DICE and EA are powering forward through the ever-evolving gameplay phases of their Battlefield Labs community testing program. With the last few Battlefield games feeling disconnected from what made previous entries so well-received and enjoyed by so many players, the devs are hoping to take the next entry in the series back to what made them so great.
With a recent focus on unfortunate industry standards like paid cosmetics and battle royale modes, the Battlefield dev studio and/or their publisher have put far more emphasis on quick profit than delivering a finished, optimized, enjoyable experience to their players.
With gameplay footage occasionally leaking during this Battlefield Labs testing period, we’ve seen a handful of cool features like in-depth weapon customization and a weapon testing range, but with the good will invariably come some bad. There is unfortunately a feature returning that has resulted in mixed feelings since its inception in Battlefield V, the landing roll.
The landing roll is a mechanic that allows players to unrealistically avoid fall damage by rolling after jumping from a high position and giving players an unfair advantage to avoid incoming gunfire, but many people seem to enjoy its use because it was a smooth and consistent manual tactic that allowed for more active defensive counter measures.
In a recent leaked video of in-game combat footage from Battlefield Labs testing on X account BattlehubYT, that has since been taken down by a copyright claim, the landing roll is seen being utilized by an anonymous play-tester, but something isn’t quite right about it.
In the video the player fires a sniper round and then quickly rolls off a ledge to safety, then climbs a rock and repeats the same tactic seemingly to avoid being pinpointed while sniping, but the roll looked a bit slower on the second use. When reviewing this leaked footage, fans of the series noted that it looked much worse than the landing roll from BF:V calling it “stupid”, “wonky”, and “sad”, among other negative things.
With this new inconsistency with the landing roll, it may lead to player frustrations due to not knowing how precise the tactic will be with each deployment, as well as leading to the potential of motion sickness for people sensitive to inconsistent animations.
The game is slated for a release sometime before April of 2026, so we’ll see how things play out. I for one think the landing roll should be much more limited for purposes of realism, but I also think a more consistent and precise execution would make for a better experience. Maybe it won’t survive playtesting, and maybe it will evolve into something better. We’ll know for certain sometime next year.
Linked below is footage from YouTube Battlefield content creator CrafterOfSwords, showing the more popular and consistent landing roll from Battlefield V:
