New Battlefield gameplay footage allegedly leaks from playtest, and fans seem pumped by what they see

Numerous video clips of what is purportedly gameplay footage of the next Battlefield game have appeared online today, with many of them swiftly being taken down by Electronic Arts.

EA announced Battlefield Labs last month, a new feature where gamers could sign up to play-test the upcoming game in the popular FPS franchise similarly to an early access title on Steam or Xbox. It seems as though the first test under Labs has kicked off today, except a lot of lucky gamers chosen to give it a try apparently have ignored any non-disclosure agreement they signed to take part, because footage is leaking everywhere.

EA’s community-based approach to helping make this next Battlefield the one that its players want could really help it out in the long-run, but any attempts to keep it quiet were seemingly ignored as evidenced by all the videos that have popped up online today.

Footage has been posted and re-posted all over the internet today after being taken down, but what the footage shows certainly looks like the Battlefield gameplay that anyone accustomed with the franchise would expect. It features squad-based FPS gameplay in a somewhat claustrophobic urban environment, the ability to revive allies, and all sorts of environmental destruction, including a player launching a rocket at the outside wall of a building and blasting it into crumbs. New in the footage, though, is damage numbers popping up when the player shoots an enemy.

And from what the gameplay has teased thus far, early returns are that many are liking what they’re seeing, including “how congested” the map in the footage feels, echoing a common complaint that Battlefield 2042’s maps were so big that the games felt off because of it.

“The maps were WAY too big, it led to more deserted areas where no fighting happens and the fighting getting bogged down to certain hotspots,” one player commented. “Making the maps bigger wouldn’t have been the problem if you didn’t have to run for hours to the battlefield (no pun intended). It’s like they tried to overcompensate for the player jump from 64 to 128 when they could’ve just made the maps a little bigger with more buildings and stuff rather than basically stretches of desert.”

Other players lauded the audio, saying “holy fuck the sound design on the second video is so fucking good,” and another saying the gameplay “looks promising so far,” but also that they “hope they [EA] don’t fuck it up.”

It wasn’t all positive, though. Lots of commenters complained about how the UI looks, and many were not ready to “huff the hopium” about the short clips thus far because they feel as though they have been burned by excitement for recent games in the past.

It’s been a long time since a Battlefield game was able to hold my attention. My most-played games in the series were Battlefield 4 and Battlefield: Bad Company 2, so if there’s some kind of middleground to be reached there, I’d be all in. But for now, fans are cautiously optimistic about what’s been shown so far.