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Battlefield 6 is a year old. It’s worn a few masks in that time, with each season shaking things up in one way or another – new weapons, new maps, and, generally speaking, a new approach to playing the FPS game. Last time around, we got a package that revolved around naval warfare and air superiority. It had a distinct theme and an obvious vision – does Season 5 match up?
Here are the basics of what you can expect with Battlefield 6 Season 5: three new maps – Vegas Strip, Area 51, and European Casino – a new injection of pace into Redsec with Rapid Royale, a couple of new vehicles, and a small drop of new gear, with each class getting at least one new toy to play with.
The theme here is more geographical than thematic, with all of the new maps being in and around Las Vegas in Nevada. The location is what draws these new offerings together rather than a distinct playstyle or mechanic. Visually, Vegas is distinct and brash, with Area 51 propping up the traditional Battlefield experience with its sprawling military base aesthetic. I jumped into an early preview event to play the new maps, and found them to be a bit of a mixed bag.
The Vegas map is chaos; spawn points are taken and lost frequently, and each foothold can be flanked by three others – there is no line in the sand here. In all honesty, it felt like a bit of a mess, with no real direction to be found in the fracas. In many ways, it mirrors Vegas itself with the gaudy throw-everything-and-see-what-sticks mentality of a lot of the landmarks out there. Conquest mode, whilst admittedly not being my favorite anyway, was frustrating no matter how I sliced it.
Some players may find solace in the jittery nature of the map, with a constant need for moving favoring run-and-gun tactics. It looks beautiful, as many of the Battlefield maps do, and it has a certain toybox feel to it, like someone had tipped over their crate of blocks to make a field for their soldiers to fight in. It isn’t anything new to say that Battlefield destruction is legit, but I’ll say it anyway – by the end of each game, Vegas looked like it had caught hell.
Area 51 was perhaps the complete opposite. A huge space, more reminiscent of old Battlefield, perhaps. A mixture of wide-open areas and tight indoor control points, Area 51 wants to both have and eat its cake. More of a success than Vegas for me, I could do the Battlefield stuff I was more comfortable with: painting airborne targets, planting a bit of C4 here and there – changing to engineer when the jets got too annoying. My comfort zone.
Nowhere near as visually spectacular as Vegas, Area 51 isn’t without its charm. The inside of each point is super detailed and asks a different question of those players who have been used to the dusty open landscape. The instant change of pace upon entering an enclosed space is welcome, and I can see objective-based game modes like Rush being deliciously hectic here. Chaotic with a sense of direction, mind. Which is where I think Battlefield shines.
I will concede that initial impressions for these maps may not be indicative of future enjoyment – Vegas Strip was confusing and frenetic, but there may be a world where knowing the map inside and out allows me to find comfort in the chaos, and different, more funnelled, game modes could sharpen that experience even further. It’s difficult to say, but the frustration I felt playing it hasn’t left me, and I’m not especially eager to jump back in.
Season 5 of Battlefield 6 is huge; there’s no denying it, and players will have a lot to sink their teeth into with new stuff finding its way across all aspects of the game. The maps, for me, are hit and miss, but I’m willing to roll the dice on them again when the Siege of Las Vegas releases on Tuesday, October 13.
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