Battlefield 6 and REDSEC negative reviews flood Steam - here's why

Negative reviews for Battlefield 6 and Battlefield REDSEC have been flooding Steam for a number of key reasons.

On Tuesday (28 October), Season 1 for Battlefield 6 released alongside REDSEC, a free-to-play portion of the game including Battle Royale and a new Gauntlet mode where eight squads of four compete to complete objectives in a competition style mode. Portal is available too.

The live service aspect of Battlefield 6 is well and truly in full swing with REDSEC and a Battle Pass where loads of cosmetics and more can be unlocked - and this seems to be at the heart of the influx of negative reviews.

Live service in multiplayer first-person shooters is nothing at all new but after Battlefield successfully went back to its roots and what made it so beloved at its core with Battlefield 6, it does not seem gamers are enjoying the live service focus from the developers.

Some of the key concerns are around aggressive microtransaction pop-ups appearing, colourful cosmetics developers promised would not appear are being included and weekly challenges are pushing players to play Battle Royale.

There are quite a few threads in the Battlefield Subreddit that highlight these community concerns.

At the time of writing, there has been more than 150k Steam reviews of Battlefield 6, with 68 per cent being positive giving it a 'mixed' rating. That's down from what's previously been a 'mostly positive' rating.

This was highlighted on a post in the game's Subreddit, with one commenting: "Review bomb them, only way to save the game. Priorities are ridiculous atm. Battle Royale and making CoD kids happy is all they care. Who asked for 4v4 and 8v8 modes? We need bigger maps and bug fixes! I feel like the best map right now is the BR crap, would have been an awesome Conquest map."

A second agreed: "Good. Battlefield players were hyped about it NOT being another stupid quick cash grabbing Call of Duty nightmare. Now we have Battle Royale, a Battle Pass with garbage thoughtless content."

"I'm still curious who tf yearned for another Battle Royale that doesn't even offer anything new," a third mused.

On Battle Royale, REDSEC is currently at 'mixed' but only just hovering above 'mostly negative' which it has been spotted at previously.

On another viral post, one user said: "Can someone make a good faith attempt to tell me why we have such a massive map for a Battle Royale but we cannot get large maps for Conquest? I figured it was a technical limitation but that's obviously not the case here."

But others leapt to the defence of REDSEC. A second countered: "I had low expectations but had a blast playing with my friend tonight, had more fun than playing Conquest running around in circles getting shot in the back every four seconds. Every drop felt dynamic and played out differently. The map is great, graphics are awesome. Dunno what the problem is, people just like complaining for the sake of complaining."

And a third agreed: "It's not even bad, it's pretty solid. People are just salty over the Battle Pass and that the BR even exists."

On the aggressive microtransaction pop-ups, such as a screen encouraging players to purchase the Battle Pass popping up every time they launch the game, there's a viral Steam review that a lot of gamers agree with that says "this whole S1 update feels like adblocker stopped working".

In the comments, one said: "Lmao 100 per cent truth. It feels like using the Microsoft Edge browser."

"And now it's like your PC caught a Trojan and is starting to throw up pop-up ads," a second agreed.

A third added: "Yea... When I was back in the menu just before shutting my PC off, I looked at my screen and said 'holy information overload' there are words, boxes, icons, pictures E V E R Y W H E R E.:"

And as for the new colourful cosmetics, developers promised Battlefield 6 would retain that grounded, more realistic feel both through its gameplay and for soldier skins - but gamers are not convinced anymore after a blue skin called 'Wicked Grin' was included (which seems to have since been removed from the game) and other skins having splashes of "absurd" colours on them.

In the comments on that post, one said: "Some of this could be resolved with camo customisation, technology that was tragically lost to time."

"They are a major part of the problem," a second agreed. "If they had somewhat stricter rules for the class design and got rid of the neon colours, I basically wouldn't have anything to complain about, design wise."

And a third commented: "Exactly. This is easily, in my opinion, one of the best looking skins in the game if it just didn't have the disgusting highlighter orange."

It seems gamers want developers to focus more on improving and refining the core Battlefield experience rather than focusing too much on seasonal content and REDSEC.

Over to you, Battlefield Studios...

Battlefield 6 and REDSEC are out now on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.

Elsewhere from indy100:

• Battlefield 6 Season 1 roadmap revealed - everything you need to know
• Battlefield 6 review: Battlefield is back - but fans will be expecting more

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