Battlefield 6 Portal Finally Finds Its Groove
When Battlefield 6 launched, one of its biggest selling points was Portal, a powerful tool that lets players build custom modes and servers pulling content from across the Battlefield series. On paper, it sounded like a dream for the community and a playground for creative gamers.
In reality, the launch was a mess. The Portal server browser was dominated by XP farm servers. These lazy setups existed purely to grind experience, not to offer fun gameplay. They clogged EA's servers so badly that players often could not even spin up their own lobbies to play with friends.
DICE eventually stepped in and heavily nerfed XP farms. That change upset people who had basically bought the game just to shoot bots for fast progression, and many of those servers were taken offline. But it also opened the door for Portal to slowly become what it was supposed to be all along: a hub for weird, creative, community made game modes.
Chaos Climb and Other Custom Modes Worth Playing
Checking back in on Portal weeks after the XP nerfs shows signs of real life. The custom browser may not be packed, but there are now genuinely fun experiences that feel like classic community creations from games like Halo or Garry's Mod.
The standout example is a mode called Chaos Climb, created by Forstorare. The game drops players into an absurd vertical challenge built around Portal's biggest strength: scale. A steep freeway like ramp is hammered by an endless storm of vehicles crashing down from above.
Some vehicles slide fairly normally down the angled surface, obeying something close to real world physics. Others are launched and twisted around as if they have been sucked into a black hole, careening through the air at crazy speeds. The result is a chaotic obstacle course that knocks you off again and again but keeps you coming back for more attempts.
The constant variety of hazards and the simple goal of just making it to the top make Chaos Climb incredibly addictive. Even after an hour of trying, it is easy to still not reach the peak and yet be eager to queue up another run. In the middle of a weekday in North America, there are already multiple active Chaos Climb servers with a few dozen players across them, a promising sign for a niche custom mode.
Two other notable creations come from YouTuber Choanie: Snipers VS Runners Duck Hunt and RPGs VS Golf Carts. Both lean into the fun, party style side of Battlefield rather than serious competitive play.
Snipers VS Runners Duck Hunt will feel familiar if you have played versions of it in Halo, Garry's Mod, or Fortnite. One team is tasked with climbing a 2D style obstacle course, a tower of increasingly difficult jumps and platforms. The other team sits far away with sniper rifles and tries to pick them off before they reach the top.
If you fall or get sniped, you are out and left to spectate the rest of the match. The mode is simple and intense with a lot of unplanned comedy when people mistime jumps or get clipped at the last second. Compared to something like Halo Infinite, Battlefield's more grounded movement makes the platforming a bit less floaty, but the bullet drop and ballistics make long range sniping more interesting and demanding.
RPGs VS Golf Carts is exactly what it sounds like. One team stands on a central platform armed with unlimited rocket launchers. The other team has golf carts and uses large ramps to fling themselves at the platform from both sides. Team RPG only gets one life each but wins if they survive a few minutes of being rammed and swarmed by vehicles. It is chaotic, fast, and a perfect example of Portal being used for pure multiplayer silliness rather than traditional Battlefield gameplay.
Great Ideas Held Back By A Terrible Server Browser
These bright spots prove that players are making cool modes and that people will join them when they can find them. The problem is that Battlefield 6's Portal browser makes discovery painful.
The biggest servers are still mostly hardcore Conquest setups, vehicle only practice servers, and even a few lingering XP style farms. The community tab and server browser make it very hard for more creative modes to surface and gain popularity.
The browser itself feels outdated despite the fact that first person shooter server browsers have been around for nearly three decades. In Battlefield 6 it is clunky and poorly laid out. Filters are limited, searching is slow, and server joins frequently fail. Once you are in a custom game, hosts are missing basic administrative tools like evening teams or starting map votes.
The worst issue is how difficult it is to save and manage the custom modes you actually like. While it is possible to like a mode or creator, there is no simple way to organize and access your favorite experiences in one place. If you forget the name or unique code of a mode before leaving a server, you are essentially sent back to square one at the main menu.
At a minimum, Portal needs something like a shareable folder or file system. Halo 3 solved this back in 2007 with File Share, which let players store and spread custom games, screenshots, and clips. That system organically turned Halo into an early form of social platform for user content. Battlefield 6 does not come close to that level of support.
On top of the UI problems, the developers have largely failed to promote community creations in game. Before launch there were promises to highlight popular Portal modes on the main menu. Instead that space is currently focused on skin bundles, battle passes, and other monetized content. The Community tab keeps slipping further down the menu grid into a spot players barely notice.
Despite all of this, there is still something special happening underneath the messy presentation. Creative players are building fun and surprising modes. Others are jumping in and enjoying them. If DICE and the wider Battlefield team ever decide to truly support Portal with better tools, discovery features, and real visibility, it could become one of the strongest reasons to keep Battlefield 6 installed.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/despite-battlefield-6s-server-browser-utterly-failing-at-its-one-job-good-things-are-happening-in-portal/
