When DICE revealed Battlefield Portal in 2021, it seemed like the end-all be-all of the series' multiplayer mode. As it was pitched, this mode would let players customize their experience down to the finest details. They could recreate the feel, loadouts, vehicles, maps, and limitations of past Battlefield games spanning any era. The Portal would also let players create brand new rule sets that are as wacky or as hardcore a Battlefield experience as they craved.
Unfortunately, much like Battlefield 2042 itself, this promising game mode never reached the full potential of its daring concept. What should have been an all-encompassing custom game mode in the style of Halo’s Forge or Fortnite’s Custom Games languished post-launch. Progression-focused players used its tools to create lobbies for XP farming. And DICE, likely caught up in fixing the main game, ended up abandoning plans to add more content from older Battlefield games.
Going into Battlefield 6, I would have understood if Battlefield Studios wanted to pretend this poorly executed great idea never happened. After all, there’s already so much the game is doing right this time around. But alas, the team is returning to the most disappointing aspect of the last game, and looking to finally make good on its endless possibilities.
One of the major ways the latest version of Battlefield Portal improves on the old is the toolset. The team is making its custom game maker more accessible by making it available through web browsers on all devices. In this tool, players can tweak over 100 options ranging from player counts and spawn rates to health and damage sliders and vehicle and weapon restrictions.
On top of being able to change the rules of actual matches, the new Portal will let players customize maps more than they ever could in the original. At launch, players will be able to use the open-source Godot engine (used widely in actual game development) to make sweeping changes and new additions to existing maps. This means moving geometry, buildings, spawn points, and team HQs at will.
Additionally, players can create custom UI, AI enemy behavior scripting for co-op experiences, custom scoreboards that count specific player actions, and more. Battlefield Studios has made it clear that the tools here are as complex as they are powerful. But they’ve committed to publishing onboarding tutorials for those who want to get the most out of this open-ended game editor.
While we won’t know what the ceiling will be for such an ambitious gambit, Battlefield Studios has already created some custom game types to showcase the possibilities. The “Top Of The World” mode takes all of a level’s geometry and places it into two spiraling towers. The game type has two competing teams platforming their way to the top of this tower, reminiscent of the viral climbing games that are all the rage right now, and taking shots at the other team to prevent their progression. It looks as fun as it does frantic.
The team also made a mode called “Holdout,” a Gears of War-style horde mode that has squads fighting off escalating waves of enemies parachuting in from above. Ripple Effect’s Gabriel Lacayo says that so far, the team has made puzzle games, top-down shooters, and more, using the same tools players will have access to.
Unlike last time, Battlefield Studios isn’t restricting progression in these modes. Players can earn XP in Portal. And while this will certainly result in XP farm lobbies, it also suggests that the teams have a lot of faith in the creations that will come out of these tools, and trust players to find ways of having legitimate fun in Portal as they level up.
All of these details suggest the new Portal mode will actually live up to what was originally promised in 2021. It’s pretty common to see the biggest shooters of today embrace player-generated content. Live services like Fortnite have done so to ensure fresh experiences are always available for faithful players. The difference here is that Battlefield is launching out of the gate with it. It remains to be seen if this will pay off, as it will be competing with the game’s extensive multiplayer suite. But it’s a smart risk, especially after the game’s successful multiplayer beta in August.
Battlefield 6 is releasing with a lot of content upfront. Not only will Portal be available at launch, the game will also feature a full-length campaign and the multiplayer suite the series is known for. What we got to play last month proved to be everything the series needed to return to, including its signature destruction, a basic class system, and stunning visuals.
