flowchart and a lot of buzzwords weren't enough to distract me from noticing one glaring inclusion: weapons will not be restricted to certain classes in Battlefield 6. Class-restricted weapons are a major pillar of classic Battlefield gameplay, and their absence was a huge contributor to the aimless chaos of 2042.

In past Battlefield games, there were certain categories of firearms that were only usable by specific classes, alongside a pool of other guns that every class has access to. The latter group tends to have less specialized weaponry, like shotguns, designated marksman rifles (DMRs), or personal defense weapons (PDWs).

Each class, however, was given special access to certain guns that match their capabilities and gadgetry. For instance, the Assault class has assault rifles, Engineers can use submachine guns (SMGs), the class gets light machine guns (LMGs), and sniper rifles are reserved for the Recon class. Battlefield 6 is doing away with this, instead offering incentives to equip such suitable weaponry.

In defining Battlefield 6's classes, the Community Update delineates what the devs are referring to as each class' Signature Weapon. These appear to largely follow the traditional pairings above; per the update, "For example [...], the Recon class, if you select a weapon from the Sniper Rifle category, you will benefit from increased breath-holding duration. In contrast, an Assault player choosing from the same category will not receive this bonus."

Battlefield 6 Is Making The Same Mistake As 2042

Battlefield Team Play Depends On Class-Restricted Weapons

A Recon player being able to use a sniper better than an Assault player is all well and good, but the incentive to use certain guns is not strong enough, and will significantly erode the team play and squad composition mechanics that Battlefield built its legacy on. I'm usually a champion of player agency, but such freedom simply does not mesh well with the type of shooter Battlefield aspires to be. Players are going to ignore the incentives and just pick their favorite gun or the meta weapons with every class.

A character has a specific role to fulfill with their gadgets, and LMGs help them accomplish that role. Giving players the option to use weapons not designed for that class – even worse, specifically designed for other classes – fundamentally undermines the whole purpose of having classes in the first place. 2042 tried to cobble together a class system post-launch, and it failed to save the game because everyone still used whichever weapon they wanted – there were no defined roles within a squad.

Retreading Battlefield 2042's mistakes is going to lead to another reviled game, and it's almost baffling that Battlefield Labs was designed to field player , yet the game ignores one of the more prominent critiques lobbied at 2042 over the past four years. The silver lining is a disclaimer at the bottom of the Community Update: "This announcement is related to content in development through Battlefield Labs, and may change as we listen to community and continue developing the next Battlefield title and beyond."

The announcement is already getting lambasted in the comments, and it's not hard to see why. 2042 was arguably the worst entry in the illustrious series; Battlefield needed to completely revert all the "innovations" it made, yet that's not what Battlefield Studios have done. It's almost shocking that the leaked Battlefield 6 gameplay can look so promising, yet the underlying mechanics are still flawed, undermining the balance of classes that the series is beloved for.

Source: Battlefield/Reddit