Battlefield REDSEC was a surprise launch in October 2025, and fans have now had a few weeks to react to the long running Battlefield series’ second attempt at a battle royale game.
2019’s Battlefield V Firestorm was widely considered to have some good ideas, but didn’t really execute that well.
It was also behind a paywall with the main game, whereas REDSEC is a completely free bolt-on experience with no purchase of Battlefield 6 required. So, is it any good?
Well – this isn’t a battle royale that feels like playing a mega millions lottery draw with whether or not you’ll survive past the first minute. But it isn’t exactly forgiving either.
The odds of you pulling out the win depend highly on your shooting skill, your positioning and your awareness rather than what landing spot you choose or the weapon in your first loot crate.
It’s a Game That Sticks to What Works
REDSEC is a battle royale that tinkers with edges of the formula rather than wholesale revolution. 84 players, on a sprawling map of the fictional Fort Lyndon, California, with a raging firestorm that rumbles ever inward.
If you’ve played a battle royale, you know the deal – drop in, loot crates, avoid the storm, kill your enemies, survive until the final circle and emerge victorious.
There’s also no chance of getting jumped on by someone with a laser sword, jet pack thrusters or a pink bunny outfit with a unicorn on their shotgun – which some might find refreshing given the current battle royale environment.
There are some interesting choices, such as an insta-kill storm and the inclusion of Battlefield’s class mechanics and explosive destruction – which really shine in the four player mode – but overall there’s little here that most gamers won’t have seen before in other battle royales (or Battlefield itself) for some years now.
The Good Points – A Superb Map and Good Gunplay
First the good – this is a gorgeous game. A lot of them are ten a penny today, but it is the kind of game that kids of twenty years ago would be drooling over. The map is very well designed, with very little dead space.
It feels like a real district of Southern California, and moving tensely with your squad through swanky step levelled modern mansions overlooking a coastal golf course or through a dense network of pipes and gantries on an industrial park is evocative to say the least.
The combat is also smooth, but not overly so, and it has the same rewarding but unforgiving gunplay typical to Battlefield games.
Twitch shooting Call of Duty, with all the sliding, no scoping and wall jumping, this is not (for the most part). REDSEC tries to straddle the line between tactical, realism-lite combat and intense gameplay, and it does a decent enough job at it.
The squad-based class aspects also add a lot to the game. The recon drone is a particular highlight, as are the safes scattered about the map that can only be opened by engineers.
Having a sniper overlook the location and tag out enemies with a drone as the assault classes move in allows players to lock in the style of gameplay they like, without relying on the RNG of weapon drops in some other battle royales.
The Bad – It’s Nothing New and Doesn’t Play to Battlefield’s Strengths
However, its not all good news. As evidenced by the game’s relatively poor reviews on Steam, although there have been accusations of review bombing. For one, players complained that REDSEC was not sufficiently Battlefield enough.
And, on the surface, that has some merit. The game’s Fort Lyndon map has a very similar colour palette and visual style to Call of Duty’s Warzone – but that isn’t something unique to this situation.
The map is also huge – around three to four times the size of a typical 84-player Battlefield map. But it only has around 15% more players. Consequently, the game can feel quite quiet at times compared to a typical Battlefield experience.
On the other side, the map, thanks to its explosive Battlefield destruction elements, is also much more dynamic than in Warzone while also being more realistic than Fortnite.
The second is that the game works but doesn’t really innovate, and players who aren’t interested in battle royales will find little to change their mind here.
The Gauntlet Sub Mode is Proving a Surprise Hit with Fans
However, this review would not be complete without mentioning the Gauntlet mode. The somewhat tacked on but actually brilliant mix of a squad based mixed game playlist and a battle royale with eliminations each round, is quietly getting big props from many players.
The smaller maps – all partitioned from the main map – are dense and vertical enough to keep the action coming fast without being overwhelming.
Plus the mix of points for objective based players and kills-leaderboard hunting snipers means all types of players have something to contribute.
Gauntlet really is something new and exciting, and many Battlefield fans are already voicing their love for the mode. That’s compared with mixed reactions to the battle royale. It’s interesting that Gauntlet wasn’t the main focus of the release – as it seems it really has potential to do well in the long term.
