There’s an incredible sense of satisfaction to simply destroying an enemy’s cover inBattlefield 6. Destructible environments are a staple feature of the series, butBF6knows what you want– knows what you’ve been asking for, for more than a decade. Ever sinceBattlefield: Bad Company 2set a high bar for destructibility in 2010, vocal fans have been hoping for the series to push the envelope.
Battlefield 4’s Levelution turned destruction into a map-altering spectacle, but it wasn’t the same as plunking a grenade launcher into nearly any wall and watching it crumble.Bad Company 2, with buildings that can be toppled completely, has long been an aspirational barometer, but letting players raze a map introduces challenges. Destroying cover leads to a wide-open wasteland, and the anarchy of simulated rubble could potentially be demanding on performance.Battlefield 6has found an elegant solution, without sacrificing awe.
15 Long Years
Bad Company 2has long been commonly held as the pinnacle of destruction in theBattlefieldseries. It’s thorough and technically impressive (especially for a game released in 2010), but actuallyworks so well because of the game’s design. Unlike mostBFentries, where 64-player lobbies are the norm,Bad Company 2only supports 32 players in a single game on PC, and 24 on consoles.
Hand-in-hand with the smaller lobbies is its focus on Rush, originally introduced as Gold Rush in the firstBad Company. With smaller teams and a primary game mode that keeps the action moving through different sectors of each map, you can avoid a major problem with destructible buildings. By the time each structure has been reduced to rubble, the game has either moved on to the next sector, or the defenders have won.
You can roll a tank through most of the buildings in Arica Harbor’s town because once you’re done, it’s time to move on anyway. Subsequent games kept destruction to a certain degree, butthe returns felt regularly diminished. Levelution inBattlefield 4was exciting, but a poor substitute for the more organic feel of blasting away a map piecemeal yourself. By the timeBattlefield 2042rolled around, buildings couldn’t collapse entirely, and most structures couldn’t even take chip damage.
Battlefield 6’s “Tactical Destruction” Is Game-Changing
BC2’s True Successor
While it’s a clear follow-up toBF4with its modern styling,Battlefield 6inheritsBad Company 2’s destruction ethos.Whole buildings can once again topple, and most walls of traversable buildings can crumble. But it is not destruction for destruction’s sake. Battlefield Studios seems keenly aware of the issues which destructible environments can cause in a game not singularly designed around it, and has concocted a flashy but smart system it calls “tactical destruction.”
For agame actually designed around destruction, I recommendThe Finals, which was developed by ex-Battlefielddevelopers at Embark Studios.
The seemingly random chaos of blasting a wall wide open inBattlefield 6is essentially an illusion. If you were to shoot an RPG at a specific point on a wall in one match, the exact same hole would appear if you do the exact same thing in another match.That wall is physically going to be destroyed in the same way, and the same pile of rubble will appear underneath. The key to making this endlessly exciting is to change the animation every time – it’s going to look different even if it’s technically not.
Battlefield Studios' idea is that, yes, destruction is back and more bombastic than ever, butit’s also an aspect of gameplay that can be practiced. This was true ofBad Company 2as well, where the animations and physics involved were much simpler 15 years ago. I’m inclined to believe that, ifBF6’s destruction was truly organic and physics-based, it would cause all sorts of issues in the course of even a single match.
This is likely why destruction’s role inBattlefielddiminished over the years. Being able to destroy almost anything you want is awesome, but not if it jeopardizes intentional game design.BF6destruction looks great, and even inmy short time playing the gameso far, it’s clear that the deformable environment is widespread enough to have significant sway over tactics and game flow, even if it’s cleverly controlled behind the scenes.
BF6’s Focus On Destruction Is Long Overdue
The Most Requested Feature
The heightened destructibility inBattlefield 6feels like a long time coming, if only because every single time a new game in the series got announced in the last 15 years, fans near-unanimously hopedBad Company 2levels of destruction would return. What’s even more refreshing is that it doesn’t feel serendipitous; in myinterview with a couple ofBF6devs,they called destruction “one of the core pillars of the whole franchise.”
Alongside the return of classes, destruction is perhaps the biggest component ofBattlefield 6feeling like the series' much-needed comeback. Even if developers weren’t necessarily ignoring the pleas of players –Battlefield 1and5both featured respectable amounts of destruction – there was a long-boiling sense of dissatisfaction specifically regarding destructibility.
Final judgment can’t be passed onBF6until it’s fully out, but theopen beta weekendswill likely assuage any fears that the series had forgotten its rubble-filled glory days. I have fond memories of bringing down buildings to foil enemy plans inBad Company 2, and now I’m looking forward to doing the same withBattlefield 6’s even more sophisticated destruction.
