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00:00You know something didn't quite go right when the best mode in Battlefield 6's free-to-play
00:10battle royale-focused spin-off Battlefield RedSec is the one that isn't a battle royale at all.
00:14While RedSec takes notes from other grounded-ish military battle royales,
00:18it doesn't innovate much on what's already worked. The destructible environments and
00:21powerful vehicles of Battlefield 6's otherwise exciting multiplayer seem like a perfect fit
00:26for this genre. But the relatively shallow execution just hasn't hooked me the way
00:31Fortnite's cartoonish chaos and electrifying events did, nor has it separated itself from
00:35the likes of PUBG or Call of Duty Warzone. Instead, I've had way more fun when its map
00:39is used to push the boundary beyond the requisite ever-shrinking storm in the squad-based,
00:43elimination-driven gauntlet mode that cleverly fleshes out the mission structure hidden within
00:47the battle royale's streamlined familiarity.
00:56You know the drill. You and a squad may drop onto a massive map in the rapidly blinking
01:00eye of a destructive storm. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. In RedSec's case, you're looting
01:04blown-out shops and construction sites for anything you can find in Fort Lyndon, a fictional
01:08military base in Southern California. Dotted with memorable named locations like the golf course
01:13and the lighthouse, there are all kinds of high vantage points for sniping and tight corridors
01:16for scrapping. And with destructible terrain and a seemingly endless supply of artillery
01:25and air strikes, these locations have a tendency to devolve into bombed-out rebar skeletons
01:29or collapse entirely, sometimes on top of you. This blend of different battlegrounds makes
01:33for a balanced, tense frenzy within each location, especially in matches with four-player squads.
01:38Even the dusty roads and stark topography in between do a good job of keeping things balanced,
01:46with plenty of hills and valleys or scattered vans and small buildings offering cover from
01:50enterprising marksmen.
01:56When cover fails, you'll get a second chance if you fall early enough in battle and your
01:59squadmate doesn't revive you in time. That comes complete with a second drop-in and you'll
02:03need to re-up on gear and consumables from there. I like that you can even make redeploying
02:07at the right moment work in your favor because you can aim for special pickups from your parachute
02:10that weren't there when the match started.
02:12Battlefield 6's class system translates well into a battle royale, with each of the four
02:16classes offering something helpful. I usually stuck with the all-around assault class that
02:20specializes in assault rifles because it has the best boosts for completing red sex mid-match
02:24missions, but each class shines in its own way.
02:28The engineer class seems the most useful at first glance because it can repair vehicles just
02:31like in the main mode as well as use its blowtorch to open special weapon lockers that are otherwise
02:35locked. But the support and recon classes each offer their own benefits too, especially
02:39when you coordinate with a team.
02:42Classes aside, Red Seq's battle royale actually dilutes the chaos and excitement of Battlefield
02:466's premium modes by spreading its madness out over a massive map. Its 100-person lobbies
02:51are only about 50% bigger than the 64 people in all-out warfare matches, but Fort Linden is
02:56definitely more than 50% bigger than your average Battlefield 6 map. This math does Red Seq no favors.
03:02Suddenly, crazy and complex sequences with collapsing buildings and vehicular showdowns lose their
03:10chaotic excitement because the open map gives you more places to run and hide. As a result,
03:15Red Seq doesn't have much to set it apart from other military battle royales. Its hardcore,
03:19realism-ish nature might be part of the draw to anyone looking to avoid getting ran at by Nicki Minaj
03:23or Homer Simpson, but nobody's going to confuse the tactical aesthetic for personality. It kind
03:28of feels like this could be any other big-budget military shooter adapted into a battle royale.
03:37Thankfully, Red Seq's compelling mission structure takes a rewarding cleaver to the
03:40otherwise ho-hum military doldrums. They're kind of like the missions and bounces you'd find in
03:44Fortnite, but with better rewards and more diverse challenges. Automatically populating in your map
03:49menu after the first few seconds of each match, you're usually presented with three missions,
03:52but those options might diminish as the round goes on.
03:57The rewards and risks of attracting others that come with each mission, on the other hand,
04:00remain consistently worthwhile and well communicated. They range from helpful stuff
04:05like weapon upgrade packs, one-time use abilities like destructive air strikes and UIV surveillance
04:09drones that reveal enemy locations, battle pass XP, and strong guns. I love how explicit Red Seq makes
04:15all of the mission rewards. Sure, it doesn't specify which weapon or even type of weapon will drop from
04:19a mission, but guns outside my preference still made a huge difference.
04:26Even with otherwise uncooperative squadmates, those irresistible rewards spurred me into planting the
04:30bombs and capturing the waypoints required to earn them. That seems to be Red Seq's secret sauce.
04:34Each in-game mission pops up like clockwork after a few seconds, only requiring a couple of button
04:39presses to reveal the next target. Hinging on classic military FPS objectives like babysitting a planted
04:44bomb or picking up an important file so you can transmit its signal back to home base,
04:47these smaller side quests add order and welcome direction to the otherwise listless pace of
04:52conquering the battlefield. Some, like planting a bomb, will reveal your location with a big red
04:58marker on nearby enemy screens and match that with an equally loud siren alerting opponents to your
05:03location. But if your loadout isn't battle ready and you're worried about running into other players,
05:07there are other ways to get better gear. In addition to the standard looting option, weapons,
05:11armor, and other useful pickups will randomly rain from the sky. Custom weapon drops make for the
05:15most useful and desirable pickups, giving you access to one of your customized weapons from
05:19Battlefield 6's standard multiplayer mode. I like that these drops work once for each player rather
05:23than just giving one squad their trusty sniper or assault rifle, but it almost feels like a
05:27microcosmic participation trophy rather than rewarding squads who treat these drops like hard
05:32push objectives and beat out the others. Red Seq doesn't offer enough to do in between wiping enemy
05:39squads and looting military-themed chests compared to some of its contemporaries, but the map-driven
05:43context of each mission does add spontaneity and strategy for the ways you might carry out a mission.
05:48For example, taking a bomb-setting mission when you're close to the otherwise slow and
05:51unthreatening firestorm that closes in around you might dissuade anyone from a risky diffusion that
05:55puts them right at the edge of the billowing wall of smoke.
06:01In contrast, the gauntlet mode ditches the storm entirely as it expands each of these extra objectives
06:06into full-fledged game modes. It pits a handful of four-player squads against each other to rack
06:10up the most points on each objective and even adds a few extra scenarios to the mix. Totaling eight
06:15different game types, the mode and round rotates between locations in Fort Linden, with the two
06:19lowest-performing squads getting eliminated each time. I think my favorite is the area control mode,
06:23where each squad is competing for a small hexagonal chunk of the map that has its own corresponding
06:27satellite dish to take over. There are usually fifteen to compete for, making each round of circuit a chaotic,
06:32scrappy battle for domination that rewards different kinds of play depending on which
06:36part of the map you're fighting for.
06:39Gauntlet also cleverly recognizes that some people just want to play each mode like deathmatch,
06:44and weighs points accordingly, with kills and revives contributing to the scoreboard.
06:47And to make things more competitive, all points double in the last minute of each round,
06:51preventing any team from completely running away with the win. Gauntlet ends up working almost more
06:55like a brilliant mishmash between Fall Guys and a squad-based free-for-all version of
06:59traditional Battlefield than it does the otherwise uninspired Battle Royale that houses it.
07:07After catching a few wins across all three of its main queues, Battlefield Redsext's slow-rolling
07:11storm just hasn't done much to keep me wanting more, aside from introducing a few interesting
07:15missions here and there. It's enjoyable, sure, but its adaptation doesn't mesh well with the pace
07:19and epic scale that makes Battlefield 6's regular multiplayer so much fun. But where Redsext's Battle
07:24Royale only dilutes that formula, the gauntlet mode that lives alongside it instead boils down and
07:29concentrates the best stuff from both Battlefield and Battle Royales at large into one of the
07:33coolest game modes I've seen from a military shooter in a long time. I hope EA and DICE plan
07:38on fleshing it out as part of their Battlefield 6 roadmap, because while I may not be interested in
07:42playing more of the Battle Royale mode, I am certainly interested in more Gauntlet.
07:50For more on Battlefield 6, check out our full reviews of the campaign and regular multiplayer.
07:54For everything else, stick with IGN.
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