I've played Battlefield 6 Season 5 - and this could really hook me back in

Let me start this by being completely honest with you - I've kind of fallen off Battlefield 6 a bit in the past few months...

For me, that strong feeling I had and desire to play the game when it released faded a bit, and, being mostly a PlayStation player, my first-person shooter itch has been scratched alongside a great dose of nostalgia from the Call of Duty: Black Ops and Black Ops 2 ports releasing in July.

Don't get me wrong, I've still been playing Battlefield 6 here and there and have been enjoying the updates but they've not quite grabbed me.

However having played a preview build of Battlefield 6 Season 5 for around three hours, trying out new maps, new weapons and a new game mode in REDSEC, I rediscovered that feeling I had when playing this game when it released a year ago.

Vegas Strip is a great new addition to Battlefield 6 / Battlefield Studios, Electronic Arts

The preview was split into four 45 minute chunks across the three hours - Conquest on Vegas Strip and Area 51 and then the new Rapid Royale mode across Vegas Strip and Mirak Valley.

Starting with Conquest on Vegas Strip, the new map in a war torn Las Vegas is great. This is such a brilliant playground primarily for close-to-mid range combat with some opportunities for longer range attacks.

As well as the buildings and open spaces connecting them you'd expect, there are also underground tunnels and one destroyed building which holds a checkpoint, forcing you to exploit verticality to succeed.

And I had a blast on this. It feels very varied and there's something to suit each Class depending on where you are on the map. In one section, I managed to position myself pretty well in the centre of the map and playing as Recon, kept picking people off very satisfyingly.

Another objective is sub-terrain but is exposed from threats at ground level. When playing as a Medic, having a LMG here and firing towards enemies trying to exploit the height to their own advantage was a thrill. Assault rifles and SMGs also played their part in buildings and in mid-range combat too.

Area 51 is an expansive map with lots of different combat approach options / Battlefield Studios, Electronic Arts

Next up was Conquest on Area 51, a much more expansive and sprawling map, the kind of which a lot of players have been asking for. And this is another strong offering.

There are nine (yes, nine, the joint most alongside Tsuru Reef to give you an idea of the sense of scale) objectives across the Nevada desert but there is also a subterranean facility too.

There's no doubt this focuses more on vehicle and long-range combat and one unique objective is the air traffic control tower. That's because the objective sits at the very top of the tower and the level itself where the objective is located is easily destructible.

The tower itself remains in tact but this was the objective a lot of players swarmed to. And it's a thrill - you have to have close-to-mid range weapons to take control initially but then you need a long-range weapon to make the most of your spot.

It really does make you think about what weapons you spawn with and what your approach is, especially as if you're caught up there with only a long-range weapon, it's tricky to defend yourself.

The rest of the map is big but it isn't dull in the slightest. There are plenty of buildings, subterranean levels and rock formations to hide in and pick people off, as well as objectives dotted around these.

And because of the potential to use vehicles, some of the aerial dogfights I saw are some of the most spectacular I've seen in the game yet.

There are also subterranean facilities in Area 51 / Battlefield Studios, Electronic Arts

Throughout my time playing Conquest across the two maps, I tried out the new arsenal of weapons too. The MK24 assault rifle which specialises in mid-to-long range combat is very good and is a strong option at those distances.

The RSPR SMG is okay; its high rate of fire and stopping power is good but the high recoil can be difficult to manage without the right attachments to stop this. By the time you've got the recoil under control using the required attachments, you may be better off using other SMGs with better underlying strengths.

The Z84M LMG is superb though. It can scythe down enemies so, so quickly and if you're already aiming down the sights, unless they've got you in theirs with a sniper rifle, they haven't got a chance.

Speaking of sniper rifles, the new ELR-40 is a fantastic bolt action, single magazine shot option. I found it to be really strong and pulling off those perfect headshots with this never lost that incredibly satisfying feeling.

With these new guns and maps feeling strong on the whole so far in Conquest, it's really got me excited to experience more of this when Battlefield 6 Season 5 fully launches.

Rapid Royale is a bitesized Battle Royale mode - and it's actually really fun to play / Battlefield Studios, Electronic Arts

For the second half of the preview, I played Battlefield REDSEC's new mode Rapid Royale which has smaller lobbies with matches designed to take 12-15 minutes. And in short, it feels like Battlefield's attempt at something akin to Rebirth Island in Call of Duty: Warzone, especially on Vegas Strip, and it welcomely works.

That's because matches are designed to be faster paced and there are a lot of loot boxes around in smaller areas, giving you the perfect opportunity to gear up quickly. On Vegas Strip, I played trios.

And it did feel a lot like Rebirth in this regard - much quicker games with more of a general focus on close-to-mid range combat. The games felt a lot more digestible rather than going for long periods with not much happening as you survive, loot up and seek out opponents.

Like Rebirth, it doesn't lose those heart-rate raising final encounters either, even though the matches are shorter and the lobbies are smaller. Rapid Royale still retains that same intensity of Battle Royale games when it gets down to the wire and that's crucial.

The final section of the preview was solo Rapid Royale on a condensed version of Mirak Valley. This has a central zone with tall infrastructures where a lot of people land and take each other out quickly with smaller points of interest the further out you go.

And it gives that classic high risk, high reward feeling - do you go for it from the off, get the very best loot and keep a stranglehold on a central part of the map from the beginning, or do you play it more safe and go to a quieter area, build up a strong set of loot and mount an assault later on?

I tried both approaches out and, like all good Battle (or Rapid) Royale maps should do, you're rewarded for both if you play your cards right. I had some similarly tense encounters towards the end of matches and once again enjoyed them, finding I didn't feel I wasted my time if I lost.

Sometimes I do feel Battle Royale games can go on for a bit too long without much happening, while players are waiting for each other to make a move or wait to see where the circle moves to and you can get taken out without feeling like you've achieved much unless you make it to the very final stages.

Rapid Royale, for me, strikes a much better balance which is because while I'm not the biggest REDSEC player, it's a mode I can actually see myself dipping my toe into more often.

Season 5 of Battlefield 6 is shaping up to be very strong / Battlefield Studios, Electronic Arts

As I said at the start, I've dropped off playing Battlefield 6 as much as I did initially in recent months.

But after playing Season 5, I'm genuinely impatient for the season to launch as my time with it so far has given me that feeling of enjoyment I had when I very first started playing it.

And I very much want to see if that will be kept up throughout the season. Roll on 13 October.

EA provided a pre-release PC build of Battlefield 6 Season 5 and I played on my gaming PC, which has AMD RYZEN 7 9800X3D CPU, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 GPU, 32GB RAM, 16GB VRAM and 2TB SSD on an ASUS ROG STRIX XG27ACMS 27" monitor.

Elsewhere from Indy100:

• Battlefield 6 Season 5: Here's absolutely everything that's new
• Battlefield 6 makes key change everyone has been waiting for

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