The upcomingBattlefieldgame, officially untitled but commonly calledBattlefield 6, appears to be taking a lot of cues fromBattlefield 3and4. That’s certainly a golden age for the series, buton its 20th anniversary,Battlefield 2is a glaring reminder of how far the series has moved away from its beloved, classic formula. Now, nearly four years since the release ofBattlefield 2042, the series that was once consideredCall of Duty’s biggest competition feels mired in uncertainty.
Battlefield 2debuted in North America on June 15, 2025, and, despite being only five years older than the still-beloved,often reminisced uponBad Company 2, it feels incredibly far removed from the series' modern identity. It was the first modern-dayBattlefield, though, and as the upcoming installment hopes to return to a similar setting – albeit two decades on –it’s interesting to look back and see that even such an early game avoided many of the issues plaguing its descendants.
Battlefield 2 Introduced New Tactical Features
Restriction For The Sake Of Vision
20 years ago,Battlefield 2delivered what many fans hope to get withBattlefield 6. The series has never been a mil sim per se, butBattlefield 2really cemented its identity as a large-scale shooter with tactical and strategy elements. One of the more idiosyncratic facets of the latter is Commander mode, introduced inBF2but only used sporadically throughout the series.
It attempts to inject a command structure into each team, with one player taking on the role of Commander and passing orders down to squad leaders. Their interface is an overview of the map, from which they can deploy assets like supply drops or artillery. Commander returned in2142,4, andHardline, but it’s always been a bit of an odd feature, clearly not beloved by the wider player base.
Butit is an important inclusion in a wider range of features that are emblematic of the originalBattlefieldidentity, two others being limited sprint stamina and a very rigid class system. The former adds a pretty clear-cut layer of realism to locomotion inBattlefield 2, but the latter is arguably the series' defining trait – until it wasn’t.Battlefield 2had a few more classes than later games, but the important part is that each one has specific weapons and abilities locked to that class.
Overall,Battlefield 2went to great lengths to restrict players in their movement and roles, not to artificially limit them, butin the interest of creating a certain structure for the subsequent sandbox conflicts. In a way,Battlefield 2tried to emulate a real-life skirmish by imposing traditional military roles and a rudimentary simulation of human fitness.
Battlefield Has Abandoned Many Of BF2’s Best Ideas
And Lost Its Identity As A Result
It’s easy to pick onBattlefield 2042, but it does lend itself to the discussion surrounding the series' dissolving identity. Commander mode, sprint stamina, and traditional classes are all absent from2042, the series' latest installment. Such features have been abandoned, maybe not completely, but piecemeal, through various releases.2042is arguably the result of the iterative abandonment ofBattlefield 2ideals.
Battlefieldhas hit a streak of misguided attempts to appeal to a wider audience, in turn shirking those who enjoy the series' unique gameplay.Battlefield 5’s Firestorm battle royale mode can hardly be calledBattlefield, dropping so many series hallmarks to achieve its gameplay, which paled in comparison to rival games at the time.2042’s Specialists are the endpoint of the steady erosion ofBattlefield’s once-rigid class system.
Give everyone’s character a name and sell them flashy skins, and everyone becomes the protagonist.It’s almost the antithesis ofBattlefield, which traditionally made the squad-dependent gameplay of mil sims more approachable by adding a more arcade-like slant, but still positioning players as faceless grunts in the war machine.
Battlefield 6 Should Learn From Battlefield 2
The Series Needs A Reset
Battlefield 6seems to be taking a bulk of its inspiration from3and4– which is a good thing, to be clear – but it would also do well to go even further back.Battlefield 2feels like more of a foundation for the series at large than its two predecessors,1942andVietnam. It’s the progenitor of the series' modern-set games, andclearly has a lot to teach a game that’s trying to correct the series' course after2042.
Battlefield 6doesn’t have class-specific weapons, though, which isn’t a great sign for an attempted return to form. ThenewBattlefieldrevamping destructionis great, butthat’s ultimately a surface-level concession if the squad-based, tactical gameplay doesn’t also make a comeback.
Battlefield 2is rudimentary by modern standards, butit’s inextricable from the series' identity, and parts of the upcoming game feel like a continued move away from why the series rose to prominence in the first place. Regular playtests have been a great idea, but some of the nextBattlefield’s potential may be lost if it’s just mimicking3and4, and not actively trying to rediscover the series' uniqueness partially established 20 years ago.
