Battlefield 6 reviews drop to 'Mixed' on Steam as players rail against pop-up ads, small maps, and feeling left behind by battle royale

Battlefield Studios first big live-service push for Battlefield 6 is proving more controversial than celebratory. While the reception of Battlefield Redsec—a free-to-play battle royale mode with its own map and class abilities—is largely positive, the wider player base isn't as happy with changes made to Battlefield 6 itself.

Namely, they're fed up with pop-ads for the new Season 1 battle pass, they're unhappy with the new map Blackwell Fields, and they're miffed that the only way to complete weekly challenges is to play battle royale, a mode that doesn't necessarily appeal to the folks who paid $70 for Battlefield 6 three weeks ago.

As expected, folks are taking their frustrations out on Battlefield 6's Steam rating, which has now dropped to an overall "Mixed" after an influx of over 5,000 negative reviews since yesterday. The flood of negative ratings pile on to an existing trend dating back over a week, around the time players were reacting to the too-blue "Wicked Grin" cosmetic, and when DICE axed XP gains from Portal servers in a bid to eliminate XP farms.

"Before season one it was like the moment when Gandalf showed in Helm's Deep there was hope. But now it seems we won't have return of the king," wrote Steam user Ookami in a thumbs-down review.

"I had high hopes for this game, I actually really enjoyed season 0 and saw how good this game could be, but to dump a $25 dollar battle pass in my face after sucking me into playing for 30 hours so that I can't refund is absolutely heinous and disgraceful," wrote kingofcheese555.

To be clear, the base Season 1 battle pass is $10, but as has become the game plan of many live-service games, Battlefield 6 aggressively pushes players to purchase the more expensive "BF Pro" version of the pass for $25, which comes with extra skins that aren't very good.

Really? Everytime I launch the game? from r/Battlefield

There is, of course, the option to simply ignore Battlefield 6's new microtransactional offerings, but unfortunately, EA won't let you forget about it.

"Pay $70 just for the game to hit you with a battle pass ad every time you launch it. Great," wrote Curry in a Hurry, an all-time username.

The only way to be absolved of such advertisements in an already premium-priced videogame is to cough up another $10-$25. The more I think about that, and consider how common this has become in other games, the more insulting it gets.

Meanwhile, there's a divide developing between Battlefield 6 and Redsec players, with series fans disappointed that they have to essentially play a different game to complete weekly challenges now. Others are bummed that highly-requested features like naval warfare and fully-destructible skyscrapers exist in Redsec but not in Battlefield 6.

"The appeal for the COD players is insane," wrote user idontknow87654321 in a top-upvoted post on the Battlefield subreddit. "Not only they get an ABSOLUTELY HUGE map with NAVAL WARFARE and FULL SCALE DESTRUCTION for FREE, we, the actual Battlefield players who want to play the main game and BOUGHT IT FOR REAL MONEY have to be stuck with Sobek and Blackwell, tiny meatgrinder maps with 64 players."

These reactions show the inherent tension of operating two very different games under one roof. While there's surely a lot of curiosity around Redsec, nobody bought Battlefield 6 to play battle royale. It's annoying that, at the moment, the main menu of Battlefield 6 pushes you toward Redsec. If Redsec really is its own free-to-play thing, it should get its own house.