Battlefield 6 Season 2 - First impressions with tactical tension in Contaminated

Since its launch, Battlefield 6 has made one thing clear: fun is back in the franchise. Much has changed since the days when multiplayer was kept alive solely by its community; now, the seasonal model seeks to constantly refresh the experience. Ahead of its release this week, we had the opportunity to play the first phase of Season 2, Extreme Measures, for two hours.

The air isn’t so pure in these mountains

The first experience I got to play was Contaminated Conquest, which takes us to the Bavaria region of Germany. Right off the bat, it looks pretty solid on PC, with a fairly interesting map to explore. The first thing that stands out is the scale of the map and its vertical design. It’s not just a large forest: there are houses, bunkers, and tunnels strategically placed that function as checkpoints and generate multiple approach routes, but more importantly, it’s designed to encourage constant tactical decisions.

For better or worse, conquering will not be an easy task. Beyond the opposing team that will try to stop you and keep the point, in this mode you will face a cloud of VL-7 smoke that significantly increases the tension, becoming more than just an environmental obstacle. This gas causes hallucinations if you are not protected, with an unusual psychological element: you will hear footsteps and gunshots that do not exist or see soldiers moving where there is actually no one. Shooting at something you think you see and discovering that there was nothing there is undoubtedly a sobering experience, and something I thought only happened in horror games.

Full screen

To protect yourself, you will have a gas mask that will allow you to move within the cloud without suffering its effects. However, it won’t be that simple: the mask wears out while you remain in the contaminated area, limiting your time both to capture the point and to face other players who are also trying to secure it. In addition, the structure of each area directly influences your strategy; it is much easier to enter and exit a house than to fight inside a bunker or tunnel.

On the other hand, I also got to try Contaminated Escalation, which expands the map with larger bases for each team and adds an extra twist to Conquest mode. Here, what I enjoyed most was using the scout helicopter. Flying over the battlefield is extremely entertaining. Although it is an agile vehicle, it requires constant caution, as it can be shot down relatively easily if you don’t have an engineer on board to make quick repairs.

This is just a small taste of what’s to come throughout the season. Season 2 of Battlefield 6 kicks off tomorrow, February 17, 2026.

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