The Battlefield community is abuzz with discussion about a new mechanic in a game most of them have not played. The next Battlefield Labs test, which only few players have access to, is going to experiment with something that struck a nerve for many, and caused a bit of a stir.
As you might expect, DICE and the next Battlefield’s development team use Labs to float ideas and mechanics to get player feedback. By its very nature, some of those are going to be more popular than others, but the discussion about this latest change has had a different tone.
Since the moment it opened its doors for testing, and everyone saw all the leaked footage, the general consensus about Battlefield Labs has been incredibly positive. I poured over a lot of leaks myself and everything I saw made me have very high hopes for the next game.
But you can’t expect that to last, especially since the point of that entire exercise is to test and iterate, which inevitably means some of what goes into each build won’t be to everyone’s liking. The next Labs build is going to have no weapon restrictions, allowing each class to use any weapon type they like.
This makes way for Signature Weapons, a new system designed to encourage players to stick to their class identity. Each class has one type of weapon designed to synergise with their identity, and only that class gets a bonus when doing so. The Recon class, for instance, can hold their breath longer when using sniper rifles – a Signature Weapon for that particular class. As the developer explains in a blog post, however, some weapon types – like DMRs, Carbines, and Shotguns do not offer any bonuses when used by any class.
This is part of DICE’s design ethos for the new class system, and the developer said that this Signature system carries over to other aspects as well. Each class has a Signature Trait – essentially passive bonuses, Signature Gadget, and a Default Weapon Package. Crucially, players only have control over their Weapon Package. They can either go with the default, or create their own, keeping in mind what they’re going to gain/lose with each choice.
Though no one has been able to try out the new changes in game, the news hasn’t been especially well received. For one, it doesn’t go well with the idea of putting limitations on weapon attachments, which earlier builds showed. It also reminds players of the way Battlefield 2042 has done things, a title whose biggest sin was losing sight of what it is to be a Battlefield game.
Since the blog post went live, the discussion on the official Battlefield Reddit has been raging. Many want restrictions to remain, but many others don’t think it’s a realistic expectation for a 2025 shooter that’s trying to appeal to an audience of – among others – Call of Duty players.
The Battlefield series has had a complex history with weapon restrictions. The older the game is, the more likely you are to find strict limitations on which type of weapon can be equipped by each class. There is no perfect solution, and it’s easy to go back to point at how this or that choice made one class over/underpowered.
Later games in the series attempted to lighten those limitations by creating a class-agonistic weapon type, usually carbines that perform well across a variety of ranges. As many of the older Battlefield fans will tell you, however, restrictions are a core part of what makes a good Battlefield game great. Doing away with that and opting for the proposed system could take away from class identity, and erode the class dependency the best Battlefield games thrive on.
