Battlefield 6 Mirak Valley hands on - The game's biggest map doesn't disappoint

Although the Battlefield 6 Open Beta has come and gone, giving players a taste of what to expect at launch, there's still a lot of goodness coming. As part of a special hands-on preview session, we got the chance to play what is set to be Battlefield 6's largest map at launch, Mirak Valley. Although we only got to play through three rounds on Mirak Valley in Conquest, Breakthrough, and the new Escalation modes, it's safe to say that this one has the potential to be a fan-favorite.

Battlefield 6 Mirak Valley 4K60 gameplay captured on a GeForce RTX 5080.

And the reason for this is simple: it plays into the strengths of both Battlefield as a series and Battlefield 6's destruction-filled take on all-out warfare. The overcast Mirak Valley presents a once-scenic countryside engulfed in modern warfare, with open areas and dense buildings that lend themselves to infantry and vehicle combat, and it leans into what many believe to be Battlefield's secret sauce - the mix of on-foot, in-tank, and in-the-air chaos.

• Read more: Battlefield 6 - Hands-on with the new Escalation game mode
• Read more: Battlefield 6 - All the big gameplay changes made since the Open Beta
• Read more: Biggest Battlefield 6 map leak silences 'it only has small maps' jokes

As someone whose first real, "hey, let's play this for months" obsession with 64-player Conquest arrived with Battlefield 2, Mirak Valley brought back some of those classic memories playing Dragon Valley and Strike at Karkand. This is not to say that it's a direct copy of either of these maps, but Mirak Valley already feels like it tops the Open Beta's popular Liberation Peak map in every conceivable way.

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In Conquest, you've five capture points, and the way these are spaced out in the oval-sized Mirak Valley map is that points B and D are located right in the center of the map, with both being large urban-like environments with multi-story buildings, towers, and multiple main roads. These roads are perfect for tanks and vehicles to patrol, and if you're an Assault player, you could spend a significant amount of time in this relatively small zone capturing, defending, attacking, and recapturing. With the A, C, and E control points surrounding this chaotic zone in a spread-out triangular pattern, this is where aerial superiority and responding to the overall tide of battle come into play.

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And in a nod to Battlefield 1 (one of my personal favorites), Mirak Valley even features trenches.

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There's this old rivalry with hardcore Battlefield players and those who play more arena-style or traditional deathmatch-style shooters. Playing the objective and working as a squad on a map like Mirak Valley is what makes Battlefield feel special and unlike any other competitive shooter on the market. With Battlefield 6's destruction, rock-solid gunplay (which already includes a lot of balance changes and updates since the Open Beta), rolling around in a tank on the road in-between points B and D, and running to capture the point closest to the enemy's HQ as their squads make big moves elsewhere will never get old.

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The best way to sum it up is that no matter if your team wins or loses, your memory of that round will feel like a personal and small slice of a larger, intense, and epic battle.