Battlefield 6: RiP Gimme Flags?
After almost a year with Battlefield 6, there are many issues that are hard to ignore. One of the more tragic but perhaps less talked about ones is the death of "gimme flags".
It really started with Battlefield 2042 - and also with DICE / Battlefield Studios' strong focus on incentivizing the, let's call it, chaotic aspect of Battlefield's gameplay. They did that by making objectives that seem far away from your HQ very easy to get to.
You see, in 2042, maps were big and empty, yes. But there were also tons of players, aircraft, wingsuits, and fast ground vehicles that made it possible for the enemy team to very quickly traverse a lot of terrain, and therefore constantly attack the flag closest to your base.
Why is this an issue? Because Battlefield is full of noobs, and noobs like to focus on the most immediate threat that's in front of them. And that threat, obviously, is players close to their base, on their gimme flag. So imagine this: with most of your team suddenly focusing all their attention on that one flag, you lose the ability to really contest for a lot of the other objectives on the map, making it easier for the enemy to snowball you on the rest of the battlefield.
While in 2042 the sheer speed and frequency with which enemies could reach your gimme flag was the problem, in Battlefield 6 another problem emerged: Battlefield Studios' philosophy when it comes to laying out the objectives in Conquest. Many other videos have pointed this out already. A lot of the Battlefield 6 maps are pretty much a perfect square in terms of the flag layout in Conquest.
This added symmetry, combined with the, let's call them, moderately sized maps that Battlefield 6 shipped with, only worsened the problems I just mentioned. Once you're on the main battlefield, all flags are within similar distances to one another, and that includes what in other titles would have been your gimme flag.
Combined with the spawn beacons in Battlefield 6 that are, at least in my opinion, pretty hard to locate compared to previous iterations, that becomes a huge problem, making way for a relentless onslaught of infantry camping on your gimme flags, just to distract the noobs from actually engaging with the rest of the map.
Now I know that all of this isn't a problem on all of Battlefield 6's maps. But it is, in my humble opinion, a trend that has taken out a lot of the natural flow of a round of Conquest. And I think you feel this when you play Battlefield 6 or 2042 Conquest compared to an early Frostbite-era Battlefield, or even earlier titles.
Obviously, there are bigger problems that Battlefield's gameplay is facing overall. I still felt the need to document these thoughts because it's not just the big issues but also the many little flaws that have made Battlefield 6 such a letdown overall.