One key feature is returning in Battlefield 6—but fans are split. Here’s why

The leaks of the upcoming new Battlefield game’s first playtest as part of Battlefield Labs have been coming fast and hard since last week. But that may be a good thing.

There’s been no shortage of clips and footage of gameplay from the playtest, including one that was posted on Reddit and started a discussion about an old staple feature that is one that seems to make Battlefield, and has been missing for too long.

One constant of the footage from the new game, which shows damage numbers when shooting enemies and takes place on a smaller, congested map than what’s recently been offered, has been the destruction of buildings. In the clip in the Reddit thread above, the player in the video is getting absolutely hammered by friendly fire from a tank, and they look up to watch the building they were taking cover near crumble around them.

This sort of building destruction was introduced in the series many years ago, but wasn’t included or as fleshed out in recent titles. But I and many others think it’s beautiful, while others do not share the same opinion, as some think that the “true destruction” is just a farce and it’s only built to look that way.

“Doesn’t even look dynamic at this point in the build,” one unimpressed gamer said. “Looks like the columns can take some damage but when the building ‘HP’ is low enough it plays an animation to change it to a pre-baked ‘destroyed building’ model.”

Whether it’s “dynamic” or “static” doesn’t seem to matter to most, though, and I’m of the same opinion. Whether it’s happening in real time (likely very resource-intensive) or is only meant to look that way, if it looks cool, then who cares?

“I’d rather have the illusion than have nothing,” another fan said. “The levolution system in Battlefield games was one of the coolest things they introduced to the series. It took a back seat for a while, and I’m ready to see more of it come back, even in small examples like this.”

Not to mention the fact that this is way too early to tell anything about the game, which may or may not be called Battlefield 6 or something different entirely. But the leaked clips have the community talking, and that’s probably the point of all of this anyway.

While some are choosing hope and excitement, many others refuse to feel excitement for the game, especially after Battlefield 2042 disappointed so many. But I think with what’s been seen so far, especially destruction making its return like this, there is reason to hold out hope that the game may be one to remember once it’s finally ready to launch.