For years, rumors have swirled that EA was preparing a free-to-play battle royale to rival Call of Duty’s immensely successful Warzone. After the lukewarm reception of Battlefield V’s Firestorm mode, expectations were mixed. But now, alongside Battlefield 6, EA seems determined to finally field a true competitor.
If, like me, you enjoyed the Battlefield 6 open beta but weren’t ready to drop the cash for the full game, Battlefield Redsec might seem like the perfect alternative. But does it actually deliver that core Battlefield experience? Let’s dive in.
First, let’s set expectations. This game is built on two modes. The first is a classic battle royale, using the weapon and movement mechanics of Battlefield 6. Aside from a slightly slower pace, it’s nearly identical to Call of Duty: Warzone, right down to some of the animations. The only significant differentiator is the presence of vehicles like tanks and helicopters on the map.
Who Is This Game For?
Full disclosure: I’m not a battle royale aficionado. While I sank countless hours into the original PUBG release, I’ve barely touched a BR game in the last five or six years. I’m not someone who follows the genre closely. I’m writing this review for players like myself: Battlefield fans who are approaching the battle royale genre with caution.
If you don’t like battle royales, this game won’t convert you. At least, the battle royale mode won’t. There’s another mode I’ll get to shortly. If you’re hoping for the classic Battlefield sandbox experience, you’ll be disappointed. The core gameplay of battle royale and traditional Battlefield are worlds apart, and this game doesn’t manage to bridge that gap. The entire time, I felt like I was playing a slower version of Warzone, just with tanks. Personally, if my friends weren’t booting up the BR mode, I’d never touch it again. The loop just isn’t for me: drop in, run from place to place looting, and just when you’re finally geared up, you get ambushed or sniped by a bullet that seems to have traveled across continents. The long preparation for a single, often brief, firefight is just tedious.
More Than Just a Battle Royale
Now for the second mode: Gauntlet. This mode was barely marketed; EA almost seemed to toss it out as an afterthought. But personally, I love it. Gauntlet doesn’t quite deliver the epic, large-scale warfare of classic Battlefield, but it gives you a taste of that flavor. It feels a bit like The Lab from Minecraft or the chaotic fun of The Finals. A match starts with eight teams. You play through a series of mini-rounds, each lasting six minutes. Two teams are eliminated each round until only the final two remain to battle for the win.
The modes are genuinely fun. The chaos that erupts when multiple teams are chasing a single objective is fantastic. I love the strategic depth that emerges when two teams are fighting over a point, only for a third team to sweep in from behind and clean house. The variety of modes is decent for a launch, but it will definitely need new additions over time.
Objectives range from classic area control to more creative tasks, like painting a hexagonal grid map to claim territory. Another has you trying to plant and detonate a bomb while fending off multiple teams trying to defuse it.
Technical Quality
In an era where nearly every PC game pushes upscaling technologies, I was genuinely surprised to find them disabled by default in Battlefield. I’m playing on an i5 10400 + RTX 2060 combo, which just meets the minimum requirements, and I’m not experiencing any performance issues. My PC runs on an ancient, dying hard drive that causes most games to hang on loading screens, yet Battlefield loads without a hitch. It’s refreshing to see a game launch with solid client-side performance.
However, while the optimization is great, the game is plagued by technical problems on the server side. I’m talking crashes, game-breaking bugs, and severe lag. Just yesterday, my squad was playing Gauntlet in an area capture mode. We were holding the point, but the game simply wasn’t awarding us score. It was completely bugged. In another BR match, the game failed to register that we had deployed our parachutes, causing our audio to cut out completely. Crashes are a near-daily occurrence. This constant instability is a massive fun-killer. You gather your friends, you’re deep into a match, nearing the final showdown, and—bam—a server issue boots you out. The frequency of these game-breaking bugs is incredibly frustrating.
Core Gameplay
If you’ve played any Call of Duty since the Modern Warfare remake, the gunplay here won’t impress you. It’s not bad, but it’s a far cry from CoD’s crispness. It’s better than Battlefield 2042’s, but not as satisfying as Battlefield 1’s. The damage modeling also feels off. Damage values, especially for headshots, feel far too low. Enemies are absolute bullet sponges. Having to land 5-6 shots to down an opponent is already tedious, but Redsec also adds armor plates for everyone, turning firefights into a slog against walking meat shields. This armor mechanic is lifted directly from Warzone; in fact, the entire BR mode feels like Warzone playing at 0.75x speed.
The overall pacing, however, hits a nice sweet spot. Long-time series fans might find it a bit fast, while CoD players might find it slow, but it feels well-balanced. Any faster, and it would lose that touch of Battlefield’s signature realism. We’ll likely cover this in more detail in our upcoming Battlefield 6 review.
One area where Redsec stands out from other BRs is its destructible environments. Most buildings on the map can be leveled, adding a fantastic dynamic to gameplay. It’s not as consistently impactful as in The Finals, but when it happens, it’s spectacular. Imagine taking cover in a building while fleeing an enemy squad, only for them to launch a rocket, collapsing the structure around you and forcing a desperate escape. Moments like these keep the game feeling alive.
The class-based battle royale concept is interesting, but its execution here is questionable. The classic Battlefield classes are present, but their impact feels minimal. Outside of the Engineer, who can open special crates and repair vehicles, the other classes feel largely redundant. Even the Medic doesn’t stand out, as characters from any class can carry a defibrillator. It feels like the developers were undecided on whether to keep classes, ultimately leaving them in as a half-baked nod to the series’ roots without properly integrating them.
I have one more major gripe: the weapon unlock grind is brutal. EA clearly designed Battlefield 6 as a long-term service game, meaning players are expected to unlock weapons gradually. While this makes sense from a business perspective, it creates a frustrating initial experience. You’re stuck with a base weapon that kicks like a mule, while opponents who have put in the time (or own Battlefield 6) are running around like SEAL Team Six with fully kitted-out death machines. Your progression from the mainline Battlefield 6 carries over directly to Redsec, which creates an immediate and significant imbalance for new players.
This problem extends to the battle royale mode as well. The map contains small objectives that reward you with a “custom weapon drop,” allowing you to call in your personalized loadouts from Battlefield 6. This system heavily favors long-term players, turning the game into a “rich get richer” scenario.
The Verdict: Is It Worth Your Time?
If you’re looking for a fun, free-to-play shooter to jump into with friends, Redsec is definitely worth a look. However, if you’re a fan of fast-paced shooters like Apex Legends or Call of Duty, you should probably steer clear. The slower pace will likely bore you quickly.
Think of it as a Call of Duty built for fans of tactical shooters like Ready or Not or Insurgency. But make no mistake—this isn’t Battlefield.