Last week I was: getting stuck into Battlefield 6, testing out weapons and all the new maps in the launch version.
This week I've been: trying to unlock every weapon in Battlefield 6 before Season 1.
Battlefield 6 may still be fresh from the oven, but it's already come under flak for its slow progression systems. It can feel like running through treacle trying to rank up, level weapons for attachments, and perhaps most painful of all, to complete the many arduous assignments—not helped by a prominent bug causing assignments not to track.
Whether through fear of players unlocking everything right away and getting bored, or in an effort to curtail those who would inevitably use Portal as an XP farm, it's not working out well for anyone. Portal servers totally aren't inundated with private bot matches to cheese progression to the point that this creative mode isn't actually serving its purpose. Or at least, that's what I'd say if I were lying.
And if these types of servers are banned, or progression is entirely divorced from Portal without resolving players' contentions at the heart of the issue, then that's even more problematic looking ahead.
The point is, unlocking even the base game gear is already proving to be a slog for many, especially those eager to get the best guns. Every aspect of progression is slow.
With that in mind, I don't think it's a leap to assume that, once Season 1 rolls around, battle pass progression could be equally lethargic. Plus, I'll get haunting recollections of Halo Infinite's self-inflicted panned launch if seasonal progression is deeply-rooted into the current daily and weekly challenge system in Battlefield 6, one that I'd rather ignore if I'm allowed to.
Here's the kicker, though: Battlefield 6 has brought back consumable XP boosters, which you can spend to speed up both account and hardware (weapons and vehicles) progression. So far, we've mainly got these from the pre-order Tombstone Pack, but I'm assuming these precious commodities will be purchasable from the (currently absent) in-game shop, or potentially from battle passes and events.
However, only on a repeat visit to the (eerily Call of Duty-like) XP booster menu did I make the connection that the blank section—presumably a third type of boost—must be for the battle pass. If general progression is slow, in what I can only assume is designed to bump up engagement and potentially push players towards boosters, then what does that mean for seasonal progression when it arrives?
Reaching a peak of 747k concurrent players on Steam alone, putting it hot on the heels of Baldur's Gate 3, I'm just hoping this avoidable controversy isn't the other shoe I've been waiting to drop. After all, it's been nearly a decade since the last Battlefield game that's truly consumed me like Battlefield 6 has, and it would be a shame if that was sold short by post-launch support.
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