We've pushed the enemy all the way back to their spawn, and now they're clustered around the blind corner at the bottom of a staircase, throwing a steady stream of grenades up at us. The top of the stairs, where we're trying to advance, is choked with smoke and explosions as wounded from both sides roll on the floor, waiting for a foolhardy medic to brave the maelstrom. Battlefield 2042's latest map is its first to take place entirely indoors, and it's a bloodbath.

Despite being an underground facility, these chambers are large enough to give the illusion of outside space—admittedly, helped along by the traditionally topside-growing flora. In one, you find a small base made of concrete prefabs and cargo containers, which you can use for cover or gaining an elevated position. Hinting at the use of this facility as a kind of training ground, dotted about the area are cardboard cutout soldiers that must have been used for target practice. Despite clearly being inanimate, they’re realistic enough to make your heart rate spike if you dive out of combat and come across one . 

The second dome is more tightly packed with trees and bushes, making for a winding forest filled with cover and hiding spots. It’s a space where you can let out your inner Predator if you’re looking to hunt unwary players. However, while the domes are large enough to contain a small base and a forest, they still feel small enough to give the action a sense of claustrophobia; there's nowhere you can turn without meeting an enemy squad and a wall of gunfire. It’s like being trapped in a biscuit tin with a lit firework.

Redacted's straight-line daisy chain of chambers means every doorway between the different sections becomes a natural chokepoint, with forces on both sides able to take cover and pour ammo and grenades on anyone who attempts to cross the threshold. Although pitched battles are common, stalemates are rare because developer DICE has made enough entrances between each room. You may spend a few minutes in a push and pull with the other side, with every doorway it's own flashpoint, but sooner or later, your side or theirs will send extra forces to one of the doorways, overwhelm the spread-thin defense, and the whole line will crumble and retreat to rebuild at a different set of barricades. 

If all else fails, a maintenance tunnel runs the entire length of the map. It’s tight and gloomy, with little cover, but it provides excellent flanking opportunities that can shake up a stagnant map. At multiple points in our conquest games, a team pushed back to a single control point could slip behind the enemy’s frontline and take a capture point from under them.

In standard rotation, Redacted supports 64-player matches in both Conquest and Team Deathmatch, but if you want to put the meatgrinder into overdrive, you can make custom games in Battlefield Portal that go as high as 128 players. There, you can also play Breakthrough, Rush, and Free-For-All modes. It may be possible, but a 128-player free-for-all on Redacted sounds like complete chaos.

One aspect of Redacted that dials down the chaos slightly is that the map doesn’t support any vehicles or Angel drops. As the map takes place underground—even the biodomes are completely subterranean; the ‘sky’ you can see is painted onto the ceiling like a realist’s Sistine Chapel—nothing can be ‘dropped’ into the battleground. Similarly, there just isn’t space for any of the game’s vehicles to maneuver. Though a tank would help explode your enemies’ defensive line, it’s probably best DICE has limited the chaos to small-arms fire.

While Redacted is the biggest addition in Battlefield 2042’s Season 6 update, Dark Creations, DICE has also added a trio of new weapons and a significant new gadget for the support class. 

The VHX-D3 assault rifle is a punchy weapon that accurately deals medium-range damage. However, with it being a little slow to bring up the sights, you may want to opt for something a little lighter if you’re taking point on the assault. It was most effective in our games when holding a defensive line. Similarly good for players hanging at the back of the scrum is the G428, the new designated marksman rifle. Accurate and high-damage dealing, this semi-automatic was great when playing in the larger biodomes, especially when sniping flag defenders, and much more versatile in the closed space than a full sniper rifle would be. However, flanking through the tight service tunnels demanded good aim and a swift trigger finger. The L9CZ pistol was a reliable fallback when staving off an enemy push, and the main weapon’s clip was empty. 

The new gadgets for the support class are particularly helpful on a map where the frontline is both so defined and so hotly contested. Now, instead of taking ammo and health crates into battle, supports can take lighter pouch equivalents. With a crate, you place it on the ground, and your teammates can restore their ammo or health at their leisure. With pouches, you can throw the re-up at a teammate, automatically applying it. So, if your squadmate needs aid, but you can’t get to them, you can instead chuck a health pack at them.

Redacted is a unique map for Battlefield 2042, and series fans who have missed playing Metro and Locker may find much to love here. However, you should prepare yourself to see the respawn screen a lot. The time to kill is high, but so is the time to death. Any advances are fleeting, and ground gained is easily lost. But it is a map that adds something Battlefield 2042 didn’t have, and that’s not something every game update can claim. Too often in a game’s umpteenth season, we simply see more of the same in new clothes, and Dark Creations is not that.