With the hype building for Battlefield 6, fans are eager for more news about what to expect in DICE’s newest entry into the Battlefield franchise. After some disappointment with Battlefield V, DICE is looking to go all out for their next game. There are even rumors that the game will feature massive 128-player maps. Without any concrete details about what the setting will be for Battlefield 6, it’s hard to say which maps might be making a comeback in the newest game.
Maps are always controversial as players will not always agree on which maps are great and which ones aren’t up to par. But these maps each clearly fall into one of the two categories. As an aside, this list includes mostly modern Battlefield games. Sorry, Bad Company 2 fans.
Updated June 14th, 2021 by Harry Alston: Battlefield 6, now known as Battlefield 2042, has received its first gameplay reveal trailer, and with it came a glimpse at some of the new maps for the multiplayer-only experience. We’ve updated this list to include a couple of the brand new maps you can expect in Battlefield 2042, broken down by what looks good, like the massive scale of one of the largest maps to date in the franchise, Breakaway, to the worrisome water-heavy India map, Discarded.
12 Confirmed: Breakaway - Battlefield 2042
First shown during the Battlefield 2042 reveal trailer, Breakaway is the largest Battlefield map to date. This is exactly the kind of map that fans of the large-scale warfare in Battlefield were looking forward to. With 128 player games, the level of sheer chaos is going to reach new heights (literally, with wingsuits, jets and parachutes all featuring heavily on this map.)
Set in Antarctica, this snowy map covers mountain ranges and glaciers, with areas of the map likely to be completely destructible. Whether or not there will be any large-scale events (like a blizzard) isn’t clear yet, but it’s definitely the sort of map that will get fans of Battlefield excited to play.
11 Confirmed: Discarded - Battlefield 2042
Discarded is Battlefield 2042’s water map, i.e., the kind of map that is either hugely popular or a bit of a flop. DICE doesn’t always get water maps right, but at least Discarded looks like they’ve learned from past mistakes and included some centralized areas to fight in rather than vast, empty expanses of water for boat, plane, and helicopter combat.
Set in India, Discarded features a centralized cargo ship with a stealth submarine hidden in its depths. This shows off 2042’s new “Objective Clusters”, which are areas with two or three objectives that all need to be captured to secure the point.
10 Want To See: Wake Island - Battlefield 2
Wake Island is a Battlefield classic. This rich Atoll island located in the Pacific Ocean has appeared in multiple Battlefield games, including Battlefield V, Battlefield 2, and way back in Battlefield 1942, the first time the map appeared in the franchise.
It allows for land, sea, and air combat across a map with limited ground space. Bush camping, sniping, and jet combat have made Wake Island one of the fan favorites, and it’s always exciting how the map will be reincarnated from game to game. Will Battlefield 6 feature Wake Island? Fans hope so.
9 Don’t Want To See: Hamada - Battlefield V
Hamada may well go down as one of the worst maps in the Battlefield franchise and really demonstrates why Battlefield V faced a lot of hate from diehard Battlefield fans. This map is hideously bright on the eyes and covered in snipers, with very little cover for players.
Besides the visuals and style of gameplay the map promotes, there are a lot of balancing issues in the various game modes. If you’ve never fought for 15-minutes at Point D in the Frontlines game mode then you haven’t really experienced Hamada.
8 Want To See: Operation Metro - Battlefield 3
Widely considered to be one of the best close-combat maps ever introduced to Battlefield, Operation Metro first made its appearance in the popular Battlefield 3 and later in Battlefield 4. The map was then reimagined as Operation Underground in Battlefield V.
With tight corridors and enclosed areas, Operation Metro quickly dissolves into complete chaos, with grenades and LMG spray fire the ordinary approach for players. Fans hope that this popular map will be included in Battlefield 2042, reimagined for a different setting and era. The closest we’ve got to that so far is the tightly packed map Manifest, with its area of claustrophobic shipping containers providing Metro-levels of close quarter gunfights, as revealed by DICE for 2042.
7 Don’t Want To See: Galicia - Battlefield 1
Battlefield 1 had a wide range of truly awesome maps, with a great atmosphere, decent balance between infantry and vehicle combat, and smart design for the various capture points and objectives. Then there was Galicia. It may well be one of the most open maps in Battlefield history.
There is almost no cover. At all. Snipers have a field day on this map, but if you want to play any other role, you might as well stand in the open and do a dance. Add in the blanket steamroll of the Muromets Bomber and Artillery trucks and you have a recipe for frustration.
6 Want To See: Strike At Karkand - Battlefield 2
Strike At Karkand is one of those Battlefield maps that just stands out from the rest. It was one of the most popular maps in Battlefield 2 and was regularly featured as part of 24/7 Infantry servers on the game. The map appeared again in Battlefield 2142 and later in Battlefield 3.
With a mix between long sightlines for snipers and tight urban combat for infantry, Strike At Karkand remains a solid fan favorite. The map is an iconic Battlefield setting and it’d be fantastic to see it reimagined for a modern Battlefield game.
5 Don’t Want To See: Tehran Highway - Battlefield 3
Battlefield 3 had some of the best maps ever in the Battlefield series — many of which still hold up to this day. There is even a rumor that DICE is working on a Battlefield 3 remastered. Great map design and atmospheric settings mean many people look fondly back on their days playing Battlefield 3, but there was one map that didn’t go down so well: Tehran Highway.
Fundamentally, there wasn’t much wrong with Tehran Highway. Some fans really enjoyed the nighttime aesthetic and gritty atmosphere, but the problems really showed when it came to the balance. Many custom servers removed it from circulation after players simply quit when it showed up.
4 Want To See: Gulf Of Oman - Battlefield 2
Another Battlefield 2 classic, Gulf of Oman is a large-scale map for infantry, sea, and air combat in the arid setting of the real-life Gulf of Oman. It was a well-balanced map in Battlefield 2 with the American soldiers launching their assault from an off-shore air carrier.
The map later appeared in Battlefield 3 and 4 and it would make sense to see the map again if Battlefield 6 features a modern setting. Unfortunately, there were significant balancing issues on the Battlefield 4 version of the map, so hopefully, changes are made if it is included in the newest title.
3 Don’t Want To See: Dragon Pass - Battlefield 4
Most fans agree that Battlefield 4 had some really love or hate maps. Generally, the game offered up some incredible maps that are still populated with plenty of players to this day. One map that stuck out from the rest as not being so good (this might be controversial) was Dragon Pass.
This reimagined version of Battlefield 2’s Dragon Valley took a lot of the most fun aspects of the original map and made them harder to enjoy. The prevalence of helicopters meant that most infantry players had their sights trained on the sky for the majority of the match. Add in the congested capture points and Dragon Pass became a gritty and frustrating map to play.
2 Want To See: St. Quentin Scar - Battlefield 1
St. Quentin Scar was one of the fan-favorite maps from Battlefield 1, a game that was generally favored compared to Battlefield V. Despite the historical setting, this map could be reimagined for a modern Battlefield game. The map captured the horrors of war and the gritty atmosphere that many fans loved Battlefield 1 for.
How would a modern setting reimagine everything that was brilliant about St. Quentin Scar? Any ruined battlefield with trenches, craters, and a good balance between open fields and fighting between houses. It’d be great to see some of the best maps from Battlefield 1 updated and reincarnated in Battlefield 6.
1 Don’t Want To See: Aerodrome - Battlefield V
When Aerodrome was originally announced, it was met with some excitement. Battlefield V was finally getting some new maps. Unfortunately, like many aspects of Battlefield V, the map didn’t quite work out as intended.
Combat is mostly focused around the central C flag as players on both teams fight over minimal cover. Sure, that sounds okay, but factor in the campers on the edge of the map and the tanks blasting you from hundreds of meters away, and Aerodrome becomes another frustrating map that highlighted many of the negative aspects of Battlefield V.
NEXT: Battlefield 6: 10 Things We Want DICE To Include
