HIGH Exceptional multiplayer. 

LOW Lackluster campaign. Some slow progression.

WTF Staying up late during work nights to try and end on a win.

Within the storied history of multiplayer shooters, few contenders can carry the weight of something like DICE’s Battlefield. This long-running military series has been a major staple in the online space, offering large-scale battles across different settings ranging from World War I to the far-flung future. 

Over the last decade or so, players have experienced some highs (Battlefield 1) and lows (Battlefield 2042), but nothing has truly brought the series back to its peak. The best installments, Battlefield 3 and 4, seem like distant memories now, but over the last couple of weeks with Battlefield 6, I’ve walked away telling myself something I never thought I’d say — Holy shit, Battlefield is back. 

Developed by the newly-formed Battlefield Studios (comprised of developers DICE, Criterion Games, Motive Studios, and Ripple Effect Studios), Battlefield 6 is a first-person shooter comprised of two main game modes — a story-driven, single-player campaign and an online multiplayer suite. The latter is the obvious star of the show, with multiplayer being the bread and butter of any great Battlefield experience, but the campaign deserves mention. 

Being the first Battlefield campaign since 2018’s V (and the first non-episodic entry since 2013’s 4) I was surprised at its inclusion at all, given the series’ history as a multiplayer-first experience. Taking place between the years 2027-2028, players control a series of US Marines who are fighting a private army known as Pax Armata. Set across locales like Brooklyn, Cairo, and Tajikistan, gameplay in the single-player is largely linear. 

Most levels have players shooting enemies, running from one point to another, and ending each chapter on a major setpiece. Certain levels feature elements that shake things up, like giving light commands to AI squadmates — telling them to scout enemies ahead or to fire on a large group of hostiles. 

Overall, Battlefield 6’s campaign felt like a ‘best of’ collection comprised of various military shooter bits. There are dedicated sniper missions where players sneak around the perimeter of an area and take enemies out from afar, there are plenty of vehicle sections where players either drive large trucks or man turrets, and there are even some sections that play out in a neat night-vision mode focused entirely on stealth. Those who have fond memories of playing things like Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007) might get some enjoyment out of the campaign’s short length and ease of play. 

While the narrative itself is not the most interesting, the main reason to play is that it essentially serves as an extended tutorial to the mechanics. Things like squad commands, different weapon types, vehicles, and even the destructibility of certain levels all come into play when players take to the online modes. The offline adventure is a good way to ease into it, even if it’s not a dramatic extravaganza. 

The campaign is gorgeous in terms of presentation though, with Michael Bay-esque set pieces and Hollywood-level sound design coming together to create something cool. Playing with some decent headphones elevated this experience and added to the immersion. However, with all that said, the real meat of BF6 is the multiplayer. If the campaign was less than impressive, the chaos that comes from any given multiplayer match more than makes up for it.

Spread across several different modes, the main offerings in rotation are Conquest, Breakthrough, and Rush. All three revolve around a mix of defending and attacking certain objectives or sectors on the map. Up to 64 players across both teams can play in these modes, with each team being separated into groups of four called squads. 

From the jump, the gameplay loop is exceptional thanks to these large-scale battles, ensuring that no two matches are ever the same. The tension that comes from dealing with enemy snipers, constantly trying to revive fallen teammates, or using a sledgehammer to tear down walls and create new perches was all exciting. Most matches last between 30-40 minutes, and the hours flew by as that “one more game” feeling kept hitting.

While the gameplay structure of each mode is largely unchanged from prior BF titles, there are some smart tweaks to the formula and refinements that I can appreciate. The overly large, sprawling maps from 2042 are gone, replaced with smaller (yet still huge for an online shooter) arenas that feel more dense. Navigating these zones no longer feels like a drag, and the annoying weather events from the last installment are also gone. The experience has been refined down to its purest elements.

Also returning from prior BF games is the class system, with each offering different advantages and weapon specialties. I mostly ran with the assault class, which primarily uses assault rifles and has faster health regeneration thanks to an adrenaline shot. BF6 clearly labels which guns work best for each class, and leveling up is a straightforward affair. Killing with specific guns levels them up and unlocks slots for attachments, while raising the overall level of the player unlocks more weapons. There are also class-specific assignments that unlock gadgets and secondary items ranging from simple feats like getting kills with a shotgun, or something more specific like getting kills while on adrenaline. 

I like the progression here, as everything is telegraphed clearly, and I’m always working towards something — even bad matches that end in a loss feel like they get me closer to my overall goals. I do wish that leveling up were a bit faster, though — it does feel like a slight grind when it comes to reaching the next level, but it didn’t impact my enjoyment of multiplayer. 

At launch, there’s a lot to love, and I was especially surprised by how smooth the experience has been. I had no major connection issues to impede progress, and I was unaffected by long server queue wait times. Connectivity has been stable, and being able to squad up with friends via crossplay is nice.

Playing Battlefield 6, I was transported back to a time when I enjoyed online multiplayer. I hopped off the competitive shooter train a while ago, trading my regular Call of Duty sessions in for sports and racing titles. However, in the last couple of weeks, I’ve spent all my free time here, and as dangerous as this might be to a full-time student with a demanding full-time job, the quality of that time spent rests heavily on the fact that I’m going to stick with it after my review is complete. While the campaign might be little more than a glorified tutorial, this remains a war worth fighting.

Rating: 8.5  out of 10

Buy Battlefield 6 – PC – PS – XB 

Disclosures: This game is published by EA and developed by Battlefield Studios. It is available on PC, XBX/S, and PS5. This copy was obtained via publisher and was reviewed on PS5. Approximately 30 hours were spent across the single-player and multiplayer.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, and Strong Language. According to the site: Battlefield 6 is rated M for Mature 17+ by the ESRB with Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, and Strong Language. Also includes Users Interact and In-Game Purchases. This is a first-person shooter in which players command a NATO squad against a private military faction during a war. Players engage in military missions, firefights, and battle mode with enemy soldiers/other players. Players use pistols, machine guns, sniper rifles, and explosives to kill enemies in frenetic combat. Battles are highlighted by blood-splatter effects, realistic gunfire, cries of pain, and large explosions. Players can perform stealth attacks on enemies, using knives to stab them from behind. One cutscene depicts a character getting his thumb cut off close-up. The word “f**k” appears in the game.

Colorblind Modes: Colorblind modes are present in the options menu.

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Gamers: There are plenty of visual cues during gameplay, in the form of markers and map icons. All of these can be adjusted in the menu. Subtitles are present and can be resized. As no audio cues are needed for gameplay, I’d say this is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: The controls can be remapped.

The post Battlefield 6 Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Oh my god, I can keep gathering by holding down the button!

LOW I’ve made all of these weapons and armors multiple times before.

WTF Why are there so many awful collection quests?

I’m a guy who loves Monster Hunter.

I have a wall full of plastic figures, several t-shirts, a herd of stuffed animals, miniature taxidermy trophies, replica weapons, and a slew of other paraphernalia showcasing my devotion to the series. I’ve spent well over a thousand hours on the games released domestically (probably not far from two thousand, honestly) and I even bought a second WiiU so that I could do multiplayer with my wife.

I am in the Monster Hunter camp. I am a fan.

On the other hand, I am also a critic who loves games that push themselves forward. I like innovation and improvement. I like fresh ideas, creative spins on existing formulas and being set loose into a title to explore horizons I haven’t seen. I like new.

In light of these leanings, I can’t help but be a bit disappointed with Monster Hunter Generations. As an almost-everything-in-one mega-compilation of previous MH entries, there’s a lot of stuff in here that’s genuinely great. The problem? Not much of this is new to me. I’ve played the older games, I’ve made the armors, I’ve fought the monsters, and considering that Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate came out just last year, it’s all so recent that I haven’t missed it. People who’ve spent less time with the series (or those who don’t mind jumping back in so soon) will likely have a different take, but I didn’t feel the call of the wild this time.

For those new to the franchise, Monster Hunter is a third-person, real-time action game where the player creates a custom character and then goes into a world populated by giant beasts. However, it’s not just swinging swords and firing bows. In addition to the incredibly deep, precise combat, there’s also heavy emphasis on resource collection. Plants, fish and minerals can be harvested from the environment, and players will use the skins, teeth and fur carved from felled monsters to create stronger weapons and better gear to defeat even tougher creatures. Generations offers a new singleplayer story mode, but the game is heavily slanted towards grouping up with a maximum of three others.

As I suggested earlier, most of the content here will be instantly familiar to people with hunting experience under their belts, but there have been some new things added to the mix. Some of the UI and menus are different, some of the systems have been tweaked or revamped in some way, values have been rebalanced, and so on… A million little things have been polished or revisited. On a larger scale, notable bullet points include new monsters, new combat styles, and the ability to be one of the cat sidekicks that have been a series staple for years.

So how are new monsters? No clue. I hate to say it, but in the 28 hours I spent in the campaign, I only saw one. The tail-bouncing Maccao makes an early appearance, but once past that, I only saw things I’d already killed before many, many times. I was dying to discover more fresh predators, but apparently they’re all much deeper in the game–a shame, since battling new foes might have kept me hooked longer.

The new styles of combat are nice additions. Two styles are more or less what players already know, one grants the ability to hop onto monster’s backs without needing a ledge, and the last enables a rushing counterattack if the player manages to dodge at just the right moment. The player can also equip new special moves that activate once a meter is charged–some special attacks, some escapes, some utility moves, and more. It’s neat to have, and a certain contingent will really dig into these.

Oh, and being a cat instead of a human hunter? They have several differences in structure (they don’t use items, they don’t have a stamina meter, and so on) and Generations offers missions that can only be completed by these ferocious felines. Testing this mode was a treat, and something fans have wanted for quite some time. However, once the novelty of being a cat wore off and I got back into the game proper, it just couldn’t hold me.

Beyond an intense feeling of been-there, done-that, there’s no denying that Monster Hunter Generations is pushing the 3DS to its limit. Camera issues are still present due to the 3DS’s design, it runs worse than 4 Ultimate did thanks to longer and more frequent loadtimes, and because it re-uses so many assets from its predecessor, it doesn’t look any better. This is a sprawling adventure with exotic weapons, colorfully detailed armor, and rampaging wildlife that should be stunning to behold, yet it’s squinty, muddy and rough. This content is screaming out for more robust hardware.

Ironically, despite being a bigger package with some improvements (endless thanks to whoever finally enabled continuous gathering by holding down a button) I’d say that Generations is less friendly and coherent to new players than 4 Ultimate. It would be easy to imagine someone getting absolutely lost in a wave of dull-as-dirt harvesting quests and being subdued by tedium before getting to the exciting parts, and it doesn’t help that most of the supporting systems like sending cats on expeditions (yes, really) or dealing with Scraps aren’t intuitive or clear. There’s almost too much content here, and it feels a bit haphazard and scattered.

Despite the fact that it wasn’t a good fit for me, Monster Hunter Generations is a great offering to the right sort of player and it offers an absurdly huge amount of quality content. From a pure value-for-money standpoint it’s unmatched, and players who want to go toe-to-toe with a menagerie of ferocious beasts would be well-served by grabbing a copy and finding a wiki to help with the obtuse parts. For me, personally, too much of Generations is repeat content and it breaks my heart to see another installment on hardware that doesn’t do it justice. I still love the series and I’m looking forward to an all-new Monster Hunter on a better system in the future. In the meantime? I’m cutting this hunt short. Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Capcom and published by Capcom. It is currently available on 3DS. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the standard, non-nub 3DS. Approximately 28 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was not completed. Four additional hours were spent in multiplayer mode.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains blood, crude humor, fantasy violence and mild suggestive themes. Despite all the warnings, this stuff is totally safe, in my view. The violence isn’t very graphic, consisting of weapons being swung and monsters or hunters getting knocked around, but no real blood or gore is ever shown. As for the humor or suggestive themes, it’s couched in dialogue with no graphic visual component. Super safe for kids old enough to manage the gameplay.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing: All dialogue is subtitled and there are no auditory cues needed for gameplay. I spent most of my time with the sound totally off and had no problems.

Remappable Controls: Certain functions can be altered between presets and axes can be flipped and so forth, but the controls can’t be freely remapped.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available in the options.

The post Monster Hunter Generations Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.