EA and Battlefield Studios released the first trailer for the upcoming Battlefield 6 single-player campaign during the PlayStation State Of Play event today. It’s pretty awesome-looking, a globe-trotting military thriller that takes players from Brooklyn to Cairo as they play as members of the elite Dagger 13 US Marine squad.
Mostly, as I watched this trailer, all I could think was “How stoked would the entire Call Of Duty community be if this was the trailer for the new Call Of Duty game?”
Check it out:
I bring up Call Of Duty because there’s a long rivalry here between the two franchises, though Battlefield really hasn’t had a release that people have been super excited about since Battlefield 1, which came out in 2016.
Activision releases a new Call Of Duty every year, and these have been pretty hit or miss since over the last decade, with some earning high marks from gamers (Modern Warfare 2019, in particular) and some causing quite a lot of controversy, including this year’s Black Ops 7, which has already earned the ire of many in the Call Of Duty community even before launch.
In some ways, the Battlefield 6 single-player campaign looks like an updated version of Modern Warfare 2019. It’s very mil-sim, thrusting players into a modern warzone in a gritty, over-the-top action adventure. It looks fantastic, quite frankly, both in terms of visuals and graphics as well as the overall story. (I’m not suggesting the story will be award-worthy, but sometimes all you need in a game like this is an action-packed shooter with cool locations and fun shootouts).
The campaign description reads:
The year is 2027, and the world is on the edge of chaos. The once unshakeable NATO alliance is crumbling, its foundations cracked by distrust and uncertainty. Financial instability, proxy wars, and political disputes have left some countries adrift in a sea of geopolitical turmoil. Amidst this chaos, a formidable force emerges – Pax Armata – A massive private military corporation unafraid to cross lines, with deep pockets and the latest tech seizes the opportunity to step into the power vacuum.
The single-player campaign takes place across multiple pulse-pounding missions, as players step into the boots of Dagger 13, a squad of elite US Marine raiders taking the fight to Pax Armata. With adrenaline-charged set pieces taking place around the world from Brooklyn to Cairo, this is the classic blockbuster single-player campaign, with jaw-dropping moments and explosive action, on an unparalleled scale.
Interestingly enough, this actually sounds quite similar to the premise of Black Ops 7, which takes place in 2035 and deals with an elite group of soldiers facing a threat from “The Guild”, a criminal organization that’s turned into a tech company and arms dealer. The big difference is that Battlefield 6 is giving gamers the military shooter they want, whereas Black Ops 7 looks like it’s taking all the weird third act psychedelic stuff we always get in the Black Ops franchise and just making it the entire game. Black Ops 7 also looks much more “futuristic” despite only taking place 8 years further into the future, whereas Battlefield 6 feels far more grounded, which is – again – what most players want from these games: Grounded, modern warfare, military-themed shooters without a bunch of wacky skins.
I’m sure that Black Ops 7 will be plenty of fun and I think many of the maps look really great. I’m excited for it and I’m sure I’ll play it a ton over the next year. But I’d be lying if I said it looked as good as Battlefield 6, and this campaign trailer just makes that more apparent than ever. If EA can release a real Warzone contender when the free-to-play battle royale Battlefield game comes out, Activision will need to come up with a serious response. That’s the beauty of competition.